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9.2 Laws against sexual orientation discrimination.3.2 Sexual identity and sexual fluidity.Since the end of the 20th century, there has been a global movement towards freedom and equality for gay people, including the introduction of anti-bullying legislation to protect gay children at school, legislation ensuring non-discrimination, equal ability to serve in the military, equal access to health care, equal ability to adopt and parent, and the establishment of marriage equality. Homosexual relationships and acts have been admired, as well as condemned, throughout recorded history, depending on the form they took and the culture in which they occurred. These relationships are equivalent to heterosexual relationships in essential psychological respects. Many gay and lesbian people are in committed same-sex relationships. Homosexual behavior has also been documented in many non-human animal species, though homosexual orientation is not significantly observed in other animals. The percentage of people who are gay or lesbian and the proportion of people who are in same-sex romantic relationships or have had same-sex sexual experiences are difficult for researchers to estimate reliably for a variety of reasons, including many gay and lesbian people not openly identifying as such due to prejudice or discrimination such as homophobia and heterosexism.
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The most common adjectives for homosexual people are lesbian for females and gay for males, but the term gay also commonly refers to both homosexual females and males. There is insufficient evidence to support the use of psychological interventions to change sexual orientation. While some people believe that homosexual activity is unnatural, scientific research shows that homosexuality is a normal and natural variation in human sexuality and is not in and of itself a source of negative psychological effects. There is no substantive evidence which suggests parenting or early childhood experiences play a role with regard to sexual orientation. There is considerably more evidence supporting nonsocial, biological causes of sexual orientation than social ones, especially for males.
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Although no single theory on the cause of sexual orientation has yet gained widespread support, scientists favor biologically based theories. Scientists do not yet know the exact cause of sexual orientation, but they theorize that it is caused by a complex interplay of genetic, hormonal, and environmental influences and do not view it as a choice. It "also refers to a person's sense of identity based on those attractions, related behaviors, and membership in a community of others who share those attractions." Īlong with bisexuality and heterosexuality, homosexuality is one of the three main categories of sexual orientation within the heterosexual–homosexual continuum.
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As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to people of the same sex. Demographic information is being collected for research purposes only and will be kept strictly confidential.Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. The test is also available in Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Arabic, Italian, Malay, French, Spanish, German, Hungarian, Dutch, Korean, and Japanese.īefore we get to the test itself, we'll ask you a few basic questions about yourself. If you are conducting research and would like to collect raw data for a group that is taking this test - for a business, research study, classroom activity, or other purpose - please see our Group Testing Instructions. This test will show you where you are on the Sexual Orientation Continuum, and it will also calculate your Sexual Orientation Range, an estimate of how much flexibility you have in expressing your sexual orientation. Robert Epstein, one of America's most distinguished research psychologists (follow on Twitter at The test has been empirically validated with a sample of more than 600,000 people in 219 countries and territories.Īlthough many people believe that everyone is either "straight" (heterosexual) or "gay" (homosexual), sexual orientation actually exists on a continuum. You are about to take the Epstein Sexual Orientation Inventory (ESOI), a test of sexual orientation designed by Dr.