Sex Orientation Problems
Because adolescence is a time of transition from childhood into adulthood, adolescents are "journey people"–neither adults nor children, but traveling somewhere in between. Their identities on all levels are dynamic and convoluted. They are changing rapidly and often unevenly on physical, emotional, intellectual, moral, and spiritual levels.
The sexual identity of an adolescent is also being formed, and it cuts across all categories of human development. Sexual orientation, or the primary direction of one's romantic, relational, and psychological desires, is in flux for many adolescents. Sexual orientation and the personal, communal, societal, and educational issues surrounding it are instrumental in the lives of all adolescents, especially those who find themselves experiencing attractions to those of the same sex or in the case of transgendered youth, those who are unable or unwilling to adhere to traditional gender roles (behavior that is traditionally understood to be associated with women or men).
While the inclusion of transgendered issues in the lesbian, gay, and bisexual movement is controversial to some, gender and sexual orientation intersect in inseparable ways. For example, many students are harassed in school because they are perceived to be lesbian or gay, not because they actually are lesbian or gay. Some individuals do not or cannot adhere to traditional gender roles in the way they look, dress, behave, or speak–for example, when a boy has many feminine mannerisms, or when a girl appears traditionally masculine in dress or behavior. A fear of being labeled gay or lesbian based on gender assumptions can affect students in many different ways, as when boys are reticent to participate in school choir or when girls become ambivalent about academic achievement. Therefore, this discussion of sexual orientation includes transgender issues. Also included are those who are questioning their sexual orientation or gender identity.
The Problem with DefinitionIt is important to note that the desire to measure, define, and keep statistics on sexual orientation and gender is a relatively new phenomenon in human history. The terms homosexual, heterosexual, and transgender did not exist until early in the twentieth century with the advent of modern psychology. In ancient times, same sex erotic behaviors and romantic love for those of the same sex existed as part of normal and everyday life. Some researchers and theorists believe that society has created categories for sexual orientation and gender to control sexual behavior and to create a catalogue of sexual deviancies. Society's need to classify sexual orientation and gender and attitudes toward people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, or questioning (i.e. sexual minorities) reflect society's assumptions about what is normal and who is welcomed and excluded. Educators should approach the labeling and classifying of sexual orientation of adolescents with great caution due to its potential for exclusion. James Brundage asserts that people are continuing to live with codes of sexual conduct established in Medieval Europe, and he calls for new reflections on an understanding of people as sexual beings in modern times. Living in a world, however, of what Thomas Popkewitz calls "population reasoning" that seeks to define children as members of groups with certain characteristics requires that people, however hestitantly, must acquiesce.