Definitions Bisexuality

bisexuality romantic or sexual attraction males , females. american psychological association states sexual orientation falls along continuum. in other words, not have exclusively homosexual or heterosexual, can feel varying degrees of both. sexual orientation develops across person s lifetime–different people realize @ different points in lives heterosexual, bisexual or homosexual.

sexual attraction, behavior , identity may incongruent, sexual attraction or behavior may not consistent identity. individuals identify heterosexual, homosexual or bisexual without having had sexual experience. others have had homosexual experiences not consider gay, lesbian, or bisexual. likewise, self-identified gay or lesbian individuals may sexually interact members of opposite sex not identify bisexual. terms queer, polysexual, heteroflexible, homoflexible, men have sex men , women have sex women may used describe sexual identity or identify sexual behavior.

some sources state bisexuality encompasses romantic or sexual attraction gender identities or romantic or sexual attraction person irrespective of person s biological sex or gender, equating or rendering interchangeable pansexuality. concept of pansexuality deliberately rejects gender binary, notion of 2 genders , indeed of specific sexual orientations , pansexual people open relationships people not identify strictly men or women.

the bisexual activist robyn ochs defines bisexuality potential attracted—romantically and/or sexually—to people of more 1 sex and/or gender, not @ same time, not in same way, , not same degree.

according rosario, schrimshaw, hunter, braun (2006):

...the development of lesbian, gay, or bisexual (lgb) sexual identity complex , difficult process. unlike members of other minority groups (e.g., ethnic , racial minorities), lgb individuals not raised in community of similar others whom learn identity , reinforce , support identity. rather, lgb individuals raised in communities either ignorant of or openly hostile toward homosexuality.

bisexuality transitional identity has been examined. in longitudinal study sexual identity development among lesbian, gay, , bisexual (lgb) youths, rosario et al. found evidence of both considerable consistency , change in lgb sexual identity on time . youths had identified both gay/lesbian , bisexual prior baseline approximately 3 times more identify gay/lesbian bisexual @ subsequent assessments. of youths had identified bisexual @ earlier assessments, 60 70 percent continued identify, while approximately 30 40 percent assumed gay/lesbian identity on time. rosario et al. suggested although there youths consistently self-identified bisexual throughout study, other youths, bisexual identity served transitional identity subsequent gay/lesbian identity. contrast, longitudinal study lisa m. diamond, followed women identifying lesbian, bisexual, or unlabeled, found more women adopted bisexual/unlabeled identities relinquished these identities, on ten-year period. study found bisexual/unlabeled women had stable overall distributions of same-sex/other-sex attractions. diamond has studied male bisexuality, noting survey research found many men transitioned @ point gay identity bisexual, queer or unlabeled one, did bisexual identity gay identity.

kinsey scale

in 1940s, zoologist alfred kinsey created scale measure continuum of sexual orientation heterosexuality homosexuality. kinsey studied human sexuality , argued people have capability of being hetero- or homosexual if trait not present in current circumstances. kinsey scale used describe person s sexual experience or response @ given time. ranges 0, meaning exclusively heterosexual, 6, meaning exclusively homosexual. people rank anywhere 2 4 considered bisexual; not 1 extreme or other. sociologists martin s. weinberg , colin j. williams write that, in principle, people rank anywhere 1 5 considered bisexual.

the psychologist jim mcknight writes while idea bisexuality form of sexual orientation intermediate between homosexuality , heterosexuality implicit in kinsey scale, conception has been severely challenged since publication of homosexualities (1978), weinberg , psychologist alan p. bell.