Sex is central to gay identity

A longitudinal report of gay, lesbian, and bisexual youths examined changes in sexual identity over time. Contrary to the hypothesis that females are more sexually fluid than males, female youths were less likely to change identities than male youths. The development of a gay, lesbian, or bisexual GLB sexual identity is a complex and often difficult process. Unlike members of other minority groups e.

Gay is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term was originally used to mean "carefree", "cheerful", or "bright and showy". The term's use as a reference to homosexuality may date as early as the late 19th century, but its use gradually increased in the midth century. In the s, gay became the word favored by homosexual men to describe their sexual orientation. At about the same time, a new, pejorative use became prevalent in some parts of the world.

Sexual identity is a term that, like sex , has two distinctively different meanings. One describes an identity roughly based on sexual orientation , the other an identity based on sexual characteristics , a concept related to, but different from, gender identity. In this usage, sexual identity describes how a person identifies related to their sexual orientation. Hence a man who exclusively prefers women will usually have a straight or heterosexual sexual identity, and a woman who exclusively prefers women usually a lesbian or homosexual sexual identity. However, not every person will identify with their technical sexual orientation, and many use sexual identity as a somewhat more specific term.

Can you remember the days when The American Psychiatric Association labeled homosexuality as a mental illness? I can, as can just about anyone over the age of 50, as the APA only abandoned this indefensible stance in the early s. And even after the APA grudgingly chose to recognize homosexual attractions and behaviors as a natural variant of human sexual expression, many jurisdictions continued to criminalize same-sex sexual activity. Happily, these antediluvian opinions are slowly but steadily disappearing, replaced by more positive and accurate beliefs.