1. Sexuality Orientation: Gay, Straight, or Bi?
Chapter 15
Sexuality Orientation: Gay, Straight, or Bi?
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2. Sexual Orientation
Sexual orientation- a person’s erotic and emotional orientation toward members of his or her own gender or members of the other gender
Homosexual - a person whose sexual orientation is toward members of the same gender
Bisexual - a person whose sexual orientation is toward both men and women
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3. Sexual Orientation
Lesbian - a woman whose sexual orientation is toward other women
Gay - refers to homosexual; especially male homosexuals
Straight - heterosexual
LGB - abbreviation that stands for lesbians, gays and bisexuals
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4. Attitudes Toward Gays and Lesbians
Attitudes - many Americans disapprove of homosexuality (57% in one study)
Homophobia - a strong, irrational fear of homosexuals; negative attitudes and reactions to homosexuals
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5. Attitudes Toward Gays and Lesbians
Antigay prejudice - negative attitudes and behaviors toward gays and lesbians
Hate Crimes Statistics Act - passed in 1990; included gays and lesbians
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6. Gays and Lesbians as a Minority Group
Job and wage discrimination
Receive dishonorable discharges from the armed services
Fired from federal employment
Change must occur at many levels, as well as society and its institutions to prevent or end this prejudice
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7. Life Experiences of LGBs
Covert - a homosexual who is “in the closet,” who keeps his or her sexual orientation a secret
Overt - a homosexual who is “out of the closet,” who is open about their sexual orientation
There are varying degrees of covert and overt homosexuality
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8. Coming Out
The process of acknowledging to oneself, and then to others, that one is gay or lesbian
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9. Coming Out Six stages of identity development: Identity confusion
Identity comparison
Identity tolerance
Identity acceptance
Identity pride
Identity synthesis
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10. Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Communities
Many LGB communities exist in neighborhoods in large cities
Gay bars
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11. Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Communities
Gay baths - majority were closed in the 1980’s, but have been resurrected in the 1990’s
Gay liberation movement
Metropolitan Community Church
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12. Gay and Lesbian Relationships
They have similar issues as heterosexual couples
Like heterosexuals they must find a balance between 3 aspects of the relationship:
Attachment
Autonomy
Equality
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13. Lesbian and Gay Families
Most children growing up in gay and lesbian families have a heterosexual orientation
Heterosexuality of parents is not essential for healthy child development
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14. How Many People Are Gay, Straight, or Bi?
The percentage of gay and lesbian people ranges from 1% to 10%, depending upon the study
Probably about 92% of men, and 95% of women are exclusively heterosexual
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16. Sexual Orientation and Mental Health
Sin and the medical model - view used to be that homosexuality was a sin or a heresy; the view has been replaced by the medical model; now viewed as a sickness or illness
Being called “sick” could be considered as another form of persecution of gays and lesbians
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17. Research Results
Three kinds of research designs have been used to study homosexuality:
Clinical studies
Studies with control groups
Nonpatient research
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18. Can Sexual Orientation Be Changed by Psychotherapy?
Sexual dissatisfaction - Masters and Johnson’s term for the discontent of gays and lesbians who seek therapy to become heterosexual
Conversion therapy - any one of a number of treatments designed to turn LGBs into heterosexuals
Conversion therapy has been around for over 100 years
Traditionally, psychologists have achieved a change rate of only about 10% in converting gays to straights
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19. Why do People Become Homosexual or Heterosexual?
Biological Theories
Genetic factors
Prenatal factors
Brain factors
Hormonal imbalance
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20. Why do People Become Homosexual or Heterosexual?
Psychoanalytic Theory
Freudian Theory
Bieber’s research
Learning Theory
Interactionist Theory - Bem: the exotic becomes erotic
Sociological Theory
Effects of labeling
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21. Empirical Data Bell, Weinberg, and Hammersmith’s conclusions:
Sexual orientation seems to be determined before adolescence
It is likely that there is a biological basis for homosexuality
No single factor emerges as a cause of homosexuality or of lesbianism
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22. Sexual Orientation in Multicultural Perspective
Different cultures hold different views of same-gender sexual behavior
Less tolerance for homosexuality in the African American community
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23. Sexual Orientation in Multicultural Perspective
The very definition of homosexuality is set by culture
Some ethnic groups are even more disapproving of homosexuality than are U.S. whites
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24. Bisexuality
Ambisexual - another term for bisexual; a person whose sexual orientation is toward both women and men
Sexual identity and sexual behavior
Sexual identity - one’s self-identity as homosexual, heterosexual, or bisexual
Bisexual development
Deprivation homosexuality - homosexual activity that occurs in certain situations, such as prisons, when people are deprived of their regular heterosexual activity
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