Orientation Myths and Stigma
When a compass is moved, the needle fluctuates for a bit before settling on true north. Similarly, a significant number of adolescents will find themselves confused about their sexual orientation and gender before settling into their sexual identity. Many will engage in sexual behaviors with others of the same sex. For most, these behaviors are experimental as young people make their way to a heterosexual orientation. But, for others, the attractions to those of the same sex remain consistent as they continue to personally develop and become more experienced in relationships. Many psychologists theorize that one's sexual orientation is found on a continuum, that no person is 100 percent heterosexual or homosexual, and that some are right in between. Research is suggesting that gender identity can also be understood along a continuum.
Sexual orientation is also understood to be more than just genital-sexual behaviors and includes emotional preference as well as intensity of spiritual connection with another person. Those who fall on the continuum closer to being attracted to those of the opposite sex, which accounts for the majority, are commonly known as straight or heterosexual. Those in the middle (studies show this to be anywhere from 2% to 5%) are considered bisexual. When a person is physically, emotionally, and spiritually attracted primarily to members of the same sex, they are considered to be lesbian, if female, and gay, if male. Studies show these numbers to be anywhere from 5 percent to 10 percent of the general population.
It is difficult to design studies that accurately reveal the proportion of straight and sexual minorities in the adolescent population. Even if a survey is anonymous, those with minority orientations may be denying their attractions to themselves as well as others because of the societal expectation that the only acceptable and normal orientation is heterosexual (i.e. heteronormativity). Some adolescents may have sexual attractions to either gender but would not categorize themselves in the same way as the survey instrument would. Others may know that they are members of a sexual minority, but because sexual orientation is invisible, many force themselves to live as heterosexuals, thus feeling one way on the inside, but living another way on the outside.