What Determines Sexual Orientation?
■ PERSONAL VOICES Defining Sexual Orientation Models of Sexual Orientation: Who Is Homosexual? Measuring Sexual Orientation: How Many Are We?
Why Are There Different Sexual Orientations? Biological Theories: Differences Are Innate Developmental Theories: Differences Are Learned Sociological Theories: Social Forces at Work Interactional Theory: Biology and Sociology Homosexuality and Heterosexuality in Other Times and Places Homosexuality in History Homosexuality in Other Cultures
■ HUMAN SEXUALITY IN A DIVERSE WORLD Being Young and Gay, Lesbian, or Bisexual in Different Cultures
Gays, Lesbians, and Bisexuals Throughout the Life Cycle
Growing Up Gay, Lesbian, or Bisexual Coming Out to Self and Others
■ SEX IN REAL LIFE A Model of Coming Out
Life Issues: Partnering, Sexuality, Parenthood, and Aging
■ PERSONAL VOICES Same-Sex Parents Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Organizations
Homophobia and Heterosexism
What Is Homophobia?
■ SEX IN REAL LIFE Gay Bashing and Hate Crimes
Hate Crimes Against Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual People Why Are People Homophobic?
How Can We Combat Homophobia and Heterosexism? Differences Among Homosexual Groups Lesbianism: Facing Sexism Plus Homophobia Bisexuality: Just a Trendy Myth?
Minority Homosexuality: Culture Shock?
Same-Sex Behavior in Prison Homosexuality in Religion and the Law Homosexuality and Religion
■ PERSONAL VOICES Where Do I Fit In?
Homosexuality and the Law
Beyond Our Assumptions: A Final Comment
Chapter Review Chapter Resources
Sexuality Now Go to www. thomsonedu. com to link to SexualityNow, your online study tool.
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^Lexual orientation refers to the gender(s) that a person is attracted to emotion — W ally, physically, sexually, and romantically. Heterosexuals are predominantly attracted to members of the other gender; homosexuals to members of the same gender; and bisexuals are attracted to all individuals (the word “gay” is often used to refer to a male homosexual, whereas “lesbian” is often used to refer to a female homosexual).
Although such distinctions may seem simple, as you will soon see, human sexual behavior does not always fit easily into such neat boxes. Today many people use the acronym GLBTQ to refer to people whose identity is gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgen — dered, or questioning, and we will use this acronym throughout this chapter (we discussed transgender issues in Chapter 3 and here we will focus only on gay, lesbian, and bisexual issues—often referred to as GLB. The “Q” in this acronym includes those who are either questioning their sexual orientation, or queer.)
Before the 1980s most of published research on homosexuality focused on the causes or on associated mental disorders (because homosexuality was classified as such until 1973—see Chapter 1), and in the 1990s HIV and AIDS dominated the research studies (Boehmer, 2002). Today we are learning more about the development of gay, lesbian, and bisexual identities; coming out issues; aging; and health care, to name a few areas. We will discuss this research throughout this chapter.