Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 10:10, 6 August 2009

Sexual orientation
Sexual orientations
Asexual Bisexual Heterosexual Homosexual
Related terms
Allosexuality Androphilia and gynephilia Bi-curious Gray asexuality Demisexuality Non-heterosexual Pansexuality Plurisexuality Queer Queer heterosexuality
Research
Biological Birth order Epigenetic Neuroscientific Prenatal hormones Demographics Environment Human female sexuality Human male sexuality Kinsey scale Klein Grid Queer studies Sexology Timeline of sexual orientation and medicine Transgender sexuality
Animals
Animal sexual behavior Non-reproductive sexual behavior in animals Homosexual behavior in animals list
Related topics
Aromanticism Criminalization of homosexuality LGBTQ rights by country or territory Right to sexuality Romantic orientation Situational sexual behavior Split attraction model
Category
v t e

Homosexuality refers to romantic or sexual attraction or behavior among members of the same sex, situationally or in an enduring disposition. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is considered to lie within the heterosexual-homosexual continuum of human sexuality, and refers to an individual’s identity based on those attractions and membership in a community of others who share them.

Homosexuality is found in virtually every animal species. The prevalence of homosexuality among humans is difficult to determine accurately; studies suggest between two and twenty percent of the population exhibit some degree of homosexual tendency, though in many earlier cultures homosexual relations were highly prevalent. Throughout history, individual aspects of homosexuality have been admired or condemned according to various societies' sexual norms. When praised, those aspects were seen as a way to improve society; when condemned, particular activities were seen as a sin or a disease, and some homosexual behavior was prohibited by law. Since the middle of the 20th century homosexuality has been gradually delisted as a disease and decriminalized in most developed countries. However, the legal status of homosexual relations varies widely by country and there remain jurisdictions in which certain homosexual behaviors are crimes with severe penalties including death.

Many homosexual people hide their feelings and activities out of fear of disapproval or violence; they are commonly said to be "in the closet". Openly declaring one's homosexual orientation is known as coming out of the closet or simply "coming out". Efforts toward emancipation of homosexuality as it is currently understood began in the 1860s; since the mid-1950s there has been an accelerating trend towards increased visibility, acceptance, and civil rights for lesbian, gay and bisexual people. Nevertheless, homophobia persists, and in particular young people subjected to it are at greater risk of socialization difficulties, drug abuse, and suicide. Adjectives in current use for homosexual people include lesbian for women and gay for men, though some prefer other terms or none at all.

Etymology and usage

Etymologically, the word homosexual is a Greek and Latin hybrid with the first element derived from Greek homos, 'same' (not the unrelated Latin word homo, 'man', as in Homo sapiens), thus connoting sexual acts and affections between members of the same sex, including lesbianism. Gay generally refers to male homosexuality, but is sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to all LGBT people. In the context of sexuality, lesbian denotes female homosexuality.

The adjective homosexual describes behavior, relationships, people, orientation etc. The adjectival form literally means "same sex", being a hybrid formed from Greek homo- (a form of homos "same"), and "sexual" from Medieval Latin sexualis (from Classical Latin sexus). Many modern style guides in the U.S. recommend against using homosexual as a noun, instead using gay man or lesbian. Similarly, some recommend completely avoiding usage of homosexual as having a negative and discredited clinical history and because the word only refers to one's sexual behavior, and not to romantic feelings. Gay and lesbian are the most common alternatives. The first letters are frequently combined to create the initialism LGBT (sometimes written as GLBT), in which B and T refer to bisexual and transgender people. These style guides are not always followed by mainstream media sources.

The first known appearance of homosexual in print is found in an 1869 German pamphlet by the Austrian-born novelist Karl-Maria Kertbeny, published anonymously, arguing against a Prussian anti-sodomy law. In 1879, Gustav Jager used Kertbeny's terms in his book, Discovery of the Soul (1880). In 1886, Richard von Krafft-Ebing used the terms homosexual and heterosexual in his book Psychopathia Sexualis, probably borrowing them from Jager. Krafft-Ebing's book was so popular among both layman and doctors that the terms "heterosexual" and "homosexual" became the most widely accepted terms for sexual orientation.

As such, the current use of the term has its roots in the broader 19th-century tradition of personality taxonomy. These continue to influence the development of the modern concept of sexual orientation, gaining associations with romantic love and identity in addition to its original, exclusively sexual, meaning.

Although early writers also used the adjective homosexual to refer to any single-sex context (such as an all-girls' school), today the term is used exclusively in reference to sexual attraction, activity, and orientation. The term homosocial is now used to describe single-sex contexts that are not specifically sexual. There is also a word referring to same-sex love, homophilia. Other terms include men who have sex with men or MSM (used in the medical community when specifically discussing sexual activity), homoerotic (referring to works of art), heteroflexible (referring to a person who identifies as heterosexual, but occasionally engages in same-sex sexual activities), and metrosexual (referring to a non-gay man with stereotypically gay tastes in food, fashion, and design). Pejorative terms in English include queer, faggot, fairy, poof, and homo. Beginning in the 1990s, some of these have been reclaimed as positive words by gay men and lesbians, as in the usage of queer studies, queer theory, and even the popular American television program Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. The word homo occurs in many other languages without the pejorative connotations it has in English. As with ethnic slurs and racial slurs, however, the misuse of these terms can still be highly offensive; the range of acceptable use depends on the context and speaker. Conversely, gay, a word originally embraced by homosexual men and women as a positive, affirmative term (as in gay liberation and gay rights), has come into widespread pejorative use among young people.

Sexuality and gender identity

Sexual orientation, identity, behavior

The American Psychological Association states that sexual orientation "describes the pattern of sexual attraction, behavior and identity e.g. homosexual (aka gay, lesbian), bisexual and heterosexual (aka straight)." "Sexual attraction, behavior and identity may be incongruent. For example, sexual attraction and/or behavior may not necessarily be consistent with identity. Some individuals may identify themselves as homosexual or bisexual without having had any sexual experience. Others have had homosexual experiences but do not consider themselves to be gay, lesbian, or bisexual. Further, sexual orientation falls along a continuum. In other words, someone does not have to be exclusively homosexual or heterosexual, but can feel varying degrees of both. Sexual orientation develops across a person's lifetime — different people realize at different points in their lives that they are heterosexual, bisexual or homosexual."

People with a homosexual orientation who do not identify as gay or lesbian are often referred to as closeted.

Homosexual activity can also occur in situations where large groups of persons of the same sex are confined together for some length of time, as in prison, the military, single-sex boarding schools, or other sex-segregated communities, where members of those communities might engage in homosexual behaviors but otherwise identify as heterosexual.

Sexual identity development: "coming-out process"

Many people who feel attracted to members of their own sex have a so-called "coming out" at some point in their lives. Generally, coming out is described in three phases. The first phase is the phase of "knowing oneself," and the realization or decision emerges that one is open to same-sex relations. This is often described as an internal coming out. The second phase involves one's decision to come out to others, e.g. family, friends, and/or colleagues. This occurs with many people as early as age 11, but others do not clarify their sexual orientation until age 40 or older. The third phase more generally involves living openly as an LGBT person. In the United States today, people often come out during high school or college age. At this age, they may not trust or ask for help from others, especially when their orientation is not accepted in society. Sometimes their own families are not even informed.

According to Rosario, Schrimshaw, Hunter, Braun (2006), "the development of a lesbian, gay, or bisexual (LGB) sexual identity is a complex and often difficult process. Unlike members of other minority groups (e.g., ethnic and racial minorities), most LGB individuals are not raised in a community of similar others from whom they learn about their identity and who reinforce and support that identity. Rather, LGB individuals are often raised in communities that are either ignorant of or openly hostile toward homosexuality."

Outing is the practice of publicly revealing the sexual orientation of a closeted person. Notable politicians, celebrities, military service people, and clergy members have been outed, with motives ranging from malice to political or moral beliefs. Many commentators oppose the practice altogether, while some encourage outing public figures who use their positions of influence to harm other gay people.

Fluidity of sexual orientation

Major US, UK and Australian professional and scientific organizations regard attempts to change people's sexual orientation as potentially harmful, while fringe groups, often motivated by religious beliefs, believe change is possible, or homosexual attraction diminished, for those who cannot accept their sexual orientation.

The American Psychological Association, the American Psychiatric Association, and the National Association of Social Workers state:

Sexual orientation has proved to be generally impervious to interventions intended to change it, which are sometimes referred to as “reparative therapy.” No scientifically adequate research has shown that such interventions are effective or safe. Moreover, because homosexuality is a normal variant of human sexuality, national mental health organizations do not encourage individuals to try to change their sexual orientation from homosexual to heterosexual. Therefore, all major national mental health organizations have adopted policy statements cautioning the profession and the public about treatments that purport to change sexual orientation. The statement of the American Psychiatric Association cautions that “he potential risks of ‘reparative therapy’ are great, including depression, anxiety and self-destructive behavior.”

The Australian Psychological Society states:

"Homosexual orientation is not a mental illness and there is no scientific reason to attempt conversion of lesbians or gays to heterosexual orientation. The Australian Psychological Society acknowledges the lack of scientific evidence for the usefulness of conversion therapy, and notes that it can in fact be harmful for the individual. Changing the sexual orientation of a person is not simply a matter of changing the person's sexual behavior. It would require altering the emotional, romantic and sexual feelings of the person and restructuring self-concept and social identity."

In 2009, the American Psychological Association strengthened their position against practitioners making statements that sexual orientation can be altered. Similarly, the Royal College of Psychiatrists states "There is no sound scientific evidence that sexual orientation can be changed." and "The best evidence for efficacy of any treatment comes from randomised clinical trials and no such trial has been carried out in this field." United States Surgeon General David Satcher issued a report stating that "there is no valid scientific evidence that sexual orientation can be changed".

The American Psychiatric Association (APA) has stated "some people believe that sexual orientation is innate and fixed; however, sexual orientation develops across a person’s lifetime". The APA also says that "most people experience little or no sense of choice about their sexual orientation". In a joint statement with other major American medical organizations, the APA says that "different people realize at different points in their lives that they are heterosexual, gay, lesbian, or bisexual". A report from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health states: "For some people, sexual orientation is continuous and fixed throughout their lives. For others, sexual orientation may be fluid and change over time". One study has suggested "considerable fluidity in bisexual, unlabeled, and lesbian women's attractions, behaviors, and identities". In a 2004 study, the female subjects (both gay and straight women) became sexually aroused when they viewed heterosexual as well as lesbian erotic films. Among the male subjects, however, the straight men were turned on only by erotic films with women, the gay ones by those with men. The study's senior researcher said that women's sexual desire is less rigidly directed toward a particular sex, as compared with men's, and it's more changeable over time.

Gender identity

The earliest writers on a homosexual orientation usually understood it to be intrinsically linked to the subject's own sex. For example, it was thought that a typical female-bodied person who is attracted to female-bodied persons would have masculine attributes, and vice versa. This understanding was shared by most of the significant theorists of homosexuality from the mid 19th to early 20th centuries, such as Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, Richard von Krafft-Ebing, Magnus Hirschfeld, Havelock Ellis, Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud, as well as many gender variant homosexual people themselves. However, this understanding of homosexuality as sexual inversion was disputed at the time, and through the second half of the 20th century, gender identity came to be increasingly seen as a phenomenon distinct from sexual orientation.

Transgender and cisgender people may be attracted to men, women or both, although the prevalence of different sexual orientations is quite different in these two populations (see sexual orientation of transwomen). An individual homosexual, heterosexual or bisexual person may be masculine, feminine, or androgynous, and in addition, many members and supporters of lesbian and gay communities now see the "gender-conforming heterosexual" and the "gender-nonconforming homosexual" as negative stereotypes. However, studies by J. Michael Bailey and K.J. Zucker have found that a majority of gay men and lesbians report being gender-nonconforming during their childhood years. Richard C. Friedman, in Male Homosexuality published in 1990, writing from a psychoanalytic perspective, argues that sexual desire begins later than the writings of Sigmund Freud indicate, not in infancy but between the ages of 5 and 10 and is not focused on a parent figure but on peers. As a consequence, he reasons, homosexual men are not abnormal, never having been sexually attracted to their mothers anyway.

Social construct

Because a homosexual orientation is complex and multi-dimensional, some academics and researchers, especially in Queer studies, have argued that it is a historical and social construction. In 1976 the historian Michel Foucault argued that homosexuality as an identity did not exist in the eighteenth century; that people instead spoke of "sodomy", which referred to sexual acts. Sodomy was a crime that was often ignored but sometimes punished severely (see sodomy law).

The term homosexual is often used in European and American cultures to encompass a person’s entire social identity, which includes self and personality. In Western cultures some people speak meaningfully of gay, lesbian, and bisexual identities and communities. In other cultures, homosexuality and heterosexual labels don’t emphasize an entire social identity or indicate community affiliation based on sexual orientation. Some scholars, such as David Green, state that homosexuality is a modern Western social construct, and as such cannot be used in the context of non-Western male-male sexuality, nor in the pre-modern West.

Romance and relationships

People with a homosexual orientation can express their sexuality in a variety of ways, and may or may not express it in their behaviors. Some have sexual relationships predominately with people of their own gender identity, another gender, bisexual relationships or they can be celibate. Research indicates that many lesbians and gay men want, and succeed in having, committed and durable relationships. For example, survey data indicate that between 40% and 60% of gay men and between 45% and 80% of lesbians are currently involved in a romantic relationship. Survey data also indicates that between 18% and 28% of gay couples and between 8% and 21% of lesbian couples in the U.S. have lived together ten or more years. Studies have found same-sex and opposite-sex couples to be equivalent to each other in measures of satisfaction and commitment in romantic relationships, that age and gender are more reliable than sexual orientation as a predictor of satisfaction and commitment to a romantic relationship, and that people who are heterosexual or homosexual share comparable expectations and ideals with regard to romantic relationships.

Gay and lesbian people can have sexual relationships with someone of the opposite sex for a variety of reasons including the desire for family with children and concerns of discrimination and religious ostracism. A mixed-orientation marriage is when one partner is non-heterosexual. While some hide their orientation from their spouse, others develop a positive gay or lesbian identity while maintaining a successful marriage. Coming out of the closet to oneself, a spouse and children can present unique challenges compared to gay and lesbian people who are not married or do not have children.

Demographics

Reliable data as to the size of the gay and lesbian population is of value in informing public policy. For example, demographics would help in calculating the costs and benefits of domestic partnership benefits, of the impact of legalizing gay adoption, and of the impact of the U.S. military's Don't Ask Don't Tell policy. Further, knowledge of the size of the "gay and lesbian population holds promise for helping social scientists understand a wide array of important questions—questions about the general nature of labor market choices, accumulation of human capital, specialization within households, discrimination, and decisions about geographic location."

Measuring the prevalence of homosexuality may present difficulties. The research must measure some characteristic that may or may not be defining of sexual orientation. The class of people with same-sex desires may be larger than the class of people who act on those desires, which in turn may be larger than the class of people who self-identify as gay/lesbian/bisexual. Studies to determine the proportion of individuals who have had a homosexual experience may misleadingly overstate the prevalence of homosexuality (as not all those who have had homosexual experiences necessarily have a homosexual preference) or understate it (as not all those with a predominantly homosexual orientation are necessarily sexually active or have physically acted on it).

In 1948 and 1953, Alfred Kinsey reported that nearly 46% of the male subjects had "reacted" sexually to persons of both sexes in the course of their adult lives, and 37% had had at least one homosexual experience. Kinsey's methodology was criticized. A later study tried to eliminate the sample bias, but still reached similar conclusions.

Estimates of the occurrence of exclusive homosexuality range from one to twenty percent of the population, usually finding there are slightly more gay men than lesbians.

Estimates of the frequency of homosexual activity also vary from one country to another. A 1992 study reported that 6.1% of males in Britain had had a homosexual experience, while in France the number was 4.1%. According to a 2003 survey, 12% of Norwegians have had homosexual sex. In New Zealand, a 2006 study suggested that 20% of the population anonymously reported some homosexual feelings, few of them identifying as homosexual. Percentage of persons identifying homosexual was 2–3%. According to a 2008 poll, while only 6% of Britons define their sexual orientation as homosexual or bisexual, more than twice that number (13%) of Britons have had some form of sexual contact with someone of the same sex.

In the United States, according to exit polling on 2008 Election Day for the 2008 Presidential elections, 4% of electorate self-identified as gay, lesbian, or bisexual, the same percentage as in 2004.”

Psychology

Psychology was one of the first disciplines to study a homosexual orientation as a discrete phenomenon. The first attempts to classify homosexuality as a disease were made by the fledgling European sexologist movement in the late 19th century. In 1886 noted sexologist Richard von Krafft-Ebing listed homosexuality along with 200 other case studies of deviant sexual practices in his definitive work, Psychopathia Sexualis. Krafft-Ebing proposed that homosexuality was caused by either "congenital inversion" or an "acquired inversion". In the last two decades of the 19th century, a different view began to predominate in medical and psychiatric circles, judging such behavior as indicative of a type of person with a defined and relatively stable sexual orientation. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, pathological models of homosexuality were standard.

The American Psychological Association, the American Psychiatric Association, and the National Association of Social Workers state:

In 1952, when the American Psychiatric Association published its first Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, homosexuality was included as a disorder. Almost immediately, however, that classification began to be subjected to critical scrutiny in research funded by the National Institute of Mental Health. That study and subsequent research consistently failed to produce any empirical or scientific basis for regarding homosexuality as a disorder or abnormality, rather than a normal and healthy sexual orientation. As results from such research accumulated, professionals in medicine, mental health, and the behavioral and social sciences reached the conclusion that it was inaccurate to classify homosexuality as a mental disorder and that the DSM classification reflected untested assumptions based on once-prevalent social norms and clinical impressions from unrepresentative samples comprising patients seeking therapy and individuals whose conduct brought them into the criminal justice system.

In recognition of the scientific evidence, the American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from the DSM in 1973, stating that “homosexuality per se implies no impairment in judgment, stability, reliability, or general social or vocational capabilities.” After thoroughly reviewing the scientific data, the American Psychological Association adopted the same position in 1975, and urged all mental health professionals “to take the lead in removing the stigma of mental illness that has long been associated with homosexual orientations.” The National Association of Social Workers has adopted a similar policy.

Thus, mental health professionals and researchers have long recognized that being homosexual poses no inherent obstacle to leading a happy, healthy, and productive life, and that the vast majority of gay and lesbian people function well in the full array of social institutions and interpersonal relationships.

The World Health Organization's ICD-9 (1977) listed homosexuality as a mental illness; it was removed from the ICD-10, endorsed by the Forty-third World Health Assembly on May 17, 1990. Like the DSM-II, the ICD-10 added ego-dystonic sexual orientation to the list, which refers to people who want to change their gender identities or sexual orientation because of a psychological or behavioral disorder (F66.1). The Chinese Society of Psychiatry removed homosexuality from its Chinese Classification of Mental Disorders in 2001 after five years of study by the association. According to the Royal College of Psychiatrists "This unfortunate history demonstrates how marginalisation of a group of people who have a particular personality feature (in this case homosexuality) can lead to harmful medical practice and a basis for discrimination in society."

Most lesbian, gay, and bisexual people who seek psychotherapy do so for the same reasons as heterosexual people (stress, relationship difficulties, difficulty adjusting to social or work situations, etc.); their sexual orientation may be of primary, incidental, or no importance to their issues and treatment. Whatever the issue, there is a high risk for anti-gay bias in psychotherapy with lesbian, gay, and bisexual clients. Psychological research in this area has been relevant to counteracting prejudicial ("homophobic") attitudes and actions, and to the LGBT rights movement generally.

Etiology

There is no consensus among scientists about the exact reasons that an individual develops a heterosexual, bisexual, gay, or lesbian orientation. The main reasons cited include genetic and environmental factors, likely in combination. Other factors that may play a role include prenatal hormone exposure, where hormones play a role in determining sexual orientation as they do with sex differentiation; and prenatal stress on the mother.

The American Academy of Pediatrics has stated that "sexual orientation probably is not determined by any one factor but by a combination of genetic, hormonal, and environmental influences". The American Psychological Association has stated that "there are probably many reasons for a person's sexual orientation and the reasons may be different for different people". It stated that, for most people, sexual orientation is determined at an early age. The American Psychiatric Association has stated that, "to date there are no replicated scientific studies supporting any specific biological etiology for homosexuality. Similarly, no specific psychosocial or family dynamic cause for homosexuality has been identified, including histories of childhood sexual abuse". Research into how sexual orientation may be determined by genetic or other prenatal factors plays a role in political and social debates about homosexuality, and also raises fears about genetic profiling and prenatal testing.

Innate bisexuality (or predisposition to bisexuality) is a term introduced by Sigmund Freud, based on work by his associate Wilhelm Fliess, that expounds that all humans are born bisexual but through psychological development - which includes both external and internal factors - become monosexual, while the bisexuality remains in a latent state.

The authors of a 2008 study stated that "there is considerable evidence that human sexual orientation is genetically influenced, so it is not known how homosexuality, which tends to lower reproductive success, is maintained in the population at a relatively high frequency". They hypothesized that "while genes predisposing to homosexuality reduce homosexuals' reproductive success, they may confer some advantage in heterosexuals who carry them". Their results suggested that "genes predisposing to homosexuality may confer a mating advantage in heterosexuals, which could help explain the evolution and maintenance of homosexuality in the population". A 2009 study also suggested a significant increase in fecundity in the females related to the homosexual people from the maternal line (but not in those related from the paternal one).

Parenting

Many LGB people are parents through various means including current or former relationships, adoption, donor insemination, foster parenting, and surrogacy. In the 2000 U.S. Census, 33 percent of female same-sex couple households and 22 percent of male same-sex couple households reported at least one child under eighteen living in their home. Some children do not know they have an LGB parent; coming out issues vary and some parents may never come out to their children. LGBT parenting in general, and adoption by LGBT couples in particular, are issues of ongoing political controversy in many Western countries, often seen as part of culture wars between conservatives and social liberals. In January 2008, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that same-sex couples have the right to adopt a child. In the U.S., LGB people can legally adopt in all states except for Florida.

The scientific research has consistently shown that lesbian and gay parents are as fit and capable as heterosexual parents. Research has documented that there is no relationship between parents' sexual orientation and any measure of a child's emotional, psychosocial, and behavioral adjustment. The literature indicates that parents’ financial, psychological and physical well-being is enhanced by marriage and that children benefit from being raised by two parents within a legally-recognized union.

The American Psychological Association, American Psychiatric Association, and National Association of Social Workers state: "The abilities of gay and lesbian persons as parents and the positive outcomes for their children are not areas where credible scientific researchers disagree. Statements by the leading associations of experts in this area reflect professional consensus that children raised by lesbian or gay parents do not differ in any important respects from those raised by heterosexual parents. No credible empirical research suggests otherwise." As noted by Professor Judith Stacey, of New York University: “Rarely is there as much consensus in any area of social science as in the case of gay parenting, which is why the American Academy of Pediatrics and all of the major professional organizations with expertise in child welfare have issued reports and resolutions in support of gay and lesbian parental rights”. Among these mainstream organizations are in the United States the American Psychiatric Association, the National Association of Social Workers, Child Welfare League of America, the American Bar Association, the North American Council on Adoptable Children, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Psychoanalytic Association, the American Academy of Family Physicians, in the United Kingdom, the Royal College of Psychiatrists, and in Canada, the Canadian Psychological Association.

Health

Physical

Avoid contact with a partner’s menstrual blood and with any visible genital lesions.

• Cover sex toys that penetrate more than one person’s vagina or anus with a new condom for each person; consider using different toys for each person.
• Use a barrier (e.g., latex sheet, dental dam, cut-open condom, plastic wrap) during oral sex.
• Use latex or vinyl gloves and lubricant for any manual sex that might cause bleeding.

Avoid contact with a partner’s bodily fluids and with any visible genital lesions.

• Use condoms for anal and oral sex.
• Use a barrier (e.g., latex sheet, dental dam, cut-open condom, plastic wrap) during anal–oral sex.
• Cover sex toys that penetrate more than one person with a new condom for each person; consider using different toys for each person and use latex or vinyl gloves and lubricant for any sex that might cause bleeding.

Men who have sex with men (MSM) and women who have sex with women (WSW) refers to people who engage in sexual activity with others of the same sex regardless of how they identify themselves as many choose not to accept social identities as lesbian, gay and bisexual. These terms are often used in medical literature and social research to describe such groups for study, without needing to consider the issues of sexual self-identity. The terms are seen as problematic, however, because it "obscures social dimensions of sexuality; undermines the self-labeling of lesbian, gay, and bisexual people; and does not sufficiently describe variations in sexual behavior". MSM and WSW are sexually active with each other for a variety of reasons with the main ones arguably sexual pleasure, intimacy and bonding. In contrast to its benefits, sexual behavior can be a disease vector. Safe sex is a relevant harm reduction philosophy. The United States prohibits men who have sex with men from donating blood "because they are, as a group, at increased risk for HIV, hepatitis B and certain other infections that can be transmitted by transfusion." Many European countries have the same prohibition.

Mental

When it was first described in medical literature, homosexuality was often approached from a view that sought to find an inherent psychopathology as its root cause. Much literature on mental health and homosexual patients centered on their depression, substance abuse, and suicide. Although these issues exist among people who are non-heterosexual, discussion about their causes shifted after homosexuality was removed from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) in 1973. Instead, social ostracism, legal discrimination, internalization of negative stereotypes, and limited support structures indicate factors homosexual people face in Western societies that often adversely affect their mental health. Stigma, prejudice, and discrimination stemming from negative societal attitudes toward homosexuality lead to a higher prevalence of mental health disorders among lesbians, gay men, and bisexuals compared to their heterosexual peers. Evidence indicates that the liberalization of these attitudes over the past few decades is associated with a decrease in such mental health risks among younger LGBT people.

Gay and lesbian youth

Gay and lesbian youth bear an increased risk of suicide, substance abuse, school problems, and isolation because of a "hostile and condemning environment, verbal and physical abuse, rejection and isolation from family and peers". Further, LGB youths are more likely to report psychological and physical abuse by parents or caretakers, and more sexual abuse. Suggested reasons for this disparity are that (1) LGBT youths may be specifically targeted on the basis of their perceived sexual orientation or gender non-conforming appearance, and (2) that "risk factors associated with sexual minority status, including discrimination, invisibility, and rejection by family members...may lead to an increase in behaviors that are associated with risk for victimization, such as substance abuse, sex with multiple partners, or running away from home as a teenager."

Crisis centers in larger cities and information sites on the Internet have arisen to help youth and adults. The Trevor Helpline, a suicide prevention helpline for gay youth, was established following the 1998 airing on HBO of the Academy Award winning short film Trevor.

History

Societal attitudes towards same-sex relationships have varied over time and place, from expecting all males to engage in same-sex relationships, to casual integration, through acceptance, to seeing the practice as a minor sin, repressing it through law enforcement and judicial mechanisms, and to proscribing it under penalty of death.

In a detailed compilation of historical and ethnographic materials of Preindustrial Cultures, "strong disapproval of homosexuality was reported for 41% of 42 cultures; it was accepted or ignored by 21%, and 12% reported no such concept. Of 70 ethnographies, 59% reported homosexuality absent or rare in frequency and 41% reported it present or not uncommon."

In cultures influenced by Abrahamic religions, the law and the church established sodomy as a transgression against divine law or a crime against nature. The condemnation of anal sex between males, however, predates Christian belief. It was frequent in ancient Greece; "unnatural" can be traced back to Plato.

Many historical figures, including Socrates, Lord Byron, Edward II, and Hadrian, have had terms such as gay or bisexual applied to them; some scholars, such as Michel Foucault, have regarded this as risking the anachronistic introduction of a contemporary construction of sexuality foreign to their times, though others challenge this.

A common thread of constructionist argument is that no one in antiquity or the Middle Ages experienced homosexuality as an exclusive, permanent, or defining mode of sexuality. John Boswell has countered this argument by citing ancient Greek writings by Plato, which describe individuals exhibiting exclusive homosexuality.

Africa

Though often ignored or suppressed by European explorers and colonialists, homosexual expression in native Africa was also present and took a variety of forms. Anthropologists Stephen Murray and Will Roscoe reported that women in Lesotho engaged in socially sanctioned "long term, erotic relationships" called motsoalle. E. E. Evans-Pritchard also recorded that male Azande warriors in the northern Congo routinely took on young male lovers between the ages of twelve and twenty, who helped with household tasks and participated in intercrural sex with their older husbands. The practice had died out by the early 20th century, after Europeans had gained control of African countries, but was recounted to Evans-Pritchard by the elders to whom he spoke.

The first recorded homosexual couple in history is commonly regarded as Khnumhotep and Niankhkhnum, an Egyptian male couple, who lived around the 2400 BCE. The pair are portrayed in a nose-kissing position, the most intimate pose in Egyptian art, surrounded by what appear to be their heirs.

Americas

Among indigenous peoples of the Americas prior to European colonization, a common form of same-sex sexuality centered around the figure of the Two-Spirit individual. Typically this individual was recognized early in life, given a choice by the parents to follow the path and, if the child accepted the role, raised in the appropriate manner, learning the customs of the gender it had chosen. Two-Spirit individuals were commonly shamans and were revered as having powers beyond those of ordinary shamans. Their sexual life was with the ordinary tribe members of the same sex.

Homosexual and transgender individuals were also common among other pre-conquest civilizations in Latin America, such as the Aztecs, Mayans, Quechuas, Moches, Zapotecs, and the Tupinambá of Brazil.

The Spanish conquerors were horrified to discover sodomy openly practiced among native peoples, and attempted to crush it out by subjecting the berdaches (as the Spanish called them) under their rule to severe penalties, including public execution, burning and being torn to pieces by dogs.

East Asia

In East Asia, same-sex love has been referred to since the earliest recorded history.

Homosexuality in China, known as the pleasures of the bitten peach, the cut sleeve, or the southern custom, has been recorded since approximately 600 BCE. These euphemistic terms were used to describe behaviors, not identities (recently some fashionable young Chinese tend to euphemistically use the term "brokeback," 斷背 duanbei to refer to homosexual men, from the success of director Ang Lee's film Brokeback Mountain). The relationships were marked by differences in age and social position. However, the instances of same-sex affection and sexual interactions described in the classical novel Dream of the Red Chamber seem as familiar to observers in the present as do equivalent stories of romances between heterosexual people during the same period.

Similarly, in Thailand, Kathoey, or "ladyboys," have been a feature of Thai society for many centuries, and Thai kings had male as well as female lovers. While Kathoey may encompass simple effeminacy or transvestism, it most commonly is treated in Thai culture as a third gender. They are generally accepted by society, and Thailand has never had legal prohibitions against homosexuality or homosexual behavior.

Europe

The earliest Western documents (in the form of literary works, art objects, and mythographic materials) concerning same-sex relationships are derived from ancient Greece.

In regard of male homosexuality such documents depict a world in which relationships with women and relationships with youths were the essential foundation of a normal man's love life. Same-sex relationships were a social institution variously constructed over time and from one city to another. The formal practice, an erotic yet often restrained relationship between a free adult male and a free adolescent, was valued for its pedagogic benefits and as a means of population control, though occasionally blamed for causing disorder. Plato praised its benefits in his early writings but in his late works proposed its prohibition. In the Symposium (182B-D), Plato equates acceptance of homosexuality with democracy, and its suppression with despotism, saying that homosexuality "is shameful to barbarians because of their despotic governments, just as philosophy and athletics are, since it is apparently not in best interests of such rulers to have great ideas engendered in their subjects, or powerful friendships or physical unions, all of which love is particularly apt to produce". Aristotle, in the Politics, dismissed Plato's ideas about abolishing homosexuality (2.4); he explains that barbarians like the Celts accorded it a special honour (2.6.6), while the Cretans used it to regulate the population (2.7.5).

It is believed that Sappho was surrounded by young female students to whom she gave educational tutorials as well as loving affection.

In Ancient Rome the young male body remained a focus of male sexual attention, but relationships were between older free men and slaves or freed youths who took the receptive role in sex. All the emperors with the exception of Claudius took male lovers. The Hellenophile emperor Hadrian is renowned for his relationship with Antinous, but the Christian emperor Theodosius I decreed a law on August 6, 390, condemning passive males to be burned at the stake. Justinian, towards the end of his reign, expanded the proscription to the active partner as well (in 558), warning that such conduct can lead to the destruction of cities through the "wrath of God". Notwithstanding these regulations, taxes on brothels of boys available for homosexual sex continued to be collected until the end of the reign of Anastasius I in 518.

During the Renaissance, wealthy cities in northern Italy—Florence and Venice in particular—were renowned for their widespread practice of same-sex love, engaged in by a considerable part of the male population and constructed along the classical pattern of Greece and Rome. But even as many of the male population were engaging in same-sex relationships, the authorities, under the aegis of the Officers of the Night court, were prosecuting, fining, and imprisoning a good portion of that population. The eclipse of this period of relative artistic and erotic freedom was precipitated by the rise to power of the moralizing monk Girolamo Savonarola. In northern Europe the artistic discourse on sodomy was turned against its proponents by artists such as Rembrandt, who in his Rape of Ganymede no longer depicted Ganymede as a willing youth, but as a squalling baby attacked by a rapacious bird of prey.

The relationships of socially prominent figures, such as King James I and the Duke of Buckingham, served to highlight the issue, including in anonymously authored street pamphlets: "The world is chang'd I know not how, For men Kiss Men, not Women now;...Of J. the First and Buckingham: He, true it is, his Wives Embraces fled, To slabber his lov'd Ganimede;" (Mundus Foppensis, or The Fop Display'd, 1691.)

Love Letters Between a Certain Late Nobleman and the Famous Mr. Wilson was published in 1723 in England and was presumed by some modern scholars to be a novel. The 1749 edition of John Cleland's popular novel Fanny Hill includes a homosexual scene, but this was removed in its 1750 edition. Also in 1749, the earliest extended and serious defense of homosexuality in English, Ancient and Modern Pederasty Investigated and Exemplified, written by Thomas Cannon, was published, but was suppressed almost immediately. It includes the passage, "Unnatural Desire is a Contradiction in Terms; downright Nonsense. Desire is an amatory Impulse of the inmost human Parts." Around 1785 Jeremy Bentham wrote another defense, but this was not published until 1978. Executions for sodomy continued in the Netherlands until 1803, and in England until 1835.

Between 1864 and 1880 Karl Heinrich Ulrichs published a series of twelve tracts, which he collectively titled Research on the Riddle of Man-Manly Love. In 1867 he became the first self-proclaimed homosexual person to speak out publicly in defense of homosexuality when he pleaded at the Congress of German Jurists in Munich for a resolution urging the repeal of anti-homosexual laws. Sexual Inversion by Havelock Ellis, published in 1896, challenged theories that homosexuality was abnormal, as well as stereotypes, and insisted on the ubiquity of homosexuality and its association with intellectual and artistic achievement. Although medical texts like these (written partly in Latin to obscure the sexual details) were not widely read by the general public, they did lead to the rise of Magnus Hirschfeld's Scientific Humanitarian Committee, which campaigned from 1897 to 1933 against anti-sodomy laws in Germany, as well as a much more informal, unpublicized movement among British intellectuals and writers, led by such figures as Edward Carpenter and John Addington Symonds. Beginning in 1894 with Homogenic Love, Socialist activist and poet Edward Carpenter wrote a string of pro-homosexual articles and pamphlets, and "came out" in 1916 in his book My Days and Dreams. In 1900, Elisar von Kupffer published an anthology of homosexual literature from antiquity to his own time, Lieblingminne und Freundesliebe in der Weltliteratur. His aim was to broaden the public perspective of homosexuality beyond its being viewed simply as a medical or biological issue, but also as an ethical and cultural one.

Middle East, South and Central Asia

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (June 2008) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Among many Middle Eastern Muslim cultures egalitarian or age-structured homosexual practices were, and remain, widespread and thinly veiled. The prevailing pattern of same-sex relationships in the temperate and sub-tropical zone stretching from Northern India to the Western Sahara is one in which the relationships were—and are—either gender-structured or age-structured or both. In recent years, egalitarian relationships modeled on the western pattern have become more frequent, though they remain rare. Same-sex intercourse officially carries the death penalty in several Muslim nations: Saudi Arabia, Iran, Mauritania, northern Nigeria, Sudan, and Yemen.

A tradition of art and literature sprang up constructing Middle Eastern homosexuality. Muslim—often Sufi—poets in medieval Arab lands and in Persia wrote odes to the beautiful wine boys who served them in the taverns. In many areas the practice survived into modern times, as documented by Richard Francis Burton, André Gide, and others.

In Persia homosexuality and homoerotic expressions were tolerated in numerous public places, from monasteries and seminaries to taverns, military camps, bathhouses, and coffee houses. In the early Safavid era (1501–1723), male houses of prostitution (amrad khane) were legally recognized and paid taxes. Persian poets, such as Sa’di (d. 1291), Hafez (d. 1389), and Jami (d. 1492), wrote poems replete with homoerotic allusions. The two most commonly documented forms were commercial sex with transgender young males or males enacting transgender roles exemplified by the köçeks and the bacchás, and Sufi spiritual practices in which the practitioner admired the form of a beautiful boy in order to enter ecstatic states and glimpse the beauty of god.

Today, governments in the Middle East often ignore, deny the existence of, or criminalize homosexuality. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, during his 2007 speech at Columbia University, asserted that there were no gay people in Iran. Gay people do live in Iran, but most keep their sexuality a secret for fear of government sanction or rejection by their families.

The Laws of Manu, the foundational work of Hindu law, mentions a "third sex", members of which may engage in nontraditional gender expression and homosexual activities.

South Pacific

In many societies of Melanesia, especially in Papua New Guinea, same-sex relationships were an integral part of the culture until the middle of the last century. The Etoro and Marind-anim for example, even viewed heterosexuality as sinful and celebrated homosexuality instead. In many traditional Melanesian cultures a prepubertal boy would be paired with an older adolescent who would become his mentor and who would "inseminate" him (orally, anally, or topically, depending on the tribe) over a number of years in order for the younger to also reach puberty. Many Melanesian societies, however, have become hostile towards same-sex relationships since the introduction of Christianity by European missionaries.

Law, politics, society and sociology

Legality

Most nations do not impede consensual sex between unrelated persons above the local age of consent. Some jurisdictions further recognize identical rights, protections, and privileges for the family structures of same-sex couples, including marriage. Some nations mandate that all individuals restrict themselves to heterosexual relationships; that is, in some jurisdictions homosexual activity is illegal. Offenders can face the death penalty in some fundamentalist Muslim areas such as Iran and parts of Nigeria. There are, however, often significant differences between official policy and real-world enforcement. See Violence against LGBT people.

Although homosexual acts were decriminalized in some parts of the Western world, such as Poland in 1932, Denmark in 1933, Sweden in 1944, and the United Kingdom in 1967, it was not until the mid-1970s that the gay community first began to achieve limited civil rights in some developed countries. On July 2, 2009, homosexuality was decriminalized in India by a High Court ruling. A turning point was reached in 1973 when the American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, thus negating its previous definition of homosexuality as a clinical mental disorder. In 1977, Quebec became the first state-level jurisdiction in the world to prohibit discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation. During the 1980s and 1990s, most developed countries enacted laws decriminalizing homosexual behavior and prohibiting discrimination against lesbian and gay people in employment, housing, and services. Even so, many countries today—all of them in Africa and Asia, outlaw homosexuality. In six countries, homosexual behavior is punishable by life imprisonment; in ten others, it carries the death penalty.

Sexual orientation and the law

The examples and perspective in this article may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. You may improve this article, discuss the issue on the talk page, or create a new article, as appropriate. (Learn how and when to remove this message)

• Employment discrimination refers to discriminatory employment practices such as bias in hiring, promotion, job assignment, termination, and compensation, and various types of harassment. In the United States there is "very little statutory, common law, and case law establishing employment discrimination based upon sexual orientation as a legal wrong." Some exceptions and alternative legal strategies are available. President Bill Clinton's Executive Order 13087 (1998) prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation in the competitive service of the federal civilian workforce, and federal non-civil service employees may have recourse under the due process clause of the U.S. Constitution. Private sector workers may have a Title VII action under a quid pro quo sexual harassment theory, a "hostile work environment" theory, a sexual stereotyping theory, or others.

• Housing discrimination refers to discrimination against potential or current tenants by landlords. In the United States, there is no federal law against such discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity, but at least thirteen states and many major cities have enacted laws prohibiting it.

• Hate crimes (also known as bias crimes) are crimes motivated by bias against an identifiable social group, usually groups defined by race, religion, sexual orientation, disability, ethnicity, nationality, age, gender, gender identity, or political affiliation. In the United States, 45 states and the District of Columbia have statutes criminalizing various types of bias-motivated violence or intimidation (the exceptions are AZ, GA, IN, SC, and WY). Each of these statutes covers bias on the basis of race, religion, and ethnicity; 32 of them cover sexual orientation, 28 cover gender, and 11 cover transgender/gender-identity.

Political activism

Since the 1960s, many LGBT people in the West, particularly those in major metropolitan areas, have developed a so-called gay culture. To many, gay culture is exemplified by the gay pride movement, with annual parades and displays of rainbow flags. Yet not all LGBT people choose to participate in "queer culture", and many gay men and women specifically decline to do so. To some it seems to be a frivolous display, perpetuating gay stereotypes. To some others, the gay culture represents heterophobia and is scorned as widening the gulf between gay and non-gay people.

With the outbreak of AIDS in the early 1980s, many LGBT groups and individuals organized campaigns to promote efforts in AIDS education, prevention, research, patient support, and community outreach, as well as to demand government support for these programs. Gay Men's Health Crisis, Project Inform, and ACT UP are some notable American examples of the LGBT community's response to the AIDS crisis.

The bewildering death toll wrought by the AIDS epidemic at first seemed to slow the progress of the gay rights movement, but in time it galvanized some parts of the LGBT community into community service and political action, and challenged the heterosexual community to respond compassionately. Major American motion pictures from this period that dramatized the response of individuals and communities to the AIDS crisis include An Early Frost (1985), Longtime Companion (1990), And the Band Played On (1993), Philadelphia (1993), and Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt (1989), the last referring to the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt, last displayed in its entirety on the Mall in Washington, D.C., in 1996.

Publicly gay politicians have attained numerous government posts, even in countries that had sodomy laws or outright mass murder of LGBT people in their recent past. Examples include Peter Mandelson, Business Secretary in Gordon Brown's cabinet and close friend of Tony Blair, and former Norwegian Minister of Finance Per-Kristian Foss.

LGBT movements are opposed by a variety of individuals and organizations. Supporters of the traditional marriage movement believe that all sexual relationships with people other than an opposite-sex spouse undermines the traditional family and that children should be reared in homes with both a father and a mother. There is concern that gay rights may conflict with individuals' freedom of speech, religious freedoms in the workplace, the ability to run churches, charitable organizations and other religious organizations in accordance with one's religious views, and that the acceptance of homosexual relationships by religious organizations might be forced through threatening to remove the tax-exempt status of churches whose views don't align with those of the government.

Critics charge that political correctness has led to the association of sex between males and HIV being downplayed.

Military service

Policies and attitudes toward gay and lesbian military personnel vary widely around the world. Some countries allow gay men, lesbians, and bisexual people to serve openly and have granted them the same rights and privileges as their heterosexual counterparts. Many countries neither ban nor support LGB service members. A few countries continue to ban homosexual personnel outright.

Most Western military forces have removed policies excluding sexual minority members. Of the 26 countries that participate militarily in NATO, more than 20 permit openly gay, lesbian and bisexual people to serve. Of the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, two (United Kingdom and France) do so. The other three generally do not: China bans gay and lesbian people outright, Russia excludes all gay and lesbian people during peacetime but allows some gay men to serve in wartime (see below), and the United States (see Don't ask, don't tell) technically permits gay and lesbian people to serve, but only in secrecy and celibacy. Israel is the only country in the Middle East region that allows openly LGB people to serve in the military.

While the question of homosexuality in the military has been highly politicized in the United States, it is not necessarily so in many countries. Generally speaking, sexuality in these cultures is considered a more personal aspect of one's identity than it is in the United States.

Religion

Though the relationship between homosexuality and religion can vary greatly across time and place, within and between different religions and sects, and regarding different forms of homosexuality and bisexuality, current authoritative bodies and doctrines of the world's largest religions generally view homosexuality negatively. This can range from quietly discouraging homosexual activity, to explicitly forbidding same-sex sexual practices among adherents and actively opposing social acceptance of homosexuality. Some teach that homosexual orientation itself is sinful, while others assert that only the sexual act is a sin. Some claim that homosexuality can be overcome through religious faith and practice. On the other hand, voices exist within many of these religions that view homosexuality more positively, and liberal religious denominations may bless same-sex marriages. Some view same-sex love and sexuality as sacred, and a mythology of same-sex love can be found around the world. Regardless of their position on homosexuality, many people of faith look to both sacred texts and tradition for guidance on this issue. However, the authority of various traditions or scriptural passages and the correctness of translations and interpretations are hotly disputed.

Prejudice and homophobia

In many cultures, homosexual people are frequently subject to prejudice and discrimination. Like members of many other minority groups that are the objects of prejudice, they are also subject to stereotyping, which further adds to marginalization. The prejudice, discrimination and stereotyping are all likely tied to forms of homophobia and heterosexism, which is negative attitudes, bias, and discrimination in favor of opposite-sex sexuality and relationships. Heterosexism can include the presumption that everyone is heterosexual or that opposite-sex attractions and relationships are the norm and therefore superior. Homophobia is a fear of, aversion to, or discrimination against homosexual people. It manifests in different forms, and a number of different types have been postulated, among which are internalized homophobia, social homophobia, emotional homophobia, rationalized homophobia, and others. Similar is lesbophobia (specifically targeting lesbians) and biphobia (against bisexual people). When such attitudes manifest as crimes they are often called hate crimes and gay bashing.

Negative stereotypes characterize LGB people as less romantically stable, more promiscuous and more likely to abuse children, but research has generally contradicted such assertions. Research suggests LGB people develop enduring romantic relationships. Gay men are often alleged as having pedophilic tendencies and more likely to commit child sexual abuse than the heterosexual male population, a view rejected by mainstream psychiatric groups and contradicted by research. Claims that there is scientific evidence to support an association between being gay and being a pedophile are based on misuses of those terms and misrepresentation of the actual evidence.

Violence against gay and lesbian people

In the United States, the FBI reported that 15.6% of hate crimes reported to police in 2004 were based on perceived sexual orientation. Sixty-one percent of these attacks were against gay men. The 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard, a gay student, is one of the most notorious incidents in the U.S.

Homosexual behavior in animals

Homosexual behavior in animals refers to the documented evidence of homosexual, bisexual and transgender behavior in non-human animals. Such behaviors include sex, courtship, affection, pair bonding, and parenting. Homosexual and bisexual behavior are widespread in the animal kingdom: a 1999 review by researcher Bruce Bagemihl shows that homosexual behavior, has been observed in close to 1500 species, ranging from primates to gut worms, and is well documented for 500 of them. Animal sexual behavior takes many different forms, even within the same species. The motivations for and implications of these behaviors have yet to be fully understood, since most species have yet to be fully studied. According to Bagemihl, "the animal kingdom it with much greater sexual diversity -- including homosexual, bisexual and nonreproductive sex -- than the scientific community and society at large have previously been willing to accept."

See also

• Anti-LGBT slogans
• BiNet USA
• Biphobia
• Gender identity disorder
• Gay bashing
• Hate speech
• Heterosexism
• Homophobia
• Human Rights Campaign
• LGBT rights opposition
• List of gay, lesbian or bisexual people
• Mythology of same-sex love
• National Gay and Lesbian Task Force
• Non-westernized concepts of male sexuality
• Religion and sexuality
• Sexuality and gender identity-based cultures
• Sodomy law

References

1. "APA Help Center - Health & Emotional Wellness - "Sexual Orientation and Homosexuality"". American Psychological Association. 2007. Retrieved 2009-07-26.
2. "Sexual Orientation and Homosexuality", APAHelpCenter.org, retrieved 2007-09-07 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
3. ^ Case No. S147999 in the Supreme Court of the State of California, In re Marriage Cases Judicial Council Coordination Proceeding No. 4365(…) Cite error: The named reference "amici" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
4. Politics as friendship By Horst Hutte; p66
5. "Etymology of Homosexuality", University of Waterloo, retrieved 2007-09-07 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
6. ^ Media Reference Guide (citing AP, NY Times, Washington Post style guides), GLAAD. Retrieved 2007-05-10.
7. See, for example, You calling me a poof? The Times; Scottish Hate Crime Laws extended to Homosexuals and Disabled The Herald, January 2008; and Council praised for 'gay' policy BBC news (see third paragraph)
8. "Kertbeny Coins "Homosexual"", GayHistory.com, retrieved 2007-09-07 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
9. Feray, Jean-Claude; Herzer, Manfred (1990). "Homosexual Studies and Politics in the 19th Century: Karl Maria Kertbeny". Journal of Homosexuality, Vol. 19, No. 1.
10. ^ "Biography: Karl Maria Kertbeny", GayHistory.com, retrieved 2007-09-07 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
11. "Psychopathia Sexualis", Kino.com, retrieved 2007-09-07 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
12. see wikt:homo
14. "The Coming Out Continuum", Human Rights Campaign, retrieved 2007-05-04 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
15. Rosario, M., Schrimshaw, E., Hunter, J., & Braun, L. (2006, February). Sexual identity development among lesbian, gay, and bisexual youths: Consistency and change over time. Journal of Sex Research, 43(1), 46-58. Retrieved April 4, 2009, from PsycINFO database.
16. Neumann, Caryn E (2004), "Outing", glbtq.com
17. Maggio, Rosalie (1991), The Dictionary of Bias-Free Usage: A Guide to Nondiscriminatory Language, Oryx Press, p. 208, ISBN 0897746538
18. Tatchell, Peter (2007-04-23), "Outing hypocrites is justified", The New Statesman, retrieved 2007-05-04 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help)
19. Australian Psychological Society: Sexual orientation and homosexuality
20. APA:Mental Health Professionals Should Not Tell Clients They Can Change Sexual Orientation
21. Royal College of Psychiatrists: Statement from the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ Gay and Lesbian Mental Health Special Interest Group
22. Royal College of Psychiatrists: Psychiatry and LGB people
23. The Surgeon General's call to Action to Promote Sexual Health and Responsible Sexual Behavior", A Letter from the Surgeon General U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, July 9, 2001. Retrieved March 29, 2007.
24. ^ American Psychiatric Association (2000). "Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Issues". Association of Gay and Lesbian Psychiatrics. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
25. "Answers to Your Questions About Sexual Orientation and Homosexuality". American Psychological Association. Retrieved 2008-05-26.
26. ^ "Just the Facts About Sexual Orientation & Youth: A Primer for Principals, Educators and School Personnel". American Academy of Pediatrics, American Counseling Association, American Association of School Administrators, American Federation of Teachers, American Psychological Association, American School Health Association, The Interfaith Alliance, National Association of School Psychologists, National Association of Social Workers, National Education Association. 1999. Retrieved 2007-08-28. Cite error: The named reference "apa" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
27. "ARQ2: Question A2 - Sexual Orientation". Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. Retrieved 2007-08-28.
28. Diamond, Lisa M. (2008). "Female bisexuality from adolescence to adulthood: Results from a 10-year longitudinal study" (PDF). 44 (1). Developmental Psychology: 5–14. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
29. "Bisexual women - new research findings". Women's Health News. January 17, 2008.
30. "Why women are leaving men for other women". 2009-04-23. Retrieved 2009-05-19.
31. Minton, H. L. (1986). Femininity in men and masculinity in women: American psychiatry and psychology portray homosexuality in the 1930s, Journal of Homosexuality, 13(1), 1-21.
    *Terry, J. (1999). An American obsession: Science, medicine, and homosexuality in modern society. Chicago: University of Chicago Press
32. Bailey, J.M., Zucker, K.J. (1995), Childhood sex-typed behavior and sexual orientation: a conceptual analysis and quantitative review. Developmental Psychology 31(1):43
33. Friedman, Richard C. (1990). Male Homosexuality. New Haven: Yale University Press. p. 312. ISBN 0300047452. Retrieved 2009-04-16.
34. Goode, Erica. "On Gay Issue, Psychoanalysis Treats Itself". - The New York Times. Retrieved 2009-04-16.
35. Zachary Green and Michael J. Stiers. Multiculturalism and Group Therapy in the United States: A Social Constructionist Perspective. Springer Netherlands 2002. Pages 233-246.
36. Cartographies of Desire: Male-male Sexuality in Japanese Discourse, 1600-1950; By Gregory M. Pflugfelder; Published by University of California Press, 1999, ISBN 0520209095, 9780520209091 399; Quotes from pages 5 and 6; In speaking of sexual desires and practices between males, I use the term male-male sexuality" rather than the more familiar "homosexuality" for deliberate reasons. To begin with, as I explain in Chapter I, inhabitants of the Japanese archipilago before the last century did not usually draw a conceptual link between male-male and female-female forms of erotic behavior. Thus to adopt the term "homosexuality," which implies an inherent connection between the two, is to accept uncritically the effects of a discursive process whose very emergence demands historical accounting... To impose such categories as "homosexuality" and "bisexuality" upon a society or conceptul universe, whether non-European or pre-nineteenth century, in which they would not have been understood in the same sense that they are currently understood, if indeed at all, and in which behavior often followed patterns quite different from those we associate with them in our own societies, is unwittingly to hide from view the experience of those very historical subjects whom we seek to comprehend. Even the word "sexuality" invites misinterpretation, so clarification is in order. By "sexuality," I do not mean fixed sexul orientation, as late twentieth century speakers of English tend to do, for instance, when they refer to a particular individual's "sexuality" -- meaning that person's place within the currently canonical trinity of "homosexuality," "heterosexulity," and "bisexuality." For much of the period examined in this study, the notion that each individual possesses a deeply rooted personal identity based on the biological sex of the preferred sexual object or objects (and specifically whether it is the same as or different from her or his own), and the tripartite taxonomy of sexual types that has resulted from this construction, held no currency in Japan, nor had they emerged even in the West.
37. ^ APA Help Center
38. What is Nature
39. APA - What is Nature
40. Relationship Satisfaction and Commitment
41. ^ Duffy, S.M/ (1985). "Satisfaction and commitment in homosexual and heterosexual relationships". Journal of Homosexuality. 12 (2): 1–23. Retrieved 2009-07-29. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
42. Charlotte, Baccman (1999). "Expectations of romantic relationships: A comparison between homosexual and heterosexual men with regard to Baxter's criteria". Social Behavior and Personality. Retrieved 2009-07-29. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
43. ^ Butler, Katy (March 7, 2006). "Many Couples Must Negotiate Terms of 'Brokeback' Marriages". New York Times.
44. Hentges, Rochelle (October 4, 2006). "How to tell if your husband is gay". Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
45. Gay Men from Heterosexual Marriages: Attitudes, Behaviors, Childhood Experiences, and Reasons for Marriage
46. Gay, Mormon, married
47. Gay No More
48. Büntzly G (1993). "Gay fathers in straight marriages". J Homosex. 24 (3–4): 107–14. PMID 8505530.
49. ^ The Married Lesbian
50. Hays D, Samuels A (1989). "Heterosexual women's perceptions of their marriages to bisexual or homosexual men". J Homosex. 18 (1–2): 81–100. PMID 2794500.
51. Coleman E (1981). "Bisexual and gay men in heterosexual marriage: conflicts and resolutions in therapy". J Homosex. 7 (2–3): 93–103. PMID 7346553.
52. Matteson DR (1985). "Bisexual men in marriage: is a positive homosexual identity and stable marriage possible?". J Homosex. 11 (1–2): 149–71. PMID 4056386.
53. ^ "Demographics of the Gay and Lesbian Population in the United States: Evidence from Available Systematic Data Sources", Dan Black, Gary Gates, Seth Sanders, Lowell Taylor, Demography, Vol. 37, No. 2 (May, 2000), pp. 139-154 (available on JSTOR).
54. LeVay, Simon (1996). Queer Science: The Use and Abuse of Research into Homosexuality. Cambridge: The MIT Press ISBN 0-262-12199-9
55. Sexual Behavior in the Human Male, p. 656
56. David Leonhardt (2000). "John Tukey, 85, Statistician; Coined the Word 'Software'". The New York Times. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |day= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
57. "Biography 15.1, John W. Tukey (1915-2000)". Retrieved 2009-05-19. John Tukey criticizes sample procedure
58. "Book Review by Martin Duberman, The Nation, November 3, 1997". Martin Duberman on Gebhart's "cleaning" of data
59. ACSF Investigators (1992). AIDS and sexual behavior in France. Nature, 360, 407–409.
60. Billy, J. O. G., Tanfer, K., Grady, W. R., & Klepinger, D. H. (1993). The sexual behavior of men in the United States. Family Planning Perspectives, 25, 52–60.
61. Binson, D., Michaels, S., Stall, R., Coates, T. J., Gagnon, & Catania, J. A. (1995). Prevalence and social distribution of men who have sex with men: United States and its urban centers. Journal of Sex Research, 32, 245–254.
62. Bogaert, A. F. (2004). The prevalence of male homosexuality: The effect of fraternal birth order and variation in family size. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 230, 33–37.
63. Fay RE, Turner CF, Klassen AD, Gagnon JH (1989). "Prevalence and patterns of same-gender sexual contact among men". Science. 243 (4889): 338–48. PMID 2911744. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
64. Johnson AM, Wadsworth J, Wellings K, Bradshaw S, Field J (1992). "Sexual lifestyles and HIV risk". Nature. 360 (6403): 410–2. doi:10.1038/360410a0. PMID 1448163. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
65. Laumann, E. O., Gagnon, J. H., Michael, R. T., & Michaels, S. (1994). The social organization of sexuality: Sexual practices in the United States. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
66. Sell RL, Wells JA, Wypij D (1995). "The prevalence of homosexual behavior and attraction in the United States, the United Kingdom and France: results of national population-based samples". Arch Sex Behav. 24 (3): 235–48. PMID 7611844. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
67. Wellings, K., Field, J., Johnson, A., & Wadsworth, J. (1994). Sexual behavior in Britain: The national survey of sexual attitudes and lifestyles. London, UK: Penguin Books.
68. ^ Norway world leader in casual sex, Aftenposten
69. ^ Sex uncovered poll: Homosexuality, Guardian
70. ^ McConaghy et al., 2006
71. S. Hite, The Hite Report on Male Sexuality, New York, A. Knopf, 1991.
72. S. S. et C. L. Janus, The Janus Report on Sexual Behavior, New York, John Wiley & Sons, 1993.
73. Alfred C. Kinsey, Sexual Behavior in the Human Male, 1948, ISBN 0-7216-5445-2(o.p.), ISBN 0-253-33412-8(reprint).
74. TERESA L. WAITE, December 8, 1992 "Sexual Behavior Levels Compared in Studies In Britain and France" in the New York Times
75. "27% of Gay Voters Sided with McCain". The Advocate. 7 November 2008. Retrieved 2008-11-08.
76. JAMA: Gay Is Okay With APA (American Psychiatric Association); available online: http://www.soulforce.org/article/642
78. Shoffman, Marc (2006-05-17), "Homophobic stigma - A community cause", PinkNews.co.uk, retrieved 2007-05-04 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help)
79. The New York Times: Homosexuality Not an Illness, Chinese Say
80. Royal College of Psychiatrists: Psychiatry and LGB people
81. Cabaj, R; Stein, T. eds. Textbook of Homosexuality and Mental Health, p. 421
82. ed. Sandfort, T; et al. Lesbian and Gay Studies: An Introductory, Interdisciplinary Approach. Chapter 2.
84. Attention: This template ({{cite pmid}}) is deprecated. To cite the publication identified by PMID 18561014, please use {{cite journal}} with |pmid=18561014 instead.
85. What the gay brain looks like, Time Magazine;
86. Dörner G, Rohde W, Stahl F, Krell L, Masius WG (1975). "A neuroendocrine predisposition for homosexuality in men". Arch Sex Behav. 4 (1): 1–8. PMID 165797. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
87. Ellis & Ames (1987). Neurohormonal functioning and sexual orientation: A theory of homosexuality-heterosexuality. Psychological Bulletin, 101, 233–258.
88. Dörner G, Geier T, Ahrens L; et al. (1980). "Prenatal stress as possible aetiogenetic factor of homosexuality in human males". Endokrinologie. 75 (3): 365–8. PMID 7428712. {{cite journal}}: Explicit use of et al. in: |author= (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
89. Dörner G, Schenk B, Schmiedel B, Ahrens L (1983). "Stressful events in prenatal life of bi- and homosexual men". Exp. Clin. Endocrinol. 81 (1): 83–7. PMID 6682786. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
90. Ellis, L., & Cole-Harding, S. (2001). The effects of prenatal stress, and of prenatal alcohol and nicotine exposure, on human sexual orientation. Physiology and Behavior, 74, 213–226.
91. "Sexual Orientation and Adolescents" (PDF), American Academy of Pediatrics Clinical Report, retrieved 2007-02-23 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
92. "Sexual Orientation and Homosexuality", American Psychological Association, retrieved 2009-02-03 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
93. Mitchum, Robert (2007-08-12), "Study of gay brothers may find clues about sexuality", Chicago Tribune, retrieved 2007-05-04 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help)
94. Zietsch et al. (2008)
95. Iemmola et al. (2009)
96. Gay fathers in straight marriages
97. Bozett, Frederick W. "The Heterosexually Married Gay and Lesbian Parent". Gay and Lesbian Parents. p. 138.
98. Helping gay fathers come out to their children
99. A Family Matter: When a Spouse Comes Out as Gay, Lesbian, or Bisexual
100. EMRK is for the LGBT adoption
101. Euronews: Gleichgeschlechtliche Adoptiveltern - Gerichtshof rügt Frankreich (german)
102. "Adoption Laws: State by State". Human Rights Campaign. Retrieved 2008-07-09.
103. ^ Canadian Psychological Association: Marriage of Same-Sex Couples – 2006 Position Statement Canadian Psychological Association
104. ^ Elizabeth Short, Damien W. Riggs, Amaryll Perlesz, Rhonda Brown, Graeme Kane: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Parented Families - A Literature Review prepared for The Australian Psychological Society
105. ^ Pawelski, James G., Perrin, Ellen C., Foy, Jane M., Allen, Carole E., Crawford, James E., Del Monte, Mark, Kaufman, Miriam, Klein, Jonathan D., Smith, Karen, Springer, Sarah, Tanner, J. Lane, Vickers, Dennis L. The Effects of Marriage, Civil Union, and Domestic Partnership Laws on the Health and Well-being of Children ] 2006 118: 349-364; available online: http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/118/1/349
106. cited in Cooper & Cates, 2006, p. 36; citation available on http://www.psychology.org.au/Assets/Files/LGBT-Families-Lit-Review.pdf
107. "Professional Organizations on GLBT Parenting".
108. Royal College of Psychiatrists response to comments on Nolan Show regarding homosexuality as a mental disorder
109. Mravack, Sally A. (July 2006)."Primary Care for Lesbians and Bisexual Women", American Family Physician 74 (2) p. 279–286.
110. Catalyst, Sr. Kitty, Staff of San Francisco City Clinic; "Reading This Might Save Your Ass"; 2001, San Francisco HIV Prevention and STD Prevention and Control.
111. Men Like Us: The GMHC Complete Guide to Gay Men's Sexual, Physical, and Emotional Well-being; Wolfe, Daniel; Gay Men's Health Crisis, Inc; Published by Ballantine Books, 2000; ISBN 0345414969, 9780345414960.
112. MSM in Africa: highly stigmatized, vulnerable and in need of urgent HIV prevention
113. "UNAIDS: Men who have sex with men" (asp). UNAIDS. Retrieved 2008-07-24.
114. Greenwood, Cseneca (9 April 2004). "African American Community and HIV (Slide 14 mentions TG women)" (ppt). East Bay AIDS Education and Training Center. Retrieved 2008-07-24. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
115. Operario D, Burton J, Underhill K, Sevelius J (2008). "Men who have sex with transgender women: challenges to category-based HIV prevention". AIDS Behav. 12 (1): 18–26. doi:10.1007/s10461-007-9303-y. PMID 17705095. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
116. Operario D, Burton J (2000). "HIV-related tuberculosis in a transgender network--Baltimore, Maryland, and New York City area, 1998-2000". MMWR Morb. Mortal. Wkly. Rep. 49 (15): 317–20. PMID 10858008. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
117. Young RM, Meyer IH (2005). "The trouble with "MSM" and "WSW": erasure of the sexual-minority person in public health discourse". Am J Public Health. 95 (7): 1144–9. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2004.046714. PMC 1449332. PMID 15961753. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
118. "STI Epi Update: Oral Contraceptive and Condom Use". Public Health Agency of Canada. 1998-04-23. Retrieved 2007-07-11. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
119. ^ FDA Policy on Blood Donations from Men Who Have Sex with Other Men
120. Schlager, Neil, ed. (1998). Gay & Lesbian Almanac. St. James Press. ISBN 1558623582, p. 152.
121. Meyer, Ilan H. (2003). "Prejudice, Social Stress, and Mental Health in Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Populations: Conceptual Issues and Research Evidence". Psychological Bulletin. 129 (5). Psychological Bulletin: 674–697. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.129.5.674. PMID 12956539. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
122. Black gay men, lesbians, have fewer mental disorders than whites, says Mailman School of PH study
123. Gibson, P. (1989), "Gay and Lesbian Youth Suicide", in Fenleib, Marcia R. (ed.) (ed.), Report of the Secretary's Task Force on Youth Suicide, United States Government Printing Office, ISBN 0160025087 {{citation}}: |editor-first= has generic name (help)
124. Balsam, Kimberly F. (2005). "Victimization Over the Life Span: A Comparison of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Heterosexual Siblings" (PDF). 73 (3). Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology: 477–487. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
125. Caruso, Kevin, "Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Suicide", Suicide.org, retrieved 2007-05-04 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
126. Adolescence and puberty By John Bancroft, June Machover Reinisch, p.162
127. "... sow illegitimate and bastard seed in courtesans, or sterile seed in males in defiance of nature." Plato in THE LAWS (Book VIII p.841 edition of Stephanus) or p.340, edition of Penguin Books, 1972.
128. Roman Homosexuality By Craig Arthur Williams, p.60
129. Foucault, Michel (1986). The History of Sexuality. Pantheon Books. ISBN 0394417755.
130. Thomas K. Hubbard, Review of David M. Halperin, How to Do the History of Homosexuality. in Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2003.09.22
131. Boswell, John (1980), Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century, University of Chicago Press, ISBN 978-0-226-06711-7
132. Murray, Stephen (ed.) (1998). Boy Wives and Female Husbands: Studies of African Homosexualities. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0312238290. {{cite book}}: |first= has generic name (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
133. Evans-Pritchard, E. E. (December, 1970). Sexual Inversion among the Azande. American Anthropologist, New Series, 72(6), 1428-1434.
134. Pablo, Ben (2004), "Latin America: Colonial]", glbtq.com, retrieved 2007-08-01 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
135. Murray, Stephen (2004). "Mexico". In Claude J. Summers (ed.). glbtq: An Encyclopedia of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Culture. glbtq, Inc. Retrieved 2007-08-01.
136. Mártir de Anglería, Pedro. (1530). Décadas del Mundo Nuevo. Quoted by Coello de la Rosa, Alexandre. "Good Indians", "Bad Indians", "What Christians?": The Dark Side of the New World in Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés (1478-1557), Delaware Review of Latin American Studies, Vol. 3, No. 2, 2002.
137. "Most frequently used new coinages in daily Chinese", Jongo News, August 20, 2007, retrieved 2007-09-07 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
138. Plato, Phaedrus in the Symposium
139. Plato, Laws, 636D & 835E
140. ^ [Citation | title= Christianity, social tolerance, and homosexuality | first= John | last= Boswell | publisher= Chicago University Press | year= 1981 | page= 51 | url= http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=v-MR5_AdG68C&pg=PA51&lpg=PA51&dq=plato+politics+celts+homosexuality&source=bl&ots=uNM6uvhMO9&sig=H-L3udLXs4ntB8FEchN59r-4kdM&hl=en&ei=lLtPSpD7GsefjAeRi4TMBQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1}}
141. Rocke, Michael, (1996), Forbidden Friendships: Homosexuality and male Culture in Renaissance Florence, ISBN 0-195122-92-5
142. Ruggiero, Guido, (1985), The Boundaries of Eros, ISBN 0-195034-65-1
143. Gladfelder, Hal (May 2006) In Search of Lost Texts: Thomas Cannon's 'Ancient and Modern Pederasty Investigated and Exemplified", Institute of Historical Research
144. Journal of Homosexuality (ISSN 0091-8369) Volume: 3 Issue: 4 , Volume: 4 Issue: 1
145. Ellis, Havelock; Symonds, John Addington (1975), Sexual Inversion, Arno Press, ISBN 0405073631 (reprint)
146. ILGA:7 countries still put people to death for same-sex acts
147. Fathi, Nazila (2007-09-30). "Despite Denials, Gays Insist They Exist, if Quietly, in Iran". New York Times. Retrieved 2007-10-01.
148. Penrose, Walter (2001). Hidden in History: Female Homoeroticism and Women of a "Third Nature" in the South Asian Past, Journal of the History of Sexuality 10.1 (2001), p.4
149. Herdt, Gilbert H. (1984), Ritualized Homosexuality in Melanesia, University of California Press, p. 128-136, ISBN 0520080963
150. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Delhi-High-Court-legalizes-homosexuality/articleshow/4726608.cms {{citation}}: Missing or empty |title= (help); Unknown parameter |data= ignored (|date= suggested) (help)
151. Ottosson, Daniel (November, 2006), LGBT world legal wrap up survey (PDF), ILGA, retrieved 2007-09-21 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help)
152. ^ Donovan, James M; American Association of Law Libraries Standing Committee on Lesbian and Gay Issues (2007), Sexual Orientation and the Law, William S. Hein & Co., ISBN 083770166X § 5:17
153. "Executive Order 13087 of May 28, 1998" (PDF), Federal Register, vol. 63, no. 105, 1998-06-02, retrieved 2007-09-07 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help)
154. Ashton v. Civiletti, 613 F.2d 923, 20 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 1601, 21 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) P 30297 (D.C. Cir. 1979)
155. Kelly v. City of Oakland, 198 F.3d 779, 81 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 1455, 77 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) P 46281 (9th Cir. 1999)
156. Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services, Inc., 523 U.S. 75, 118 S. Ct. 998, 1002 (1998)
157. Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins, 490 U.S. 228 (1989)
158. Renter's Rights Against Sexual Orientation Discrimination, retrieved 2007-09-07 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
159. "State Hate Crime Laws" (PDF), Anti-Defamation League, June 2006, retrieved 2007-05-04 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
160. First Presidency Message on Same-Gender Marriage
161. Brownback, Sam (July 9, 2004). "Defining Marriage Down - We need to protect marriage". National Review.
162. The Family: A Proclamation to the World
163. Doughty, Steve (November 28, 2007). "Gay hate law 'threat to Christian free speech'". Daily Mail.
164. Doughty, Steve (September 6, 2006). "Christian faces court over 'offensive' gay festival leaflets". Daily Mail.
165. Gove, Michael (December 24, 2002). "I'd like to say this, but it might land me in prison". The Times.
166. "Christian group likens Tory candidate review to witch hunt". CBC News. November 28, 2007.
167. Kempling, Chris (April 9, 2008). "Conduct unbecoming a free society". National Post.
168. Moldover, Judith (October 31, 2007). "Employer's Dilemma: When Religious Expression and Gay Rights Cross". New York Law Journal.
169. Ritter, Bob (January-February, 2008). "Collision of religious and gay rights in the workplace". Humanist. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
170. "Bishop loses gay employment case". BBC News. July 18, 2007.
171. Beckford, Martin (June 5 ,2008). "Catholic adoption service stops over gay rights". Telegraph. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
172. LeBlanc, Steve (March 10, 2006). "Catholic Charities to halt adoptions over issue involving gays". Boston Globe.
173. Mercer, Greg (April 24, 2008). "Christian Horizons rebuked: Employer ordered to compensate fired gay worker, abolish code of conduct". The Record.
174. Gallagher, Maggie (2006-05-15). "Banned in Boston:The coming conflict between same-sex marriage and religious liberty". Vol. 011, no. 33.
175. Capuzzo, Jill (August 14, 2007). "Church Group Complains of Civil Union Pressure". New York Times.
176. Capuzzo, Jill. "Group Loses Tax Break Over Gay Union Issue". New York Times.
177. Moore, Carrie (May 15, 2008). "LDS Church expresses disappointment in California gay marriage decision". Deseret News.
178. Chin, James (March 12, 2007). "The risks in hiding the HIV/AIDS truth". Vol. 9. Business Day.
179. "The people punish Mr Blair". Daily Mail (UK). May 6, 2005.
180. "Charge #1 and specifications preferred by the Presbytery of Southern California against The Rev. C. Lee Irons" (PDF). Presbytery of Southern California of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. Retrieved 2008-06-27. claiming that homosexuality is an unchosen "condition," rather than a sin of the heart, contradicts the teaching of Scripture that both the desire and the act are sin.
181. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition.
182. "webster.com". 2008. Retrieved 2008-01-29.
183. homophobial "Dictonary.com". Dictonary.com. 2008. Retrieved 2008-01-29. {{cite web}}: Check |url= value (help)
184. "aol.com". aol.com. 2008. Retrieved 2008-01-29.
185. The Riddle Homophobia Scale from Allies Committee website, Department of Student Life, Texas A&M University
186. Sexual Behavior Does Not Explain Varying HIV Rates Among Gay And Straight Men
187. Goodreau SM, Golden MR (2007). "Biological and demographic causes of high HIV and sexually transmitted disease prevalence in men who have sex with men". Sex Transm Infect. 83 (6): 458–62. doi:10.1136/sti.2007.025627. PMID 17855487. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
188. Jay, Karla (1979). The gay report: Lesbians and gay men speak out about sexual experiences and lifestyles. New York: Summit. ISBN 0671400134. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
189. Buchanan, Wyatt (2006-10-07). "Foley incident stirs up a stereotype about gay men". Retrieved 2007-04-07. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
190. Marshall WL, Barbaree HE, Butt J (1988). "Sexual offenders against male children: sexual preferences". Behav Res Ther. 26 (5): 383–91. doi:10.1016/0005-7967(88)90071-X. PMID 3190647.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
191. Freund et al. (1989). Heterosexuality, homosexuality, and erotic age preference. Journal of Sex Research, 26, 107-117.
193. "Crime in the United States 2004: Hate Crime", FBI, retrieved 2007-05-04 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
194. Smith, Dinitia (February 7 2004). "Love That Dare Not Squeak Its Name". New York Times. Retrieved 2007-09-10. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
195. Bruce Bagemihl, Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity, St. Martin's Press, 1999; ISBN 0312192398
196. Harrold, Max (1999-02-16). "Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity". The Advocate, reprinted in Highbeam Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2007-09-10.
197. Gordon, Dr Dennis (10 April 2007). "'Catalogue of Life' reaches one million species". National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research. Retrieved 2007-09-10. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)

Bibliography

Books

• Adam, Barry (1987). The Rise of a Gay and Lesbian Movement, G. K. Hall & Co. ISBN 0805797149
• Kenneth J. Dover, Greek Homosexuality, , Gerald Duckworth & Co. Ltd. 1979, ISBN 0-674-36261-6 (hardcover), ISBN 0-674-36270-5 (paperback)
• John d'Emilio, Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities: The Making of a Homosexual Minority in the United States, 1940-1970, University of Chicago Press 1983, ISBN 0226142655
• Norman Roth. The care and feeding of gazelles - Medieval Arabic and Hebrew love poetry. IN: Lazar & Lacy. Poetics of Love in the Middle Ages, George Mason University Press 1989, ISBN 0913969257
• Allan Bérubé, Coming out under Fire: The History of Gay Men and Women in World War Two, New York: MacMillan 1990, ISBN 0029031001
• Bret Hinsch, Passions of the Cut Sleeve: The Male Homosexual Tradition in China, The University of California Press, 1990, ISBN 0-520-06720-7
• Dynes, Wayne R. (ed.) The Encyclopedia of Homosexuality New York and London, Garland Publishing 1990, ISBN 0824065441
• Foucault, Michel, The History of Sexuality vol. 1: An Introduction, p. 43. Trans. Robert Hurley. New York: Vintage 1990
• George Rousseau, Perilous Enlightenment: Pre- and Post-Modern Discourses—Sexual, Historical, Manchester University Press 1991, ISBN 0719033012
• Lillian Faderman, Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers: A History of Lesbian Life in Twentieth Century America, Penguin 1992
• Arno Schmitt & Jehoeda Sofer (eds). Sexuality and Eroticism Among Males in Moslem Societies. Haworth Press, 1992
• George Chauncey, Gay New York: Gender Urban Culture and the Making of the Gay Male World, New York: Basic Books, 1994
• Juanita Ramos , Compañeras: Latina Lesbians : An Anthology, Routledge 1994
• Johansson, Warren and Percy, William A., (1994), Outing: Shattering the Conspiracy of Silence, Harrington Park Press
• Robert T. Michael, John H. Gagnon, Edward O. Laumann, and Gina Kolata. Sex in America: A definitive survey. Boston: Little, Brown, 1995. ISBN 0-316-07524-8
• Percy, William A Pederasty and Pedagogy in Archaic Greece. University of Illinois Press, 1996
• Lester G. Brown, Two Spirit People, 1997, Harrington Park Press, ISBN 1-56023-089-4
• Bullough et al. (eds.) (1996). Handbook of Medieval Sexuality. Garland Publishing. ISBN 0-8153-1287-3.
• Jennifer Terry, An American Obsession: Science, Medicine, and Homosexuality in Modern Society, University of Chicago Press 1999, ISBN 0-226-79367-2
• Bullough, Vern L. Before Stonewall: Activists for Gay and Lesbian Rights in Historical Context, Harrington Park Press 2002
• Ruth Vanita, Queering India: Same-Sex Love and Eroticism in Indian Culture and Society, Routledge 2002
• Joanne Meyers, Historical Dictionary of the Lesbian Liberation Movement: Still the Rage, Scarecrow Press 2003
• David K. Johnson, The Lavender Scare: The Cold War Persecution of Gays and Lesbians in the Federal Government, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004
• Scott Gunther, "The Elastic Closet: A History of Homosexuality in France, 1942-present" Book about the history of homosexual movements in France (sample chapter available online). Palgrave-Macmillan, 2009. ISBN 023022105X.

Journal articles

• Bowman, Karl M.; Eagle, Bernice The Problem of Homosexuality, Journal of Social Hygiene 1953
• Christopher Bagley and Pierre Tremblay, On the Prevalence of Homosexuality and Bisexuality, in a Random Community Survey of 750 Men Aged 18 to 27, Journal of Homosexuality, Volume 36, Number 2, pages 1–18, 1998
• Iemmola, F., & Ciani, A. (2009, June). New evidence of genetic factors influencing sexual orientation in men: Female fecundity increase in the maternal line. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 38(3), 393-399. Retrieved May 10, 2009, doi:10.1007/s10508-008-9381-6
• McConaghy, N., Hadzi-Pavlovic, D., Stevens, C., Manicavasagar, V., Buhrich, N., & Vollmer-Conna, U. (2006). Fraternal Birth Order and Ratio of Heterosexual/Homosexual Feelings in Women and Men. Journal of Homosexuality, 51(4), 161-174. Retrieved April 7, 2009, doi:10.1300/J082v51n04_09
• Norton, Rictor and Crew, Louis The Homophobic Imagination, College English 1974
• Simon LeVay, A difference in hypothalamic structure between homosexual and heterosexual men, Science Magazine 1991
• Zietsch, B., Morley, K., Shekar, S., Verweij, K., Keller, M., Macgregor, S., et al. (2008, November). Genetic factors predisposing to homosexuality may increase mating success in heterosexuals. Evolution and Human Behavior, 29(6), 424-433. Retrieved April 1, 2009, doi:10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2008.07.002

Online articles

• Burr, Chandler. Homosexuality and biology. The Atlantic, June 1997. An overview of recent research in layman's language.
• BBC News (Feb 1998): Fingerprints Study
• BBC News (Apr 1999): Doubt cast on 'gay gene'
• WebMD (March 2000): Pointing the Finger at Androgen as a Cause of Homosexuality
• BBC News (Oct 2004): Genetics of homosexuality
• James Davidson, London Review of Books, June 2, 2005, "Mr and Mr and Mrs and Mrs" - detailed review of The Friend, by Alan Bray, a history of same-sex marriage and other same-sex formal bonds
• Murray, Stephen; Homosexuality in traditional Sub-Saharan Africa

External links

• Answers to Your Questions About Sexual Orientation and Homosexuality The American Psychological Association
• One National Gay & Lesbian Archives
• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy - Homosexuality

Template:Link FA

• Gender
• Gender studies
• LGBT
• Sexual orientation
• Same-sex sexuality