{{Short description|Sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender}}{{About|homosexuality in humans|homosexuality in other species|Homosexual behavior in animals}}{{Redirect|Homosexual|the album|Homosexual (album){{!}}Homosexual (album)}}{{pp-semi-indef}}{{pp-move}}{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2022}}{{Sexual orientation}}{{LGBT sidebar|orientation}}Homosexuality is a sexual attraction, romantic attraction, or sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender.WEB, Definitions Related to Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity in APA Documents, American Psychological Association, 2015, 6 February 2020, 6,www.apa.org/pi/lgbt/resources/sexuality-definitions.pdf, Sexual orientation refers to the sex of those to whom one is sexually and romantically attracted. ... [It is] one’s enduring sexual attraction to male partners, female partners, or both. Sexual orientation may be heterosexual, samesex (gay or lesbian), or bisexual. ... A person may be attracted to men, women, both, neither, or to people who are genderqueer, androgynous, or have other gender identities. Individuals may identify as lesbian, gay, heterosexual, bisexual, queer, pansexual, or asexual, among others. ... Categories of sexual orientation typically have included attraction to members of one’s own sex (gay men or lesbians), attraction to members of the other sex (heterosexuals), and attraction to members of both sexes (bisexuals). While these categories continue to be widely used, research has suggested that sexual orientation does not always appear in such definable categories and instead occurs on a continuum .... Some people identify as pansexual or queer in terms of their sexual orientation, which means they define their sexual orientation outside of the gender binary of ‘male’ and ‘female’ only.,web.archive.org/web/20220419081802/https://www.apa.org/pi/lgbt/resources/sexuality-definitions.pdf, 19 April 2022, dead, BOOK, Eric B. Shiraev, David A. Levy, 2016, Cross-Cultural Psychology: Critical Thinking and Contemporary Applications, Sixth Edition,books.google.com/books?id=cCElDwAAQBAJ, Taylor & Francis, 216, 978-1134871315, Sexual orientation refers to romantic or sexual attraction to people of a specific sex or gender. ... Heterosexuality, along with bisexuality and homosexuality are at least three main categories of the continuum of sexual orientation. ... Homosexuality is a romantic or sexual attraction between persons of the same sex or gender., 15 September 2021, 24 November 2021,web.archive.org/web/20211124154145/https://books.google.com/books?id=cCElDwAAQBAJ, live, BOOK, James R. Lehman, Kristine Diaz, Henry Ng, Elizabeth M. Petty, Meena Thatikunta, Kristen Eckstrand, 2019, The Equal Curriculum: The Student and Educator Guide to LGBTQ Health,books.google.com/books?id=5JK7DwAAQBAJ, Springer Nature, 5, 978-3030240257, Homosexual, literally meaning “same sex”, is used as an adjective to describe same-sex or same-gender attraction. ... The term introduces ambiguity because is often applied as an identity label to a person or group based on their behaviors, not because of self-identified sexual orientation or sexual desires. ... in addition to having potentially negative connotations, homosexual is unclear as to what group of people it describes..., 15 September 2021, 24 November 2021,web.archive.org/web/20211124154153/https://books.google.com/books?id=5JK7DwAAQBAJ, live, As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is “an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions” exclusively to people of the same sex or gender.WEB, General Definitions,lgbt.ucsf.edu/glossary-terms, 2023-08-04, LGBT Resource Center, en, It “also refers to a person’s sense of identity based on those attractions, related behaviors, and membership in a community of others who share those attractions.“WEB, Sexual orientation, homosexuality and bisexuality, American Psychological Association, 10 August 2013,www.apa.org/helpcenter/sexual-orientation.aspx, 8 August 2013,www.apa.org/helpcenter/sexual-orientation.aspx," title="web.archive.org/web/20130808032050www.apa.org/helpcenter/sexual-orientation.aspx,">web.archive.org/web/20130808032050www.apa.org/helpcenter/sexual-orientation.aspx, WEB,www.courts.ca.gov/documents/Amer_Psychological_Assn_Amicus_Curiae_Brief.pdf, 30, Case No. S147999 in the Supreme Court of the State of California, In re Marriage Cases Judicial Council Coordination Proceeding No. 4365... â€“ APA California Amicus Brief â€” As Filed, 21 December 2010, 3 January 2020,www.courts.ca.gov/documents/Amer_Psychological_Assn_Amicus_Curiae_Brief.pdf," title="web.archive.org/web/20200103160304www.courts.ca.gov/documents/Amer_Psychological_Assn_Amicus_Curiae_Brief.pdf,">web.archive.org/web/20200103160304www.courts.ca.gov/documents/Amer_Psychological_Assn_Amicus_Curiae_Brief.pdf, live, Along with bisexuality and heterosexuality, homosexuality is one of the three main categories of sexual orientation within the heterosexualâ€“homosexual continuum. Scientists do not yet know the exact cause of sexual orientation, but they theorize that it is caused by a complex interplay of genetic, hormonal, and environmental influences and do not view it as a choice.JOURNAL, Frankowski BL, American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Adolescence, June 2004, Sexual orientation and adolescents,pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/113/6/1827.long, live, Pediatrics (journal), Pediatrics, 113, 6, 1827â€“32, 10.1542/peds.113.6.1827, 15173519,pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/113/6/1827.long," title="web.archive.org/web/20130320020943pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/113/6/1827.long,">web.archive.org/web/20130320020943pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/113/6/1827.long, 20 March 2013, 18 September 2012, free, JOURNAL, Bogaert, Anthony F., Skorska, Malvina N., 2020-03-01, A short review of biological research on the development of sexual orientation, Hormones and Behavior, 119, 104659, 10.1016/j.yhbeh.2019.104659, 0018-506X, free, 31911036, BOOK, Gloria Kersey-Matusiak, Delivering Culturally Competent Nursing Care, Springer Publishing Company, 978-0826193810, 2012, 169, 10 February 2016,books.google.com/books?id=X8O_wGedAYoC&pg=PA169, Most health and mental health organizations do not view sexual orientation as a ‘choice.’, 30 November 2016,web.archive.org/web/20161130123356/https://books.google.com/books?id=X8O_wGedAYoC&pg=PA169, live, Although no single theory on the cause of sexual orientation has yet gained widespread support, scientists favor biologically based theories. There is considerably more evidence supporting nonsocial, biological causes of sexual orientation than social ones, especially for males.JOURNAL, Marc Breedlove, Bailey JM, Vasey PL, Diamond LM, Breedlove SM, Vilain E, Epprecht M, Sexual Orientation, Controversy, and Science, Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 17, 21, 2016, 10.1177/1529100616637616, 27113562, 45â€“101, free, BOOK, LeVay, Simon, 2017, Gay, Straight, and the Reason Why: The Science of Sexual Orientation,books.google.com/books?id=HmQFFfa03nkC, Oxford University Press, 9780199752966, 27 July 2019, 22 October 2020,web.archive.org/web/20201022014657/https://books.google.com/books?id=HmQFFfa03nkC, live, BOOK, Balthazart, Jacques, 2012, The Biology of Homosexuality,books.google.com/books?id=3fjGjlcVINkC, Oxford University Press, 9780199838820, 27 July 2019, 26 January 2021,web.archive.org/web/20210126132532/https://books.google.com/books?id=3fjGjlcVINkC, live, There is no substantive evidence which suggests parenting or early childhood experiences play a role with regard to sexual orientation.WEB,www.rcpsych.ac.uk/workinpsychiatry/specialinterestgroups/gaylesbian/submissiontothecofe.aspx, Submission to the Church of England’s Listening Exercise on Human Sexuality, The Royal College of Psychiatrists, 13 June 2013, 16 October 2015,www.rcpsych.ac.uk/workinpsychiatry/specialinterestgroups/gaylesbian/submissiontothecofe.aspx," title="web.archive.org/web/20151016040825www.rcpsych.ac.uk/workinpsychiatry/specialinterestgroups/gaylesbian/submissiontothecofe.aspx,">web.archive.org/web/20151016040825www.rcpsych.ac.uk/workinpsychiatry/specialinterestgroups/gaylesbian/submissiontothecofe.aspx, live, While some believe that homosexual activity is unnatural,WEB, Robinson, B. A., Divergent beliefs about the nature of homosexuality, Religious Tolerance.org, 2010,www.religioustolerance.org/hom_fixe.htm, 12 September 2011, 10 May 2019,www.religioustolerance.org/hom_fixe.htm," title="web.archive.org/web/20190510051718www.religioustolerance.org/hom_fixe.htm,">web.archive.org/web/20190510051718www.religioustolerance.org/hom_fixe.htm, live, scientific research shows that homosexuality is a normal and natural variation in human sexuality and is not in and of itself a source of negative psychological effects.WEB, ‘Therapies’ to change sexual orientation lack medical justification and threaten health,new.paho.org/hq/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6803&Itemid=1926, Pan American Health Organization, 26 May 2012, dead,new.paho.org/hq/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6803&Itemid=1926," title="web.archive.org/web/20120523040848new.paho.org/hq/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6803&Itemid=1926,">web.archive.org/web/20120523040848new.paho.org/hq/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6803&Itemid=1926, 23 May 2012, There is insufficient evidence to support the use of psychological interventions to change sexual orientation.WEB,www.apa.org/about/policy/sexual-orientation, Resolution on Appropriate Affirmative Responses to Sexual Orientation Distress and Change Efforts, 2009, American Psychological Association, 18 August 2022,web.archive.org/web/20220423205306/https://www.apa.org/about/policy/sexual-orientation, 23 April 2022, live, WEB,www.psychology.org.au/About-Us/What-we-do/advocacy/Position-Statements/use-of-psychological-practice-sexual-orientation, Psychological practices that attempt to change sexual orientation: Position statement, Australian Psychological Society, 28 January 2020, 12 November 2020,web.archive.org/web/20201112021035/https://www.psychology.org.au/About-Us/What-we-do/advocacy/Position-Statements/use-of-psychological-practice-sexual-orientation, live, The most common terms for homosexual people are lesbian for females and gay for males, but the term gay also commonly refers to both homosexual females and males. The percentage of people who are gay or lesbian and the proportion of people who are in same-sex romantic relationships or have had same-sex sexual experiences are difficult for researchers to estimate reliably for a variety of reasons, including many gay and lesbian people not openly identifying as such due to prejudice or discrimination such as homophobia and heterosexism.LeVay, Simon (1996). Queer Science: The Use and Abuse of Research into Homosexuality {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171213181804www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/books/chap1/queerscience.htm |date=13 December 2017 }}. Cambridge: The MIT Press {{ISBN|0-262-12199-9}} Homosexual behavior has also been documented in many non-human animal species,{{refn|WEB,www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/06/090616122106.htm, Same-sex Behavior Seen in Nearly All Animals, Review Finds, ScienceDaily, 9 March 2018, 18 June 2009,www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/06/090616122106.htm," title="web.archive.org/web/20090618154331www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/06/090616122106.htm,">web.archive.org/web/20090618154331www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/06/090616122106.htm, live, WEB,www.news-medical.net/news/2006/10/23/20718.aspx,www.news-medical.net/news/2006/10/23/20718.aspx," title="web.archive.org/web/20110210172226www.news-medical.net/news/2006/10/23/20718.aspx,">web.archive.org/web/20110210172226www.news-medical.net/news/2006/10/23/20718.aspx, dead, 1,500 animal species practice homosexuality. The Medical News, 23 October 2006, 10 February 2011, Sommer, Volker & Paul L. Vasey (2006), Homosexual Behaviour in Animals, An Evolutionary Perspective. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. {{ISBN|0-521-86446-1}}{{harv|Bagemihl|1999}}}} though humans are one of only two species known to exhibit a homosexual orientation (the other is sheep).Many gay and lesbian people are in committed same-sex relationships. These relationships are equivalent to heterosexual relationships in essential psychological respects. Homosexual relationships and acts have been admired as well as condemned throughout recorded history, depending on the form they took and the culture in which they occurred.Sexual Orientation {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110726144306healthyminds.org/More-Info-For/GayLesbianBisexuals.aspx |date=26 July 2011 }}. American Psychiatric Association. Since the end of the 20th century, there has been a global movement towards freedom and equality for gay people, including the introduction of anti-bullying legislation to protect gay children at school, legislation ensuring non-discrimination, equal ability to serve in the military, equal access to health care, equal ability to adopt and parent, and the establishment of marriage equality.

Etymology

{{Redirect|Poof}}File:Hyacinthus and Zephyrus 3.jpg|thumb|upright|Zephyr and Hyacinthus Attic red-figure cup from Tarquinia, 480 BC (Boston Museum of Fine Arts)]]The word homosexual is a Greek and Latin hybrid, with the first element derived from Greek á½Î¼ÏŒÏ‚ homos, “same” (not related to the Latin homo, “man”, as in Homo sapiens), thus connoting sexual acts and affections between members of the same sex, including lesbianism.BOOK, A Dictionary of True Etymologies, Room, Adrian, 1986, 978-0710203403, 84, Routledge & Kegan Paul, BOOK, A Student’s Dictionary of Psychology, Statt, David A., 2004, Psychology Press, 978-1841693422, 93,archive.org/details/studentsdictiona0000stat/page/93, The first known appearance of homosexual in print is found in an 1868 letter to Karl Heinrich Ulrichs by the Austrian-born novelist Karl-Maria Kertbeny.ENCYCLOPEDIA, Nikolai, Endres, Kertbeny, KÃ¡roly MÃ¡ria (1824-1882), 2004, Glbtq.com, glbtq Encyclopedia,www.glbtqarchive.com/ssh/kertbeny_km_S.pdf, 22 January 2022, 22 January 2022,www.glbtqarchive.com/ssh/kertbeny_km_S.pdf," title="web.archive.org/web/20220122052500www.glbtqarchive.com/ssh/kertbeny_km_S.pdf,">web.archive.org/web/20220122052500www.glbtqarchive.com/ssh/kertbeny_km_S.pdf, live, {{citation|url=http://www.glbtq.com/social-sciences/kertbeny_km.html |title=Karl-Maria Kertbeny: The Coinage and Dissemination of the Term |access-date=12 June 2012 |periodical=glbtq.com |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120927020758www.glbtq.com/social-sciences/kertbeny_km.html |archive-date=27 September 2012 }} arguing against a Prussian anti-sodomy law.JOURNAL, Feray Jean-Claude, Herzer Manfred, 1990, Homosexual Studies and Politics in the 19th Century: Karl Maria Kertbeny, Journal of Homosexuality, 19, 1, 23â€“47, 10.1300/j082v19n01_02, 2187922, In 1886, the psychiatrist Richard von Krafft-Ebing used the terms homosexual and heterosexual in his book Psychopathia Sexualis. Krafft-Ebing’s book was so popular among both laymen and doctors that the terms heterosexual and homosexual became the most widely accepted terms for sexual orientation.WEB,www.glbtq.com/social-sciences/krafft_ebing_r.html, Krafft-Ebing, Richard von (1840â€“1902), glbtq.com,www.glbtq.com/social-sciences/krafft_ebing_r.html," title="web.archive.org/web/20120409220543www.glbtq.com/social-sciences/krafft_ebing_r.html,">web.archive.org/web/20120409220543www.glbtq.com/social-sciences/krafft_ebing_r.html, 9 April 2012, dead, WEB,www.kino.com/psychopathia/history.html, Psychopathia Sexualis, 7 September 2007, Kino.com, dead,www.kino.com/psychopathia/history.html," title="web.archive.org/web/20071004223140www.kino.com/psychopathia/history.html,">web.archive.org/web/20071004223140www.kino.com/psychopathia/history.html, 4 October 2007, As such, the current use of the term has its roots in the broader 19th-century tradition of personality taxonomy.Many modern style guides in the U.S. recommend against using homosexual as a noun, instead using gay man or lesbian.WEB,www.glaad.org/reference/terms, GLAAD Media Reference Guide - Glossary of Terms: LGBTQ, GLAAD, 24 February 2022, 18 August 2022,web.archive.org/web/20220423010026/https://www.glaad.org/reference/terms, 23 April 2022, live, {{Citation needed|date=August 2022|reason=The AP Stylebook, The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage, and Reuters style guides have sections on LGBT terminology that should be cited here.}} Similarly, some recommend completely avoiding usage of homosexual as it has a negative, clinical history and because the word only refers to one’s sexual behavior (as opposed to romantic feelings) and thus it has a negative connotation. 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.Gay especially refers to male homosexuality,WEB,www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/gay, gay, Oxford Dictionaries, 7 August 2015, (Of a person, especially a man) homosexual., 27 August 2016,www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/gay," title="web.archive.org/web/20160827054658www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/gay,">web.archive.org/web/20160827054658www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/gay, dead, but may be used in a broader sense to refer to all LGBT people. In the context of sexuality, lesbian refers only to female homosexuality. The word lesbian is derived from the name of the Greek island Lesbos, where the poet Sappho wrote largely about her emotional relationships with young women.BOOK, Johnson, Marguerite, Ryan, Terry, November 5-, Sexuality in Greek and Roman society and literature : a sourcebook, Routledge, Abingdon, Oxon, 2005, 978-0-203-64582-6, 252815648, 4, WEB,dictionary.reference.com/browse/lesbian, Lesbian | Define Lesbian at Dictionary.com, Dictionary.reference.com, 24 August 2010, 7 March 2016,dictionary.reference.com/browse/lesbian," title="web.archive.org/web/20160307135535dictionary.reference.com/browse/lesbian,">web.archive.org/web/20160307135535dictionary.reference.com/browse/lesbian, live, 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.Some synonyms for same-sex attraction or sexual activity include men who have sex with men or MSM (used in the medical community when specifically discussing sexual activity) and homoerotic (referring to works of art).WEB, UNAIDS: Men who have sex with men, UNAIDS,www.unaids.org/en/media/unaids/contentassets/dataimport/pub/briefingnote/2006/20060801_policy_brief_msm_en.pdf, 4 October 2012, dead,www.unaids.org/en/media/unaids/contentassets/dataimport/pub/briefingnote/2006/20060801_policy_brief_msm_en.pdf," title="web.archive.org/web/20120320001221www.unaids.org/en/media/unaids/contentassets/dataimport/pub/briefingnote/2006/20060801_policy_brief_msm_en.pdf,">web.archive.org/web/20120320001221www.unaids.org/en/media/unaids/contentassets/dataimport/pub/briefingnote/2006/20060801_policy_brief_msm_en.pdf, 20 March 2012, BOOK, Younger, John G., Sex in the ancient world from A to Z,archive.org/details/sexancientworldf00youn, limited, 2005, Routledge, London, 0-415-24252-5, 38, 1st published., Pejorative terms in English include queer, faggot, fairy, poof, poofterNEWS,www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/i-don-t-want-a-poofter-to-play-me-in-a-film-sir-stirling-moss-is-embroiled-in-homophobia-row-after-offensive-comments-8534236.html, ‘I don’t want a poofter to play me in a film’: Sir Stirling Moss is embroiled in homophobia row after ‘offensive’ comments, The Independent, 14 March 2013, 10 August 2022, 10 August 2022,web.archive.org/web/20220810231816/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/i-don-t-want-a-poofter-to-play-me-in-a-film-sir-stirling-moss-is-embroiled-in-homophobia-row-after-offensive-comments-8534236.html, live, and homo.BOOK, The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition, Houghton Mifflin, 2000, 0-618-70172-9,archive.org/details/americanheritage00edit_9, WEB, Spears, Richard A., Fag, Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions, 2007,dictionary.reference.com/browse/faggot, 4 October 2012, 27 February 2016,dictionary.reference.com/browse/faggot," title="web.archive.org/web/20160227014915dictionary.reference.com/browse/faggot,">web.archive.org/web/20160227014915dictionary.reference.com/browse/faggot, live, BOOK, Dalzell, Tom, The Routledge Dictionary of Modern American Slang and Unconventional English, Routledge, 25 July 2008, 978-0-203-89513-9, 10.4324/9780203895139, 1104, WEB,www.sex-lexis.com/,www.sex-lexis.com/," title="web.archive.org/web/20041015054212www.sex-lexis.com/,">web.archive.org/web/20041015054212www.sex-lexis.com/, dead, 15 October 2004, Dictionary of Sexual Terms, Sex-lexis.com, 4 October 2012, 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.WEB, Taylor, Marvin J., Queer Things from Old Closets: Libraries Gay and Lesbian Studies â€“ Queer Theory,rbm.acrl.org/content/rbml/8/1/19.full.pdf, Association of College and Research Libraries, 4 October 2012, 16 January 2016,rbm.acrl.org/content/rbml/8/1/19.full.pdf," title="web.archive.org/web/20160116080410rbm.acrl.org/content/rbml/8/1/19.full.pdf,">web.archive.org/web/20160116080410rbm.acrl.org/content/rbml/8/1/19.full.pdf, live, The word occurs in many other languages without the pejorative connotations it has in English.BOOK, eds, Marc Wolinsky, Gays and the military: Joseph Steffan versus the United States, 1993, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 0691033072, 49â€“55,books.google.com/books?id=kM8WgQQghwIC&q=Gays+military+homo+derogatory+epithet&pg=PA49, [Online-Ausg.]., 15 September 2021, 18 August 2022,web.archive.org/web/20220818001111/https://books.google.com/books?id=kM8WgQQghwIC&q=Gays+military+homo+derogatory+epithet&pg=PA49, live, As with ethnic slurs and racial slurs, the use of these terms can still be highly offensive. The range of acceptable use for these terms depends on the context and speaker.BOOK, eds, Marc Wolinsky ..., Gays and the military: Joseph Steffan versus the United States, 1993, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 0691033072, 40â€“48,books.google.com/books?id=kM8WgQQghwIC&q=Gays+military+homo+derogatory+epithet&pg=PA49, [Online-Ausg.]., 15 September 2021, 18 August 2022,web.archive.org/web/20220818001111/https://books.google.com/books?id=kM8WgQQghwIC&q=Gays+military+homo+derogatory+epithet&pg=PA49, live, Conversely, gay, a word originally embraced by homosexual men and women as a positive, affirmative term (as in gay liberation and gay rights),BOOK, Murray, Stephen O., Homosexualities, 2000, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 9780226551944, 394,books.google.com/books?id=HCikDlcEHw8C&q=word+%27gay%27+was+preferred+to+previous+designations+such+as+homosexual+or+homophile&pg=PA394, 15 September 2021, 18 August 2022,web.archive.org/web/20220818001111/https://books.google.com/books?id=HCikDlcEHw8C&q=word+%27gay%27+was+preferred+to+previous+designations+such+as+homosexual+or+homophile&pg=PA394, live, came into widespread pejorative use among young people in the early 2000s.NEWS,news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7289390.stm, How ‘gay’ became children’s insult of choice, 4 October 2012, BBC News, Denise Winterman, 18 March 2008, 13 February 2009,news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7289390.stm," title="web.archive.org/web/20090213213419news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7289390.stm,">web.archive.org/web/20090213213419news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7289390.stm, live, The American LGBT rights organization GLAAD advises the media to avoid using the term homosexual to describe gay people or same-sex relationships as the term is “frequently used by anti-gay extremists to denigrate gay people, couples and relationships”.WEB,www.glaad.org/reference/offensive, GLAAD Media Reference Guide â€“ Terms To Avoid, GLAAD, 9 September 2011, 1 December 2014, 20 April 2012,www.glaad.org/reference/offensive," title="web.archive.org/web/20120420141352www.glaad.org/reference/offensive,">web.archive.org/web/20120420141352www.glaad.org/reference/offensive, live,

History

Some scholars argue that the term “homosexuality” is problematic when applied to ancient cultures since, for example, neither Greeks or Romans possessed any one word covering the same semantic range as the modern concept of “homosexuality”.BOOK, Hubbard, Thomas K., Homosexuality in Greece and Rome: a Sourcebook of Basic Documents, 2003,archive.org/details/homosexualitygre00hubb, limited, University of California Press, 0520234308, 1, Introduction, The term “homosexuality” is itself problematic when applied to ancient cultures, inasmuch as neither Greek nor Latin possesses any one word covering the same semantic range as the modern concept. The term is adopted in this volume not out of any conviction that a fundamental identity exists between ancient and modern practices or self-conceptions, but as a convenient shorthand linking together a range of different phenomena involving same-gender love and/or sexual activity. To be sure, classical antiquity featured a variety of discrete practices in this regard, each of which enjoyed differing levels of acceptance depending on the time and place., BOOK, Larson, Jennifer, Greek and Roman Sexualities: A Sourcebook, Bloomsbury Academic, 978-1441196859, 15, Introduction, 6 September 2012, There is no Greek or Latin equivalent for the English word ‘homosexual’, although the ancients did not fail to notice some individuals preferred same-sex partners., Nor did there exist a distinction of lifestyle or differentiation of psychological or behavioral profiles in the ancient world.BOOK, Buxton, Richard, The Complete World of Greek Mythology, 2004, Thames and Hudson, London, 0500251215, 174, Same-Sex Eroticism, As scholars have increasingly come to recognize, the ancient Greek world did not know of the modern ‘life-style’ category-distinction between homosexuality and heterosexuality, according to which those terms are used to designate contrasting psychological or behavioral profiles., However, there were diverse sexual practices that varied in acceptance depending on time and place. In ancient Greece, the pattern of adolescent boys engaging in sexual practices with older males did not constitute a homosexual identity in the modern sense since such relations were seen as phases in life, not permanent orientations, since later on the younger partners would commonly marry females and reproduce.BOOK, Buxton, Richard, The Complete World of Greek Mythology, 2004, Thames and Hudson, London, 0500251215, 148â€“149, Readers of Plato’s dialogues will be familiar with the cultural pattern according to which adolescent Greek males bonded with older men in temporary homoerotic relationships. It is misleading to describe such couples as ‘homosexuals’, if that term is meant to designate a person whose sexual orientation is same sex for life. In Greek society the normal assumption would have been that the younger partner would, in a later phasde in life, go on to marry and reproduce., Other scholars argue that there are significant continuities between ancient and modern homosexuality.BOOK, Norton, Rictor, 2016, Myth of the Modern Homosexual,books.google.com/books?id=DkTqDAAAQBAJ, Bloomsbury Academic, 9781474286923, 27 July 2019, 11 May 2021,web.archive.org/web/20210511080439/https://books.google.com/books?id=DkTqDAAAQBAJ, live, The author has made adapted and expanded portions of this book available online as A Critique of Social Constructionism and Postmodern Queer Theory {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190330132639rictornorton.co.uk/extracts.htm |date=30 March 2019 }}.BOOK, Boswell, John, Revolutions, Universals, and Sexual Categories, Duberman, Martin Bauml, Vicinus, Martha, Chauncey, George Jr., 1989, Hidden From History: Reclaiming the Gay and Lesbian Past, Penguin Books, 17â€“36, 34904667,pdfs.semanticscholar.org/d1f4/b4d6d8a37a3470c63ae83bf0d4a5101b08ce.pdf," title="web.archive.org/web/20190304002205pdfs.semanticscholar.org/d1f4/b4d6d8a37a3470c63ae83bf0d4a5101b08ce.pdf,">web.archive.org/web/20190304002205pdfs.semanticscholar.org/d1f4/b4d6d8a37a3470c63ae83bf0d4a5101b08ce.pdf, 4 March 2019,pdfs.semanticscholar.org/d1f4/b4d6d8a37a3470c63ae83bf0d4a5101b08ce.pdf, File:Burning of Sodomites.jpg|right|thumb|Burning of two homosexuals (the knight Richard von Hohenburg and his squire Anton MÃ¤tzler) at the stake outside ZÃ¼rich, 1482 (from the Spiezer Schilling Spiezer SchillingIn 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. Throughout the majority of Christian history, most Christian theologians and denominations have considered homosexual behavior as immoral or sinful.JOURNAL, Gnuse, Robert K., May 2015, Seven Gay Texts: Biblical Passages Used to Condemn Homosexuality, Biblical Theology Bulletin, SAGE Publications on behalf of Biblical Theology Bulletin Inc., 45, 2, 68â€“87, 10.1177/0146107915577097, 1945-7596, 170127256, BOOK, Koenig, Harold G., Dykman, Jackson, Religion and Spirituality in Psychiatry, 2012, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 9780521889520, 43, the overwhelming majority of Christian churches have maintained their positions that homosexual behavior is sinful, Condemnation was frequent in ancient Greece; for instance, the idea of male anal sex being “unnatural” is described by a character of Plato’s,BOOK, Plato, Saunders, Trevor J., The laws, Penguin, Harmondsworth, Eng., 1970, 0-14-044222-7, 94283, 340, ... sow illegitimate and bastard seed in courtesans, or sterile seed in males in defiance of nature., though he had earlier written of the benefits of homosexual relationships.Many historical figures, including Socrates, Lord Byron, Edward II, and Hadrian,BOOK, Williams, Craig A., Roman homosexuality : ideologies of masculinity in classical antiquity, Oxford, 1999, 0-19-511300-4, 55720140, 60, have had terms such as gay or bisexual applied to them. Some scholars have regarded uses of such modern terms on people from the past as an anachronistic introduction of a contemporary construction of sexuality that would have been foreign to their times.{{harv|Foucault|1986}} Other scholars see continuity instead.JOURNAL, Hubbard Thomas K, Review of David M. Halperin, How to Do the History of Homosexuality., Bryn Mawr Classical Review, 22 September 2003, In social science, there has been a dispute between “essentialist” and “constructionist” views of homosexuality. The debate divides those who believe that terms such as “gay” and “straight” refer to objective, culturally invariant properties of persons from those who believe that the experiences they name are artifacts of unique cultural and social processes. “Essentialists” typically believe that sexual preferences are determined by biological forces, while “constructionists” assume that sexual desires are learned.BOOK, Halperin, David M., One Hundred Years of Homosexuality: And Other Essays on Greek Love,archive.org/details/onehundredyearso0000halp, registration, Routledge, New York, 1990, 41â€“42, 0-415-90097-2, The philosopher of science Michael Ruse has stated that the social constructionist approach, which is influenced by Foucault, is based on a selective reading of the historical record that confuses the existence of homosexual people with the way in which they are labelled or treated.BOOK, Ruse, Michael, Honderich, Ted, The Oxford Companion to Philosophy, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2005, 399, 0-19-926479-1,books.google.com/books?id=bJFCAwAAQBAJ&pg=PT971, 15 September 2021, 11 May 2021,web.archive.org/web/20210511080440/https://books.google.com/books?id=bJFCAwAAQBAJ&pg=PT971, live,
Africa
{{See also|Homosexuality in ancient Egypt}}The first record of a possible homosexual couple in history is commonly regarded as Khnumhotep and Niankhkhnum, an ancient Egyptian male couple, who lived around 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. The anthropologists Stephen Murray and Will Roscoe reported that women in Lesotho engaged in socially sanctioned “long term, erotic relationships” called motsoalle.BOOK, Boy Wives and Female Husbands: Studies of African Homosexualities,archive.org/details/boywivesfemalehu00murr, registration, Murray, Stephen, Stephen O. Murray, Will Roscoe, Roscoe, Will, 1998, St. Martin’s Press, New York, 0-312-23829-0, The anthropologist 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.JOURNAL, Evans-Pritchard, E. E., E. E. Evans-Pritchard, 1970, Sexual Inversion among the Azande, American Anthropologist, 72, 6, 1428â€“1434, 10.1525/aa.1970.72.6.02a00170, 162319598, free,
Americas
{{See also|Homosexuality in ancient Peru}}
Indigenous cultures
File:Catlin - Dance to the berdache.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|Dance to the BerdacheSac and Fox Nation Sac and Fox NationFile:Florentine Codex, book 10, illustration 61.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|Illustration of two Aztec homosexual men talking, from the Florentine Codex Florentine CodexAs is true of many other non-Western cultures, it is difficult to determine the extent to which Western notions of sexual orientation and gender identity apply to Pre-Columbian cultures. Evidence of homoerotic sexual acts and transvestism has been found in many pre-conquest civilizations in Latin America, such as the Aztecs, Mayas, Quechuas, Moches, Zapotecs, the Incas, and the TupinambÃ¡ of Brazil.WEB, Pablo, Ben, Latin America: Colonial,www.glbtq.com/social-sciences/latin_america_colonial.html, 2004,www.glbtq.com/social-sciences/latin_america_colonial.html," title="web.archive.org/web/20071211012339www.glbtq.com/social-sciences/latin_america_colonial.html,">web.archive.org/web/20071211012339www.glbtq.com/social-sciences/latin_america_colonial.html, glbtq.com, 1 August 2007, 11 December 2007, dead, ENCYCLOPEDIA, Murray, Stephen, Stephen O. Murray, Claude J. Summers, glbtq: An Encyclopedia of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Culture, Mexico,www.glbtq.com/social-sciences/mexico.html, 1 August 2007, 2004, glbtq.com, dead,www.glbtq.com/social-sciences/mexico.html," title="web.archive.org/web/20071102132531www.glbtq.com/social-sciences/mexico.html,">web.archive.org/web/20071102132531www.glbtq.com/social-sciences/mexico.html, 2 November 2007, BOOK, Sigal, Pete, Infamous Desire: Male Homosexuality in Colonial Latin America, The University of Chicago Press, 2003, 9780226757049, 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.BOOK, Anghiera, Pietro Martire d’, Torres Asensio, JoaquÃn., DÃ©cadas del nuevo mundo, Maxtor, Valladolid, 2012, 978-84-9001-301-4, 1057902726, es, JOURNAL,www.udel.edu/LAS/Vol3-2Coello.html#Introduction, Delaware Review of Latin American Studies, 3, 2, “Good Indians”, “Bad Indians”, “What Christians?”: The Dark Side of the New World in Gonzalo FernÃ¡ndez de Oviedo y ValdÃ©s (1478â€“1557), Coello de la Rosa, Alexandre, 23 June 2001, 18 August 2022,www.udel.edu/LAS/Vol3-2Coello.html#Introduction," title="web.archive.org/web/20100529042703www.udel.edu/LAS/Vol3-2Coello.html#Introduction,">web.archive.org/web/20100529042703www.udel.edu/LAS/Vol3-2Coello.html#Introduction, 29 May 2010, live, The Spanish conquerors talked extensively of sodomy among the natives to depict them as savages and hence justify their conquest and forceful conversion to Christianity. As a result of the growing influence and power of the conquerors, many native cultures started condemning homosexual acts themselves.{{citation needed|date=May 2020}}Among some of the indigenous peoples of the Americas in North America prior to European colonization, a relatively common form of same-sex sexuality centered around the figure of the Two-Spirit individual (the term itself was coined only in 1990).{{citation needed|date=August 2021}} 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.{{citation needed|date=May 2020}}During the colonial times following the European invasion, homosexuality was prosecuted by the Inquisition, sometimes leading to death sentences on the charges of sodomy, and the practices became clandestine. Many homosexual individuals went into heterosexual marriages to maintain appearances, and many joined the (unmarried) Catholic clergy to escape public scrutiny of their lack of interest in the opposite sex.{{citation needed|date=May 2020}}
Canada
During the colonial period, both the French and the British criminalised same-sex sexual relations. Anal sex between males was a capital offence.WEB,thedrummersrevenge.wordpress.com/2007/08/19/sodomites-in-canada-before-1841/, ‘Sodomites’ in Canada before 1841, Hamish, The Drummer’s Revenge, 19 August 2007, 14 September 2015, 14 January 2016,web.archive.org/web/20160114040029/https://thedrummersrevenge.wordpress.com/2007/08/19/sodomites-in-canada-before-1841/, live, Post-Confederation, anal sex and acts of “gross indecency” continued to be criminal offences, but were no longer capital offences.WEB,thedrummersrevenge.wordpress.com/2007/09/09/the-end-to-the-death-penalty-for-sodomy-in-canada/, The End to the Death Penalty for “Sodomy” in Canada, Hamish, The Drummer’s Revenge, 9 September 2007, 14 September 2015, 17 March 2016,web.archive.org/web/20160317084735/https://thedrummersrevenge.wordpress.com/2007/09/09/the-end-to-the-death-penalty-for-sodomy-in-canada/, live, Individuals were prosecuted for same-sex sexual activity as late as the 1960s, which led to the federal Parliament amending the Criminal Code in 1969 to provide that anal sex between consenting adults in private (defined as only two persons) was not a criminal offence. In advocating for the law, the then-Minister of Justice, Pierre Trudeau, said: “The state has no place in the bedrooms of the nation.“NEWS,www.cbc.ca/archives/entry/omnibus-bill-theres-no-place-for-the-state-in-the-bedrooms-of-the-nation, Trudeau: ‘There’s no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation’, CBC Archives, 9 August 2021, 3 January 2018,www.cbc.ca/archives/entry/omnibus-bill-theres-no-place-for-the-state-in-the-bedrooms-of-the-nation," title="web.archive.org/web/20180103200127www.cbc.ca/archives/entry/omnibus-bill-theres-no-place-for-the-state-in-the-bedrooms-of-the-nation,">web.archive.org/web/20180103200127www.cbc.ca/archives/entry/omnibus-bill-theres-no-place-for-the-state-in-the-bedrooms-of-the-nation, dead, In 1995, the Supreme Court of Canada held that sexual orientation is a protected personal characteristic under the equality clause of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.WEB,scc-csc.lexum.com/scc-csc/scc-csc/en/item/1265/index.do, Egan v. Canada, 25 May 1995, Supreme Court of Canada,web.archive.org/web/20210820185625/https://scc-csc.lexum.com/scc-csc/scc-csc/en/item/1265/index.do, 20 August 2021, live, The federal Parliament and provincial legislatures began to amend their laws to treat same-sex relations in the same way as opposite-sex relations. Beginning in 2003, the courts in Canada began to rule that excluding same-sex couples from marriage violated the equality clause of the Charter. In 2005, the federal Parliament enacted the Civil Marriage Act, which legalised same-sex marriage across Canada.CANLAW, Civil Marriage Act, SC, 2005, 33,laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/c-31.5/page-1.html, Canada has been referred to as the most gay-friendly country in the world, ranked first in the Gay Travel Index chart in 2018, and among the five safest in Forbes magazine in 2019.WEB,spartacus.gayguide.travel/blog/gay-travel-index-2019/, SPARTACUS Gay Travel Index 2019, 25 February 2019, 9 August 2021, 13 August 2021,web.archive.org/web/20210813122020/https://spartacus.gayguide.travel/blog/gay-travel-index-2019/, live, WEB,www.forbes.com/sites/laurabegleybloom/2019/11/25/most-dangerous-places-safest-lgbtq-gay-travelers/#a519ced11694, FORBES LGBTQ+ Danger Index 2019, Forbes, 21 October 2020, 9 August 2021, 14 January 2021,web.archive.org/web/20210114164459/https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurabegleybloom/2019/11/25/most-dangerous-places-safest-lgbtq-gay-travelers/#a519ced11694, live, It was also ranked first in Asher & Lyric’s LGBTQ+ Danger Index in a 2021 update.WEB,www.asherfergusson.com/lgbtq-travel-safety/, LGBTQ+ Travel Safety â€“ 150 Best & Worst Countries Ranked (2021), Asher & Lyric, 9 August 2021, 10 September 2021,web.archive.org/web/20210910063408/https://www.asherfergusson.com/lgbtq-travel-safety/, live,
United States
{{See also|LGBT history in the United States|LGBT historic places in the United States}}In 1986, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in Bowers v. Hardwick that a state could criminalize sodomy, but, in 2003, overturned itself in Lawrence v. Texas and thereby legalized homosexual activity throughout the United States of America.It is only since the 2010s that census forms and political conditions have facilitated the visibility and enumeration of same-sex relationships.*Census statistics show quarter of California same-sex couples raising kids {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120126184359www.mercurynews.com/census/ci_18334802 |date=26 January 2012 }}

Region Saw Increase In Same-Sex Households {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160329030306www.starnewsonline.com/article/20110630/articles/110639995/1004/sitemaps |date=29 March 2016 }}
Census 2010: One Quarter of Gay Couples Raising Children {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191101191951abcnews.go.com/Health/sex-couples-census-data-trickles-quarter-raising-children/story?id=13850332 |date=1 November 2019 }}
Minnesota Sees 50% Rise in Number of Gay Couples {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110717123400www.startribune.com/local/125537288.html |date=17 July 2011 }}
Census:Dutchess, Ulster Gay Households Increase {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160119045141www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/article/20110714/NEWS01/107140334/Census-Dutchess-Ulster-gay-households-increase |date=19 January 2016 }}
Same Sex Couples’ Numbers Soar In N.Y, 2010 Census Finds {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130430050627westchesterrealestateinformation.com/same-sex-couples-numbers-soar-in-ny-2010-census-finds/ |date=30 April 2013 }}
87% Increase in Same-Sex Nevada Households Since 2000 {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141026075323www.edgeboston.com/index.php?ch=news&sc=local&sc3=&id=123278 |date=26 October 2014 }}
www.necn.com/07/14/11/Gay-lesbian-households-increase-in-Okla/landing_politics.html?&apID=aebfe9933c274365a694d062894d773c" title="archive.today/20130130091511www.necn.com/07/14/11/Gay-lesbian-households-increase-in-Okla/landing_politics.html?&apID=aebfe9933c274365a694d062894d773c">2010 Census indicates increase among same-sex homeowners in Oklahoma
Spike In Number of City’s Same-Sex Couples {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110727052503www.wnyc.org/blogs/wnyc-news-blog/2011/jul/15/spike-number-same-sex-couples-city/ |date=27 July 2011 }}

Same-sex marriage in the United States expanded from one state in 2004 to all 50 states in 2015, through various state court rulings, state legislation, direct popular votes (referendums and initiatives), and federal court rulings.
East Asia
File:Painting -2ab.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|left|Anal sex between two males being watched, Qing dynasty Qing dynastyIn East Asia, same-sex love has been referred to since the earliest recorded history.Homosexuality in China, known as the passions of the cut peach and various other euphemisms, has been recorded since approximately 600 BCE. Homosexuality was mentioned in many famous works of Chinese literature. 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. Ming dynasty literature, such as Bian Er Chai (å¼è€Œé‡µ/å¼è€Œé’—), portray homosexual relationships between men as more enjoyable and more “harmonious” than heterosexual relationships.Kang, Wenqing. Obsession: male same-sex relations in China, 1900â€“1950, Hong Kong University Press. Page 2 Writings from the Liu Song dynasty by Wang Shunu claimed that homosexuality was as common as heterosexuality in the late 3rd century.BOOK, Song Geng, The fragile scholar: power and masculinity in Chinese culture,books.google.com/books?id=ei4PJ92qy6IC&pg=PA1443, 2004, Hong Kong University Press, 978-962-209-620-2, 144, 16 June 2015, 26 February 2021,web.archive.org/web/20210226192831/https://books.google.com/books?id=ei4PJ92qy6IC&pg=PA1443, live, Opposition to homosexuality in China originates in the medieval Tang dynasty (618â€“907), attributed to the rising influence of Christian and Islamic values,Hinsch, Bret. (1990). Passions of the Cut Sleeve. University of California Press. pp.77-78. but did not become fully established until the Westernization efforts of the late Qing dynasty and the Republic of China.Kang, Wenqing. Obsession: male same-sex relations in China, 1900â€“1950, Hong Kong University Press. Page 3
South Asia
{{See also|Homosexuality in India|Hinduism and LGBT topics|Buddhism and sexual orientation}}South Asia has a recorded and verifiable history of homosexuality going back to at least 1200 BC. Hindu medical texts written in India from this period document homosexual acts and attempt to explain the cause in a neutral/scientific manner.WEB, Pattanaik, Devdutt, Would ancient India have supported Section 377?,www.rediff.com/news/special/would-ancient-india-have-supported-section-377/20180717.htm, 2023-12-30, Rediff, en, JOURNAL, Raveenthiran, Venkatachalam, November 2011, Knowledge of ancient Hindu surgeons on Hirschsprung disease: evidence from Sushruta Samhita of circa 1200-600 bc,doi.org/10.1016/j.jpedsurg.2011.07.007, Journal of Pediatric Surgery, 46, 11, 2204â€“2208, 10.1016/j.jpedsurg.2011.07.007, 22075360, 0022-3468, WEB, Know all about Sushruta, the first ever plastic surgeon who was Indian,www.indiatoday.in/education-today/gk-current-affairs/story/sushruta-works-indian-physician-medicine-plastic-surgery-rhinoplasty-nose-job-1559599-2019-07-01, 2024-01-01, India Today, en, Numerous artworks and literary works from this period also describe homosexuality.Mitra Varuna {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130827022633galva108.org/deities.html|date=2013-08-27}}, The Gay and Lesbian Vaishnava AssociationWEB, December 11, 2013, Live Blog: Supreme Court Rules Gay Sex Illegal,www.wsj.com/amp/articles/live-blog-supreme-court-rules-gay-sex-illegal-1386740434, April 19, 2023, The Wall Street Journal, BOOK, Shastri, Hari Prasad, Tr.,archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.39881/page/n375/mode/2up, The Ramayana Of Valmiki Vol. 2, Digital Library of India Item 2015.39881, April 19, 2023, WEB, Mehrotra, Deepanshi, October 22, 2017, The Pre-Colonial History of Homosexuality in India: Why Love Is Not Western (Part I/III),www.lawctopus.com/academike/history-of-homosexuality-in-india/, April 19, 2023, Lawctopus, live,web.archive.org/web/20230719003625/https://www.lawctopus.com/academike/history-of-homosexuality-in-india/, Jul 19, 2023, The Pali Cannon, written in Sri Lanka between 600 BC and 100 BC, states that sexual relations, whether of homosexual or of heterosexual nature, is forbidden in the monastic code, and states that any acts of soft homosexual sex (such as masturbation and interfumeral sex) does not entail a punishment but must be confessed to the monastery. These codes apply to monks only and not to the general population.WEB, Homosexuality and Theravada Buddhism, A. L., De Silva,www.buddhanet.net/homosexu.htm, 2023-03-01, BuddhaNet, dead,web.archive.org/web/20230301075346/https://www.buddhanet.net/homosexu.htm, 2023-03-01, WEB, Pali canon {{!, Definition, Contents, & Facts |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Tipitaka |access-date=2023-03-01 |website=Britannica |language=en}} The Kama Sutra written in India around 200 AD also described numerous homosexual sex acts positively.NEWS, 2009-06-27, Ancient India didn’t think homosexuality was against nature, Manoj, Mitta,timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/ancient-india-didnt-think-homosexuality-was-against-nature/articleshow/4708206.cms, 2023-02-06, The Times of India, 0971-8257, There were no legal restrictions on homosexuality or transsexuality for the general population prior to early modern period and colonialism, however certain dharmic moral codes forbade sexual misconduct (of both heterosexual and homosexual nature) among the upper class of persists and monks, and religious codes of foreign religions such as Christianity and Islam imposed homophobic rules on their populations.WEB, 2017-09-04, LGBT rights were accepted in ancient India, Sec 377 must be repealed: Amish Tripathi,www.hindustantimes.com/books/lgbt-rights-were-accepted-in-ancient-india-sec-377-must-be-repealed-amish-tripathi/story-NFOnXL3rGVXECqTdg9SuXL.html, 2023-12-27, Hindustan Times, en, WEB, Stances of Faiths on LGBTQ+ Issues: Hinduism,www.hrc.org/resources/stances-of-faiths-on-lgbt-issues-hinduism, 2023-12-27, Human Rights Campaign, en-US, Hinduism describes a third gender that is equal to other genders and documentation of the third gender are found in ancient Hindu and Buddhist medical texts.JOURNAL, Srinivasan, Shiva Prakash, Chandrasekaran, Sruti, 2020, Transsexualism in Hindu Mythology, Indian Journal of Endocrinology and Metabolism, 24, 3, 235â€“236, 10.4103/ijem.IJEM_152_20, free, 2230-8210, 7539026, 33083261, There are certain characters in the Mahabharata who, according to some versions of the epic, change genders, such as Shikhandi, who is sometimes said to be born as a female but identifies as male and eventually marries a woman. Bahuchara Mata is the goddess of fertility, worshipped by hijras as their patroness.Historians have long argued that pre-colonial Indian society did not criminalise same-sex relationships, nor did it view such relations as immoral or sinful. Hinduism has traditionally portrayed homosexuality as natural and joyful.
Europe
Classical period
{{Further|Homosexuality in ancient Greece|Homosexuality in ancient Rome|Timeline of LGBT history in the United Kingdom|Homosexuality in medieval 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 to male homosexuality, such documents depict an at times complex understanding in which relationships with women and relationships with adolescent boys could be a part 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 writingsPlato, Phaedrus in the Symposium but in his late works proposed its prohibition.Plato, Laws, 636D & 835E Aristotle, in the Politics, dismissed Plato’s ideas about abolishing homosexuality (2.4); he explains that barbarians like the Celts accorded it a special honor (2.6.6), while the Cretans used it to regulate the population (2.7.5).{{harv|Boswell|1980}}Some scholars argue that there are examples of homosexual love in ancient literature, such as Achilles and Patroclus in the Iliad.JOURNAL, Morales, Manuel Sanz, Mariscal, Gabriel Laguna, The Relationship between Achilles and Patroclus according to Chariton of Aphrodisias, The Classical Quarterly, 2003, 53, 1, 292â€“295, 10.1093/cq/53.1.292, 3556498,www.jstor.org/stable/3556498, 0009-8388, 8 November 2020, 14 March 2021,web.archive.org/web/20210314185101/https://www.jstor.org/stable/3556498, live, File:Lafond Sappho and Homer.jpg|left|thumb|upright=1.15|Female youths are depicted surrounding Sappho in this painting of Lafond LafondLittle is known of female homosexuality in antiquity. Sappho, born on the island of Lesbos, was included by later Greeks in the canonical list of nine lyric poets. The adjectives deriving from her name and place of birth (Sapphic and Lesbian) came to be applied to female homosexuality beginning in the 19th century.ENCYCLOPEDIA,www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=lesbian, Lesbian, 7 February 2009, Online Etymology Dictionary, 2001, Douglas Harper, 2 July 2017,www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=lesbian," title="web.archive.org/web/20170702014505www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=lesbian,">web.archive.org/web/20170702014505www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=lesbian, live, ENCYCLOPEDIA,www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=Sapphic, Sapphic, 7 February 2009, Online Etymology Dictionary, 2001, Douglas Harper, 2 July 2017,www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=Sapphic," title="web.archive.org/web/20170702034948www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=Sapphic,">web.archive.org/web/20170702034948www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=Sapphic, live, Sappho’s poetry centers on passion and love for various personages and both genders. The narrators of many of her poems speak of infatuations and love (sometimes requited, sometimes not) for various females, but descriptions of physical acts between women are few and subject to debate.Denys Page, Sappho and Alcaeus, Oxford UP, 1959, pp.142â€“146.BOOK, Campbell, David A., Introduction, Greek Lyric I:Sappho and Alcaeus, Cambridge, Mass., 1982, 0-674-99157-5, 8805576, xiâ€“xii, Her way of life has been the subject of much speculation. Her poetry gives unmistakable evidence of strong homosexual feelings, and this was used by later writers for inferences about her character and indeed her profession: cf. the Oxyrhynchus biography: ‘she has been accused by some of being irregular in her ways and a woman-lover’; or the Suda: ‘ she got a bad name for her impure friendship towards Atthis, Telesippa and Megara’; Ovid made her speak of her low reputation, and about the same time Didymus Bronze-Guts addressed himself to the question, ‘Was Sappho a prostitute or not?’, and Horace spoke ambiguously of ‘masculine Sappho’. Voices were raised in defence of her character: a commentator inferred from her poetry that she was ‘a good housekeeper and industrious’. The case-history is complicated by the evidence, usually neglected, that she was married and spoke lovingly of her daughter in her poetry, and by the story, however it arose, that she died of unrequited love for Phaon., (File:NAMA Sappho lisant.jpg|thumb|Sappho reading to her companions on an Attic vase of c. 435 BC)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. The Hellenophile emperor Hadrian is renowned for his relationship with Antinous, but the Christian emperor Theodosius I decreed a law on 6 August 390, condemning passive males to be burned at the stake. Notwithstanding these regulations taxes on brothels with boys available for homosexual sex continued to be collected until the end of the reign of Anastasius I in 518. 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”.{{citation needed|date=August 2021}}
Renaissance
During the Renaissance, wealthy cities in northern Italyâ€”Florence and Venice in particularâ€”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.Rocke, Michael, (1996), Forbidden Friendships: Homosexuality and male Culture in Renaissance Florence, {{ISBN|0-19-512292-5}}Ruggiero, Guido, (1985), The Boundaries of Eros, {{ISBN|0-19-503465-1}} 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.From the second half of the 13th century, death was the punishment for male homosexuality in most of Europe.BOOK
, Lester R.
, Kurtz
, Encyclopedia of violence, peace, & conflict
,books.google.com/books?id=TG2kN033mDkC&pg=PA140
, Academic Press
, 1999
, 140
, 0-12-227010-X
, 16 June 2015, 14 April 2021,web.archive.org/web/20210414054812/https://books.google.com/books?id=TG2kN033mDkC&pg=PA140
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,
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).
Modern period
File:Touko-Laaksonen.jpg|thumb|Photograph of the Finnish artist Touko Laaksonen (1920â€“1991) alias Tom of Finland, well known for his stylized highly masculinized homoerotic homoeroticLove Letters Between a Certain Late Nobleman and the Famous Mr. Wilson was published in 1723 in England, and is 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.“Gladfelder, Hal (May 2006) In Search of Lost Texts: Thomas Cannon’s ‘Ancient and Modern Pederasty Investigated and Exemplified”, Institute of Historical Research Around 1785 Jeremy Bentham wrote another defense, but this was not published until 1978.Published in two parts:

JOURNAL, Bentham, Jeremy, Crompton, Louis, Offences Against One’s Self: Paederesty (Part 1), Journal of Homosexuality, Informa UK Limited, 3, 4, 4 August 1978, 0091-8369, 10.1300/j082v03n04_07, 389â€“406, 353189,
JOURNAL, Bentham, Jeremy, Crompton, Louis, Jeremy Bentham’s Essay on ‘Paederasty’: Part 2, Journal of Homosexuality, Informa UK Limited, 4, 1, 22 November 1978, 0091-8369, 10.1300/j082v04n01_07, 91â€“107, 363935, Executions for sodomy continued in the Netherlands until 1803, and in England until 1835, James Pratt and John Smith being the last Englishmen to be so hanged.

To this day, historians are still arguing about the question of the Sexuality of Frederick the Great (1712âˆ’1786), which essentially revolves around the taboo of whether the myth of one of the greatest war heroes in world history is allowed to be psychologically deconstructed.Between 1864 and 1880 Karl Heinrich Ulrichs published a series of 12 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.{{citation |title=Sexual Inversion |first1=Havelock |last1=Ellis |first2=John Addington |last2=Symonds |year=1975 |publisher=Arno Press |isbn=0-405-07363-1}} (reprint)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.
Middle East
{{Further|LGBT in Islam|LGBT rights in Israel}}(File:An ottoman miniature from the book Sawaqub al-Manaquib depicting Homosexuality.jpg|thumb|upright=1.25|An illustration from the 19th-century book Sawaqub al-Manaquib depicting homosexual anal sex with a wine boy)There are a handful of accounts by Arab travelers to Europe during the mid-1800s. Two of these travelers, Rifa’ah al-Tahtawi and Muhammad as-Saffar, show their surprise that the French sometimes deliberately mistranslated love poetry about a young boy, instead referring to a young female, to maintain their social norms and morals.BOOK, El-Rouayheb, Khaled, Before Homosexuality in the Arab-Islamic World, 1500â€“1800,archive.org/details/beforehomosexual00elro, limited, 2005, The University of Chicago Press, 0-226-72988-5, 2, Israel is considered the most tolerant country in the Middle East and Asia to homosexuals,NEWS
, 17 September 2008,www.independent.co.uk/life-style/love-sex/taboo-tolerance/the-five-most-improved-places-for-gay-tolerance-932635.html
, Israel is the only Middle-Eastern country to support gay rights legislation, and the country attracts gay people from Palestine and Lebanon.
, 29 May 2009, The Independent
, The five most improved places for gay tolerance
, London
, 31 March 2019,web.archive.org/web/20190331111114/https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/love-sex/taboo-tolerance/the-five-most-improved-places-for-gay-tolerance-932635.html
, live
, with Tel Aviv being named “the gay capital of the Middle East“MAGAZINE, Was Arafat Gay?, James Kirchick, Out (magazine), Out, and considered one of the most gay friendly cities in the world.NEWS, The world’s most gay-friendly places, Calgary Herald, 29 June 2011, The annual Pride Parade in support of homosexuality takes place in Tel Aviv.NEWS,tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/02/dispatch-gay-tel-aviv/, Gay Tel Aviv, Anthony, Grant, 2 July 2010, The New York Times, 19 October 2012, 30 June 2017,tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/02/dispatch-gay-tel-aviv/," title="web.archive.org/web/20170630125434tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/02/dispatch-gay-tel-aviv/,">web.archive.org/web/20170630125434tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/02/dispatch-gay-tel-aviv/, live,
On the other hand, many governments in the Middle East often ignore, deny the existence of, or criminalize homosexuality. Homosexuality is illegal in almost all Muslim countries.NEWS, Iran ‘must stop youth executions’, Steven Eke, 28 July 2005, BBC News,news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4725959.stm, 21 October 2010, 24 August 2017,news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4725959.stm," title="web.archive.org/web/20170824103849news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4725959.stm,">web.archive.org/web/20170824103849news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4725959.stm, live, Same-sex intercourse officially carries the death penalty in several Muslim nations: Saudi Arabia, Iran, Mauritania, northern Nigeria, and Yemen.WEB,www.ilga.org/news_results.asp?LanguageID=1&FileID=1111&ZoneID=7&FileCategory=50, 7 countries still put people to death for same-sex acts, ILGA, 24 August 2010, dead,www.ilga.org/news_results.asp?LanguageID=1&FileID=1111&ZoneID=7&FileCategory=50," title="web.archive.org/web/20091029185853www.ilga.org/news_results.asp?LanguageID=1&FileID=1111&ZoneID=7&FileCategory=50,">web.archive.org/web/20091029185853www.ilga.org/news_results.asp?LanguageID=1&FileID=1111&ZoneID=7&FileCategory=50, 29 October 2009, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, during his 2007 speech at Columbia University, asserted that there were no gay people in Iran. However, the probable reason is that they keep their sexuality a secret for fear of government sanction or rejection by their families.NEWS, Nazila, Fathi, Despite Denials, Gays Insist They Exist, if Quietly, in Iran,www.nytimes.com/2007/09/30/world/middleeast/30gays.html, The New York Times, 30 September 2007, 1 October 2007, 18 April 2009,www.nytimes.com/2007/09/30/world/middleeast/30gays.html," title="web.archive.org/web/20090418042212www.nytimes.com/2007/09/30/world/middleeast/30gays.html,">web.archive.org/web/20090418042212www.nytimes.com/2007/09/30/world/middleeast/30gays.html, live,
Pre-Islamic period
{{Further|Homosexuality and Judaism|The Bible and homosexuality}}File:Shah Abbas and Wine Boy.jpg|upright=1.2|thumb|right|Shah Abbas I of Persia Abbas I of PersiaIn ancient Sumer, a set of priests known as gala worked in the temples of the goddess Inanna, where they performed elegies and lamentations.BOOK, Leick, Gwendolyn, Sex and Eroticism in Mesopotamian Literature, Routledge, 2013, 978-1-134-92074-7, New York, 1994,books.google.com/books?id=WKoWblE4pd0C&pg=PA64, 10 November 2017, 14 April 2021,web.archive.org/web/20210414055100/https://books.google.com/books?id=WKoWblE4pd0C&pg=PA64, live, {{rp|285}} Gala took female names, spoke in the eme-sal dialect, which was traditionally reserved for women, and appear to have engaged in homosexual intercourse.BOOK, Roscoe, Will, Murray, Stephen O., 1997, Islamic Homosexualities: Culture, History, and Literature, New York, New York University Press, 0-8147-7467-9,books.google.com/books?id=6Zw-AAAAQBAJ&q=Gordon+1959+gala&pg=PA65, 65â€“66, 15 September 2021, 10 March 2021,web.archive.org/web/20210310000906/https://books.google.com/books?id=6Zw-AAAAQBAJ&q=Gordon+1959+gala&pg=PA65, live, The Sumerian sign for gala was a ligature of the signs for “penis” and “anus”. One Sumerian proverb reads: “When the gala wiped off his ass [he said], ‘I must not arouse that which belongs to my mistress [i.e., Inanna].’” In later Mesopotamian cultures, kurgarrÅ« and assinnu were servants of the goddess Ishtar (Inanna’s East Semitic equivalent), who dressed in female clothing and performed war dances in Ishtar’s temples. Several Akkadian proverbs seem to suggest that they may have also engaged in homosexual intercourse.In ancient Assyria, homosexuality was present and common; it was also not prohibited, condemned, nor looked upon as immoral or disordered. Some religious texts contain prayers for divine blessings on homosexual relationships. The Almanac of Incantations contained prayers favoring on an equal basis the love of a man for a woman, of a woman for a man, and of a man for man.{{Citation needed|date=March 2024}}
South Pacific
In some societies of Melanesia, especially in Papua New Guinea, same-sex relationships were an integral part of the culture until the mid-1900s. The Etoro and Marind-anim for example, viewed heterosexuality as unclean and celebrated homosexuality instead. In some 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.{{citation |title=Ritualized Homosexuality in Melanesia |first=Gilbert H. |last=Herdt |year=1984 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=0-520-08096-3 |pages=128â€“136}}
Sexuality and identity
Behavior and desire
{{Redirect-distinguish-text|Homosexual desire|the book, Homosexual Desire}}The American Psychological Association, the American Psychiatric Association, and the National Association of Social Workers identify sexual orientation as “not merely a personal characteristic that can be defined in isolation. Rather, one’s sexual orientation defines the universe of persons with whom one is likely to find the satisfying and fulfilling relationships”:{{Blockquote|Sexual orientation is commonly discussed as a characteristic of the individual, like biological sex, gender identity, or age. This perspective is incomplete because sexual orientation is always defined in relational terms and necessarily involves relationships with other individuals. Sexual acts and romantic attractions are categorized as homosexual or heterosexual according to the biological sex of the individuals involved in them, relative to each other. Indeed, it is by actingâ€”or desiring to actâ€”with another person that individuals express their heterosexuality, homosexuality, or bisexuality. This includes actions as simple as holding hands with or kissing another person. Thus, sexual orientation is integrally linked to the intimate personal relationships that human beings form with others to meet their deeply felt needs for love, attachment, and intimacy. In addition to sexual behavior, these bonds encompass nonsexual physical affection between partners, shared goals and values, mutual support, and ongoing commitment.}}The Kinsey scale, also called the Heterosexual-Homosexual Rating Scale,WEB,www.kinseyinstitute.org/research/ak-hhscale.html, Kinsey’s Heterosexual-Homosexual Rating Scale, The Kinsey Institute, 8 September 2011, 10 May 2016,www.kinseyinstitute.org/research/ak-hhscale.html," title="web.archive.org/web/20160510163753www.kinseyinstitute.org/research/ak-hhscale.html,">web.archive.org/web/20160510163753www.kinseyinstitute.org/research/ak-hhscale.html, live, attempts to describe a person’s sexual history or episodes of his or her sexual activity at a given time. It uses a scale from 0, meaning exclusively heterosexual, to 6, meaning exclusively homosexual. In both the Male and Female volumes of the Kinsey Reports, an additional grade, listed as “X”, has been interpreted by scholars to indicate asexuality.BOOK, Mary Zeiss Stange, Carol K. Oyster, Jane E. Sloan, Encyclopedia of Women in Today’s World, 978-1-4129-7685-5, Sage Pubns, 2011, 2016, 17 December 2011,books.google.com/books?id=bOkPjFQoBj8C&pg=PA158, 14 September 2020,web.archive.org/web/20200914220425/https://books.google.com/books?id=bOkPjFQoBj8C&pg=PA158, live,
Sexual identity and sexual fluidity
Often, sexual orientation and sexual identity are not distinguished, which can impact accurately assessing sexual identity and whether or not sexual orientation is able to change; sexual orientation identity can change throughout an individual’s life, and may or may not align with biological sex, sexual behavior or actual sexual orientation.Sinclair, Karen, About Whoever: The Social Imprint on Identity and Orientation, NY, 2013 {{ISBN|9780981450513}}JOURNAL, Rosario, M., Schrimshaw, E., Hunter, J., Braun, L., 2006, Sexual identity development among lesbian, gay, and bisexual youths: Consistency and change over time, Journal of Sex Research, 43, 1, 46â€“58, 10.1080/00224490609552298, 3215279, 16817067, JOURNAL, Michael W., Ross, Essien, E. James, Williams, Mark L., Fernandez-Esquer, Maria Eugenia., Concordance Between Sexual Behavior and Sexual Identity in Street Outreach Samples of Four Racial/Ethnic Groups, American Sexually Transmitted Diseases Association, 2003, 12567166, Sexually Transmitted Diseases, 30, 2, 110â€“113, 10.1097/00007435-200302000-00003, 21881268, free, Sexual orientation is stable and unlikely to change for the vast majority of people, but some research indicates that some people may experience change in their sexual orientation, and this is more likely for women than for men.*JOURNAL, Bailey, J. Michael, Vasey, Paul, Diamond, Lisa, Breedlove, S. Marc, Vilain, Eric, Epprecht, Marc, Sexual Orientation, Controversy, and Science, Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 2016, 17, 2, 45â€“101, 10.1177/1529100616637616,www.researchgate.net/publication/301639075, Sexual fluidity is situation-dependent flexibility in a person’s sexual responsiveness, which makes it possible for some individuals to experience desires for either men or women under certain circumstances regardless of their overall sexual orientation....We expect that in all cultures the vast majority of individuals are sexually predisposed exclusively to the other sex (i.e., heterosexual) and that only a minority of individuals are sexually predisposed (whether exclusively or non-exclusively) to the same sex., 27113562, free, 29 September 2019, 11 June 2020,web.archive.org/web/20200611031054/https://www.researchgate.net/publication/301639075, live,

BOOK, Dennis Coon, John O. Mitterer, Introduction to Psychology: Gateways to Mind and Behavior with Concept Maps and Reviews, Cengage Learning, 978-1111833633, 2012, 372, 18 February 2016,books.google.com/books?id=EYwjCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA372, Sexual orientation is a deep part of personal identity and is usually quite stable. Starting with their earliest erotic feelings, most people remember being attracted to either the opposite sex or the same sex. ... The fact that sexual orientation is usually quite stable doesn’t rule out the possibility that for some people sexual behavior may change during the course of a lifetime.,
BOOK, Eric Anderson, Mark McCormack, The Changing Dynamics of Bisexual Men’s Lives, Measuring and Surveying Bisexuality, Springer Science & Business Media, 978-3-319-29412-4, 2016, 47, 22 June 2019,books.google.com/books?id=7_AgDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA47, [R]esearch suggests that women’s sexual orientation is slightly more likely to change than men’s (Baumeister 2000; Kinnish et al. 2005). The notion that sexual orientation can change over time is known as sexual fluidity. Even if sexual fluidity exists for some women, it does not mean that the majority of women will change sexual orientations as they age â€“ rather, sexuality is stable over time for the majority of people., 24 August 2021,web.archive.org/web/20210824071645/https://books.google.com/books?id=7_AgDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA47, live, The American Psychological Association distinguishes between sexual orientation (an innate attraction) and sexual orientation identity (which may change at any point in a person’s life).WEB, Appropriate Therapeutic Responses to Sexual Orientation, American Psychological Association, 63, 86, 2009, 3 February 2015,www.apa.org/pi/lgbc/publications/therapeutic-response.pdf, 3 June 2013,www.apa.org/pi/lgbc/publications/therapeutic-response.pdf," title="web.archive.org/web/20130603121635www.apa.org/pi/lgbc/publications/therapeutic-response.pdf,">web.archive.org/web/20130603121635www.apa.org/pi/lgbc/publications/therapeutic-response.pdf, live,

Same-sex relationships
{{multiple image
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People with a homosexual orientation can express their sexuality in a variety of ways, and may or may not express it in their behaviors. Many have sexual relationships predominantly with people of their own sex, though some have sexual relationships with those of the opposite sex, bisexual relationships, or none at all (celibacy). Studies have found same-sex and opposite-sex couples to be equivalent to each other in measures of satisfaction and commitment in relationships, that age and sex are more reliable than sexual orientation as a predictor of satisfaction and commitment to a relationship, and that people who are heterosexual or homosexual share comparable expectations and ideals with regard to romantic relationships.WEB,www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-01/apa-elo011708.php, Relationship Satisfaction and Commitment, Eurekalert.org, 22 January 2008, 24 August 2010, 7 May 2010,www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-01/apa-elo011708.php," title="web.archive.org/web/20100507073038www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-01/apa-elo011708.php,">web.archive.org/web/20100507073038www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-01/apa-elo011708.php, live, JOURNAL, 10.1300/J082v12n02_01, Satisfaction and commitment in homosexual and heterosexual relationships, Journal of Homosexuality, 1985, S.M/, Duffy, C.E. Rusbult, 12, 2, 1â€“23,www.labmeeting.com/paper/17688909/duffy-rusbult-1985-satisfaction-and-commitment-in-homosexual-and-heterosexual-relationships, 29 July 2009, 3835198,www.labmeeting.com/paper/17688909/duffy-rusbult-1985-satisfaction-and-commitment-in-homosexual-and-heterosexual-relationships," title="web.archive.org/web/20171019190212www.labmeeting.com/paper/17688909/duffy-rusbult-1985-satisfaction-and-commitment-in-homosexual-and-heterosexual-relationships,">web.archive.org/web/20171019190212www.labmeeting.com/paper/17688909/duffy-rusbult-1985-satisfaction-and-commitment-in-homosexual-and-heterosexual-relationships, 19 October 2017, dead, JOURNAL, Expectations of romantic relationships: A comparison between homosexual and heterosexual men with regard to Baxter’s criteria, Social Behavior and Personality, 1999, Baccman, Charlotte, Per Folkesson, Torsten Norlander, 27, 4, 363â€“374, 10.2224/sbp.1999.27.4.363,www.sbp-journal.com/index.php/sbp/article/view/976, 4 October 2012, 23 April 2019,web.archive.org/web/20190423143028/https://www.sbp-journal.com//index.php/sbp/article/view/976, live,
Coming out of the closet
Coming out (of the closet) is a phrase referring to one’s disclosure of their sexual orientation or gender identity, and is described and experienced variously as a psychological process or journey.WEB,utahpridecenter.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=25&Itemid=44, Coming Out: A Journey, Utahpridecenter.org, 22 July 2012, 25 August 2009,utahpridecenter.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=25&Itemid=44," title="web.archive.org/web/20090825202112utahpridecenter.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=25&Itemid=44,">web.archive.org/web/20090825202112utahpridecenter.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=25&Itemid=44, live, Generally, coming out is described in three phases. The first phase is that of “knowing oneself”, and the realization emerges that one is open to same-sex relations.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”.WEB
,www.apa.org/pi/lgbc/publications/justthefacts.html
,www.apa.org/pi/lgbc/publications/justthefacts.html" title="web.archive.org/web/20070807205013www.apa.org/pi/lgbc/publications/justthefacts.html">web.archive.org/web/20070807205013www.apa.org/pi/lgbc/publications/justthefacts.html
, 7 August 2007, Just the Facts About Sexual Orientation & Youth: A Primer for Principals, Educators and School Personnel
, 28 August 2007, 1999
, 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
, 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, or colleagues. The third phase more generally involves living openly as an LGBT person.{{citation |access-date=4 May 2007 |url=http://dev.hrc.org/issues/3333.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071102101657dev.hrc.org/issues/3333.htm |archive-date=2 November 2007 |periodical=Human Rights Campaign |title=The Coming Out Continuum}} 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.{{citation|last=Neumann |first=Caryn E |url=http://www.glbtq.com/social-sciences/outing.html |title=Outing |year=2004 |periodical=glbtq.com |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070609220520www.glbtq.com/social-sciences/outing.html |archive-date=9 June 2007 }} 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,{{citation |title=The Dictionary of Bias-Free Usage: A Guide to Nondiscriminatory Language |last=Maggio |first=Rosalie |year=1991 |publisher=Oryx Press |isbn=0-89774-653-8 |page=208 |url=https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofbias00rosa/page/208 }} while some encourage outing public figures who use their positions of influence to harm other gay people.{{citation |url=http://www.newstatesman.com/life-and-society/2007/04/human-rights-gay-outing-outed |title=Outing hypocrites is justified |first=Peter |last=Tatchell |date=23 April 2007 |access-date=4 May 2007 |periodical=New Statesman |archive-date=14 September 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080914090034www.newstatesman.com/life-and-society/2007/04/human-rights-gay-outing-outed |url-status=live }}
Homoromanticism
Homosexuality is not to be confused with homoromanticism, which is the romantic attraction to the same sex or gender.WEB, 2021-07-01, Asexuality, Attraction, and Romantic Orientation,lgbtq.unc.edu/resources/exploring-identities/asexuality-attraction-and-romantic-orientation/, 2023-08-02, LGBTQ Center, en-US, Most people who are homosexual are also homoromantic, but some people under the asexual spectrum, do not experience, or experience limited homosexuality. For example, homoromantic heterosexuals are described as “romantically attracted to the same or a similar gender while only being sexually attracted to the opposite gender”.WEB, Team, Gayety, 2022-09-24, What Does It Mean To Be Homoromantic?,gayety.co/what-does-it-mean-to-be-homoromantic, 2023-08-02, Gayety, en-US,
Demographics
In their 2016 literature review, Bailey et al. stated that they “expect that in all cultures ... a minority of individuals are sexually predisposed (whether exclusively or non-exclusively) to the same sex.” They state that there is no persuasive evidence that the demographics of sexual orientation have varied much across time or place. Men are more likely to be exclusively homosexual than to be equally attracted to both sexes, while the opposite is true for women.Surveys in Western cultures find, on average, that about 93% of men and 87% of women identify as completely heterosexual, 4% of men and 10% of women as mostly heterosexual, 0.5% of men and 1% of women as evenly bisexual, 0.5% of men and 0.5% of women as mostly homosexual, and 2% of men and 0.5% of women as completely homosexual. An analysis of 67 studies found that the lifetime prevalence of sex between men (regardless of orientation) was 3â€“5% for East Asia, 6â€“12% for South and South East Asia, 6â€“15% for Eastern Europe, and 6â€“20% for Latin America.JOURNAL, Caceres, C., Konda, K., Pecheny, M., Chatterjee, A., Lyerla, R., Estimating the number of men who have sex with men in low and middle income countries, Sexually Transmitted Infections, 2006, 82, Suppl. III, iii3â€“iii9, 10.1136/sti.2005.019489, 16735290, 2576725, The International HIV/AIDS Alliance estimates that worldwide between 3 and 16% of men have had some form of sex with another man at least once during their lifetime.BOOK, International HIV/AIDS Alliance, Frontline AIDS, Between Men: HIV/STI Prevention For Men Who Have Sex With Men,www.who.int/hiv/topics/vct/sw_toolkit/Between_men_full_version.pdf, 2003, 896761012, 5 October 2020, 15 June 2021,web.archive.org/web/20210615021020/https://www.who.int/hiv/topics/vct/sw_toolkit/Between_men_full_version.pdf, live, According to major studies, 2% to 11% of people have had some form of same-sex sexual contact within their lifetime;JOURNAL, 10.2307/2136206, Billy JO, Tanfer K, Grady WR, Klepinger DH, The sexual behavior of men in the United States, 2136206, Family Planning Perspectives, 25, 2, 52â€“60, 1993, 8491287, JOURNAL, Bogaert AF, The prevalence of male homosexuality: the effect of fraternal birth order and variations in family size, Journal of Theoretical Biology, 230, 1, 33â€“7, September 2004, 15275997, 10.1016/j.jtbi.2004.04.035, 2004JThBi.230...33B, Bogaert argues that: “The prevalence of male homosexuality is debated. One widely reported early estimate was 10% (e.g., Marmor, 1980; Voeller, 1990). Some recent data provided support for this estimate (Bagley and Tremblay, 1998), but most recent large national samples suggest that the prevalence of male homosexuality in modern Western societies, including the United States, is lower than this early estimate (e.g., 1â€“2% in Billy et al., 1993; 2â€“3% in Laumann et al., 1994; 6% in Sell et al., 1995; 1â€“3% in Wellings et al., 1994). It is of note, however, that homosexuality is defined in different ways in these studies. For example, some use same-sex behavior and not same-sex attraction as the operational definition of homosexuality (e.g., Billy et al., 1993); many sex researchers (e.g., Bailey et al., 2000; Bogaert, 2003; Money, 1988; Zucker and Bradley, 1995) now emphasize attraction over overt behavior in conceptualizing sexual orientation.” (p.33) Also: “...the prevalence of male homosexuality (in particular, same-sex attraction) varies over time and across societies (and hence is a “moving target“) in part because of two effects: (1) variations in fertility rate or family size; and (2) the fraternal birth order effect. Thus, even if accurately measured in one country at one time, the rate of male homosexuality is subject to change and is not generalizable over time or across societies.” (p.33)JOURNAL, Fay RE, Turner CF, Klassen AD, Gagnon JH, Prevalence and patterns of same-gender sexual contact among men, Science, 243, 4889, 338â€“48, January 1989, 2911744, 10.1126/science.2911744, 1989Sci...243..338F, JOURNAL, 10.1007/BF01541598, Sell RL, Wells JA, Wypij D, The prevalence of homosexual behavior and attraction in the United States, the United Kingdom and France: results of national population-based samples, Archives of Sexual Behavior, 24, 3, 235â€“48, June 1995, 7611844, 12929812, BOOK, Hope, Debra A, Contemporary Perspectives on Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Identities, 10.1007/978-0-387-09556-1, Nebraska Symposium on Motivation, 54, 2009, 978-0-387-09555-4,archive.org/details/contemporarypers0000nebr, this percentage rises to 16â€“21% when either or both same-sex attraction and behavior are reported.According to the 2021 United States Census, there were about 1.2 million same-sex couple households.WEB, Bureau, US Census, 2022, Key Demographic and Economic Characteristics of Same-Sex and Opposite-Sex Couples Differed,www.census.gov/library/stories/2022/11/same-sex-couple-households-exceeded-one-million.html, 2024-03-29, Census.gov, In the United States, according to a report by The Williams Institute in April 2011, 3.5% or approximately 9 million of the adult population identify as lesbian, gay, or bisexual.WEB,williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/research/census-lgbt-demographics-studies/how-many-people-are-lesbian-gay-bisexual-and-transgender, Gary Gates, How Many People are Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender?, UCLA School of Law#Sexual orientation law, The Williams Institute, April 2011, 12 May 2014, 21 July 2017,williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/research/census-lgbt-demographics-studies/how-many-people-are-lesbian-gay-bisexual-and-transgender/," title="web.archive.org/web/20170721165514williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/research/census-lgbt-demographics-studies/how-many-people-are-lesbian-gay-bisexual-and-transgender/,">web.archive.org/web/20170721165514williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/research/census-lgbt-demographics-studies/how-many-people-are-lesbian-gay-bisexual-and-transgender/, dead, A 2013 study by the CDC, in which over 34,000 Americans were interviewed, puts the percentage of self-identifying lesbians and gay men at 1.6%, and of bisexuals at 0.7%.“Sexual Orientation and Health Among U.S. Adults: National Health Interview Survey, 2013.” {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181204023729www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhsr/nhsr077.pdf |date=4 December 2018 }} CDC. 15 July 2014. 15 July 2014. p.3.In October 2012, Gallup started conducting annual surveys to study the demographics of LGBT people, determining that 3.4% (Â±1%) of adults identified as LGBT in the United States.WEB,www.gallup.com/poll/158066/special-report-adults-identify-lgbt.aspx, Special Report: 3.4% of U.S. Adults Identify as LGBT, Gates, Gary J., Newport, Frank, 18 October 2012, Gallup (company), Gallup, 13 January 2015, 2 September 2017,www.gallup.com/poll/158066/special-report-adults-identify-lgbt.aspx," title="web.archive.org/web/20170902104955www.gallup.com/poll/158066/special-report-adults-identify-lgbt.aspx,">web.archive.org/web/20170902104955www.gallup.com/poll/158066/special-report-adults-identify-lgbt.aspx, live, It was the nation’s largest poll on the issue at the time.WEB,www.cbsnews.com/news/gallup-survey-claims-34-percent-in-us-are-lgbt, Gallup survey claims 3.4 percent in U.S. are LGBT, 18 October 2012, CBS News, Associated Press, 13 January 2015, 19 January 2015,www.cbsnews.com/news/gallup-survey-claims-34-percent-in-us-are-lgbt/," title="web.archive.org/web/20150119124710www.cbsnews.com/news/gallup-survey-claims-34-percent-in-us-are-lgbt/,">web.archive.org/web/20150119124710www.cbsnews.com/news/gallup-survey-claims-34-percent-in-us-are-lgbt/, live, WEB,www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2012/10/18/adults-lesbian-gay-bisexual/1642203, New survey: 3.4% of U.S. adults are LGBT, Jayson, Sharon, 19 October 2012, USA Today, 13 January 2015, 5 July 2017,web.archive.org/web/20170705221340/https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2012/10/18/adults-lesbian-gay-bisexual/1642203/, live, In 2017, the percentage was estimated to have risen to 4.5% of adults, with the increase largely driven by millennials. The poll attributes the rise to greater willingness of younger people to reveal their sexual identity.WEB,news.gallup.com/poll/234863/estimate-lgbt-population-rises.aspx, In U.S., Estimate of LGBT Population Rises to 4.5%, Newport, Frank, 22 May 2018, Gallup (company), Gallup, 17 June 2018, 22 May 2018,news.gallup.com/poll/234863/estimate-lgbt-population-rises.aspx," title="web.archive.org/web/20180522203115news.gallup.com/poll/234863/estimate-lgbt-population-rises.aspx,">web.archive.org/web/20180522203115news.gallup.com/poll/234863/estimate-lgbt-population-rises.aspx, live, Measuring the prevalence of homosexuality presents difficulties. It is necessary to consider the measuring criteria that are used, the cutoff point and the time span taken to define a sexual orientation. Many people, despite having same-sex attractions, may be reluctant to identify themselves as gay or bisexual. The research must measure some characteristic that may or may not be defining of sexual orientation. The number of people with same-sex desires may be larger than the number of people who act on those desires, which in turn may be larger than the number of people who self-identify as gay, lesbian, or bisexual.JOURNAL, Black, Dan, Gates, Gary, Sanders, Seth, Taylor, Lowell, 2000, Demographics of the Gay and Lesbian Population in the United States: Evidence from Available Systematic Data Sources, Demography, 37, 2, 139â€“154, 10.2307/2648117, 2648117, 10836173, free, Reliable data as to the size of the gay and lesbian population are of value in informing public policy. For example, demographics are of 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 former 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 questionsâ€”questions about the general nature of labor market choices, accumulation of human capital, specialization within households, discrimination, and decisions about geographic location.”
Psychology
The American Psychological Association, the American Psychiatric Association, and the National Association of Social Workers state:{{cquote|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,JOURNAL, 1998, Gay Is Okay With APAâ€”Forum Honors Landmark 1973 Events,jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=187846, JAMA (journal), JAMA, 280, 6, 497â€“499, 10.1001/jama.280.6.497, 9707127, Lamberg, L., 29 September 2012, 3 May 2013,jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=187846," title="web.archive.org/web/20130503022720jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=187846,">web.archive.org/web/20130503022720jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=187846, live, 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 consensus of research and clinical literature demonstrates that same-sex sexual and romantic attractions, feelings, and behaviors are normal and positive variations of human sexuality.American Psychological Association: Appropriate Therapeutic Responses to Sexual Orientation {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100615023708www.apa.org/pi/lgbt/resources/therapeutic-response.pdf |date=15 June 2010 }} There is now a large body of research evidence that indicates that being gay, lesbian or bisexual is compatible with normal mental health and social adjustment. 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 17 May 1990.WEB,www.euro.who.int/en/what-we-do/health-topics/communicable-diseases/hivaids/news/news/2011/6/stop-discrimination-against-homosexual-men-and-women, Stop discrimination against homosexual men and women, World Health Organisation â€“ Europe, 17 May 2011, 8 March 2012, 9 July 2012,www.euro.who.int/en/what-we-do/health-topics/communicable-diseases/hivaids/news/news/2011/6/stop-discrimination-against-homosexual-men-and-women," title="web.archive.org/web/20120709194330www.euro.who.int/en/what-we-do/health-topics/communicable-diseases/hivaids/news/news/2011/6/stop-discrimination-against-homosexual-men-and-women,">web.archive.org/web/20120709194330www.euro.who.int/en/what-we-do/health-topics/communicable-diseases/hivaids/news/news/2011/6/stop-discrimination-against-homosexual-men-and-women, live, WEB,www.ilga.org/news_results.asp?LanguageID=1&FileCategory=50&FileID=546, The decision of the World Health Organisation 15 years ago constitutes a historic date and powerful symbol for members of the LGBT community, ILGA, 24 August 2010, dead,www.ilga.org/news_results.asp?LanguageID=1&FileCategory=50&FileID=546," title="web.archive.org/web/20091030051630www.ilga.org/news_results.asp?LanguageID=1&FileCategory=50&FileID=546,">web.archive.org/web/20091030051630www.ilga.org/news_results.asp?LanguageID=1&FileCategory=50&FileID=546, 30 October 2009, {{citation |title=Homophobic stigma â€“ A community cause |url=http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-1496.html |date=17 May 2006 |periodical=PinkNews.co.uk |first=Marc |last=Shoffman |access-date=4 May 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070419234733www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-1496.html |archive-date=19 April 2007 }} 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 ({{ICD10|F|66|1|f|60}}). The Chinese Society of Psychiatry removed homosexuality from its Chinese Classification of Mental Disorders in 2001 after five years of study by the association.The New York Times: Homosexuality Not an Illness, Chinese Say {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160722131618www.nytimes.com/2001/03/08/health/08PSYC.html |date=22 July 2016 }} 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.Cabaj, R; Stein, T. eds. Textbook of Homosexuality and Mental Health, p.421 Psychological research in this area has been relevant to counteracting prejudicial (“homophobic“) attitudes and actions, and to the LGBT rights movement generally.BOOK, Sandfort, T, et al, Lesbian and Gay Studies: An Introductory, Interdisciplinary Approach, Chapter 2, The appropriate application of affirmative psychotherapy is based on the following scientific facts:

Same-sex sexual attractions, behavior, and orientations per se are normal and positive variants of human sexuality; in other words, they are not indicators of mental or developmental disorders.
Homosexuality and bisexuality are stigmatized, and this stigma can have a variety of negative consequences (e.g., minority stress) throughout the life span (D’Augelli & Patterson, 1995; DiPlacido, 1998; Herek & Garnets, 2007; Meyer, 1995, 2003).
Same-sex sexual attractions and behavior can occur in the context of a variety of sexual orientations and sexual orientation identities (Diamond, 2006; Hoburg et al., 2004; Rust, 1996; Savin-Williams, 2005).
Gay men, lesbians, and bisexual individuals can live satisfying lives as well as form stable, committed relationships and families that are equivalent to heterosexual relationships in essential respects (APA, 2005c; Kurdek, 2001, 2003, 2004; Peplau & Fingerhut, 2007).
There are no empirical studies or peer-reviewed research that support theories attributing same-sex sexual orientation to family dysfunction or trauma (Bell et al., 1981; Bene, 1965; Freund & Blanchard, 1983; Freund & Pinkava, 1961; Hooker, 1969; McCord et al., 1962; D. K. Peters & Cantrell, 1991; Siegelman, 1974, 1981; Townes et al., 1976).

Sexual orientation change efforts
There are no studies of adequate scientific rigor that conclude that sexual orientation change efforts work to change a person’s sexual orientation. Those efforts have been controversial due to tensions between the values held by some faith-based organizations, on the one hand, and those held by LGBT rights organizations and professional and scientific organizations and other faith-based organizations, on the other. The longstanding consensus of the behavioral and social sciences and the health and mental health professions is that homosexuality per se is a normal and positive variation of human sexual orientation, and therefore not a mental disorder. The American Psychological Association says that “most people experience little or no sense of choice about their sexual orientation”.WEB, Answers to Your Questions: For a Better Understanding of Sexual Orientation & Homosexuality,www.apa.org/topics/sexuality/sorientation.pdf, live,www.apa.org/topics/sexuality/sorientation.pdf," title="web.archive.org/web/20140111050857www.apa.org/topics/sexuality/sorientation.pdf,">web.archive.org/web/20140111050857www.apa.org/topics/sexuality/sorientation.pdf, 11 January 2014, 20 December 2010, American Psychological Association, Some individuals and groups have promoted the idea of homosexuality as symptomatic of developmental defects or spiritual and moral failings and have argued that sexual orientation change efforts, including psychotherapy and religious efforts, could alter homosexual feelings and behaviors. Many of these individuals and groups appeared to be embedded within the larger context of conservative religious political movements that have supported the stigmatization of homosexuality on political or religious grounds.No major mental health professional organization has sanctioned efforts to change sexual orientation and virtually all of them have adopted policy statements cautioning the profession and the public about treatments that purport to change sexual orientation. These include the American Psychiatric Association, American Psychological Association, American Counseling Association, National Association of Social Workers in the U.S.,WEB, Expert affidavit of Gregory M. Herek, PhD,www.glad.org/uploads/docs/cases/2009-11-17-doma-aff-herek.pdf, dead,www.glad.org/uploads/docs/cases/2009-11-17-doma-aff-herek.pdf," title="web.archive.org/web/20100828054600www.glad.org/uploads/docs/cases/2009-11-17-doma-aff-herek.pdf,">web.archive.org/web/20100828054600www.glad.org/uploads/docs/cases/2009-11-17-doma-aff-herek.pdf, 28 August 2010, 24 August 2010, the Royal College of Psychiatrists,Royal College of Psychiatrists: Statement from the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ Gay and Lesbian Mental Health Special Interest Group {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100527055029www.rcpsych.ac.uk/press/pressreleasearchives/2009/statement.aspx|date=27 May 2010}} and the Australian Psychological Society.Australian Psychological Society: Sexual orientation and homosexuality {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090717121843www.psychology.org.au/publications/tip_sheets/orientation/|date=17 July 2009}} The American Psychological Association and the Royal College of Psychiatrists expressed concerns that the positions espoused by NARTH are not supported by the science and create an environment in which prejudice and discrimination can flourish.WEB, Statement of the American Psychological Association,www.apa.org/pi/lgbt/resources/policy/ex-gay.pdf, live,www.apa.org/pi/lgbt/resources/policy/ex-gay.pdf," title="web.archive.org/web/20110514111323www.apa.org/pi/lgbt/resources/policy/ex-gay.pdf,">web.archive.org/web/20110514111323www.apa.org/pi/lgbt/resources/policy/ex-gay.pdf, 14 May 2011, 24 August 2010, The American Psychiatric Association says “individuals maybe become aware at different points in their lives that they are heterosexual, gay, lesbian, or bisexual” and “opposes any psychiatric treatment, such as ‘reparative’ or ’conversion’ therapy, which is based upon the assumption that homosexuality per se is a mental disorder, or based upon a prior assumption that the patient should change his/her homosexual orientation”. They do, however, encourage gay affirmative psychotherapy.“LGBT-Sexual Orientation: What is Sexual Orientation?” {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140628094701www.psychiatry.org/lgbt-sexual-orientation|date=28 June 2014}}, the official web pages of APA. Accessed 9 April 2015 Similarly, the American Psychological Association is doubtful about the effectiveness and side-effect profile of sexual orientation change efforts, including conversion therapy.WEB, Resolution on Appropriate Affirmative Responses to Sexual Orientation Distress and Change Efforts,www.apa.org/about/policy/sexual-orientation.aspx, live,www.apa.org/about/policy/sexual-orientation.aspx," title="web.archive.org/web/20180422190850www.apa.org/about/policy/sexual-orientation.aspx,">web.archive.org/web/20180422190850www.apa.org/about/policy/sexual-orientation.aspx, 22 April 2018, 25 April 2018, apa.org, The American Psychological Association “encourages mental health professionals to avoid misrepresenting the efficacy of sexual orientation change efforts by promoting or promising change in sexual orientation when providing assistance to individuals distressed by their own or others’ sexual orientation and concludes that the benefits reported by participants in sexual orientation change efforts can be gained through approaches that do not attempt to change sexual orientation”.
Causes
Although scientists favor biological models for the cause of sexual orientation, they do not believe that the development of sexual orientation is the result of any one factor. They generally believe that it is determined by a complex interplay of biological and environmental factors, and is shaped at an early age. There is considerably more evidence supporting nonsocial, biological causes of sexual orientation than social ones, especially for males. There is no substantive evidence which suggests parenting or early childhood experiences play a role with regard to sexual orientation. Scientists do not believe that sexual orientation is a choice.The American Academy of Pediatrics stated in Pediatrics in 2004:{{cquote|There is no scientific evidence that abnormal parenting, sexual abuse, or other adverse life events influence sexual orientation. Current knowledge suggests that sexual orientation is usually established during early childhood.BOOK
, Perrin
, E. C.
, Sexual Orientation in Child and Adolescent Health Care
,archive.org/details/sexualorientatio0000perr
, registration
, Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers
, 2002
, New York
, 0-306-46761-5
, }}
The American Psychological Association, American Psychiatric Association, and National Association of Social Workers stated in 2006:{{cquote|Currently, there is no scientific consensus about the specific factors that cause an individual to become heterosexual, homosexual, or bisexualâ€”including possible biological, psychological, or social effects of the parents’ sexual orientation. However, the available evidence indicates that the vast majority of lesbian and gay adults were raised by heterosexual parents and the vast majority of children raised by lesbian and gay parents eventually grow up to be heterosexual.}}
“Gay genes”
Despite numerous attempts, no “gay gene” has been identified. However, there is substantial evidence for a genetic basis of homosexuality, especially in males, based on twin studies; some association with regions of Chromosome 8, the Xq28 locus on the X chromosome, and other sites across many chromosomes.JOURNAL, Ngun, TC, Vilain, E, 2014, The biological basis of human sexual orientation: is there a role for epigenetics?, Adv Genet, 86, 167â€“84, 10.1016/B978-0-12-800222-3.00008-5, 25172350, {{Gay gene}}Starting in the 2010s, potential epigenetic factors have become a topic of increased attention in genetic research on sexual orientation. A study presented at the ASHG 2015 Annual Meeting found that the methylation pattern in nine regions of the genome appeared very closely linked to sexual orientation, with a resulting algorithm using the methylation pattern to predict the sexual orientation of a control group with almost 70% accuracy.JOURNAL, Balter, Michael, 9 October 2015, BEHAVIORAL GENETICS. Can epigenetics explain homosexuality puzzle?, Science, 350, 6257, 148, 10.1126/science.350.6257.148, 1095-9203, 26450189, free, WEB,www.ashg.org/press/201510-sexual-orientation.html, Epigenetic Algorithm Accurately Predicts Male Sexual Orientation {{!, ASHG|website=ashg.org|date=8 October 2015|access-date=21 January 2019|archive-date=20 March 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190320154048www.ashg.org/press/201510-sexual-orientation.html|url-status=live}}Research into the causes of homosexuality plays a role in political and social debates and also raises concerns about genetic profiling and prenatal testing.{{citation|url=http://archives.chicagotribune.com/2007/aug/12/news/chi-gaygene_bd12aug12 |title=Study of gay brothers may find clues about sexuality |first=Robert |last=Mitchum |periodical=Chicago Tribune |date=12 August 2007 |access-date=4 May 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081023155659archives.chicagotribune.com/2007/aug/12/news/chi-gaygene_bd12aug12 |archive-date=23 October 2008 }}
Evolutionary perspectives
Since homosexuality tends to lower reproductive success, and since there is considerable evidence that human sexual orientation is genetically influenced, it is unclear how it is maintained in the population at a relatively high frequency.JOURNAL, Zietsch, B, Morley, K, Shekar, S, Verweij, K, Keller, M, Macgregor, S, Wright, M, Bailey, J, Martin, N, Genetic factors predisposing to homosexuality may increase mating success in heterosexuals, Evolution and Human Behavior, Elsevier BV, 29, 6, 2008, 1090-5138, 10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2008.07.002, 424â€“433, There are many possible explanations, such as genes predisposing to homosexuality also conferring advantage in heterosexuals, a kin selection effect, social prestige, and more.NEWS,www.chronicle.com/article/The-Evolutionary-Mystery-of/135762/, The Evolutionary Mystery of Homosexuality, The Chronicle of Higher Education, David P. Barash, 19 November 2012, 13 November 2017, 13 November 2017,www.chronicle.com/article/The-Evolutionary-Mystery-of/135762/," title="web.archive.org/web/20171113113529www.chronicle.com/article/The-Evolutionary-Mystery-of/135762/,">web.archive.org/web/20171113113529www.chronicle.com/article/The-Evolutionary-Mystery-of/135762/, live, A 2009 study also suggested a significant increase in fecundity in the females related to homosexual people from the maternal line (but not in those related from the paternal one).JOURNAL, New Evidence of Genetic Factors Influencing Sexual Orientation in Men: Female Fecundity Increase in the Maternal Line, Iemmola, Francesca, Camperio Ciani, Andrea, Archives of Sexual Behavior, Springer Netherlands, 2009, 38, 3, 10.1007/s10508-008-9381-6, 18561014, 393â€“9, 508800,
Parenting
Scientific research has been generally consistent in showing that lesbian and gay parents are as fit and capable as heterosexual parents, and their children are as psychologically healthy and well-adjusted as children reared by heterosexual parents.WEB, Marriage of Same-Sex Couples â€“ 2006 Position Statement Canadian Psychological Association,www.cpa.ca/cpasite/userfiles/Documents/Marriage%20of%20Same-Sex%20Couples%20Position%20Statement%20-%20October%202006%20(1).pdf, 2 September 2012,www.cpa.ca/cpasite/userfiles/Documents/Marriage%20of%20Same-Sex%20Couples%20Position%20Statement%20-%20October%202006%20%281%29.pdf," title="web.archive.org/web/20090419195945www.cpa.ca/cpasite/userfiles/Documents/Marriage%20of%20Same-Sex%20Couples%20Position%20Statement%20-%20October%202006%20%281%29.pdf,">web.archive.org/web/20090419195945www.cpa.ca/cpasite/userfiles/Documents/Marriage%20of%20Same-Sex%20Couples%20Position%20Statement%20-%20October%202006%20%281%29.pdf, 19 April 2009, dead, WEB,www.psychology.org.au/Assets/Files/LGBT-Families-Lit-Review.pdf, Elizabeth Short, Damien W. Riggs, Amaryll Perlesz, Rhonda Brown, Graeme Kane: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Parented Families â€“ A Literature Review prepared for The Australian Psychological Society, 5 November 2010, dead,www.psychology.org.au/Assets/Files/LGBT-Families-Lit-Review.pdf," title="web.archive.org/web/20110304014530www.psychology.org.au/Assets/Files/LGBT-Families-Lit-Review.pdf,">web.archive.org/web/20110304014530www.psychology.org.au/Assets/Files/LGBT-Families-Lit-Review.pdf, 4 March 2011, WEB,www.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/general/2010/10/27/amicus29.pdf, Brief of the American Psychological Association, The California Psychological Association, The American Psychiatric Association, and the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy as Amici Curiae in support of plaintiff-appellees, 21 December 2010, 13 April 2015,cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/general/2010/10/27/amicus29.pdf," title="web.archive.org/web/20150413160709cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/general/2010/10/27/amicus29.pdf,">web.archive.org/web/20150413160709cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/general/2010/10/27/amicus29.pdf, live, According to scientific literature reviews, there is no evidence to the contrary.JOURNAL, Pawelski JG, Perrin EC, Foy JM, etal, The effects of marriage, civil union, and domestic partnership laws on the health and well-being of children, Pediatrics, 118, 1, 349â€“64, July 2006, 16818585, 10.1542/peds.2006-1279, free, JOURNAL, Herek GM, Legal recognition of same-sex relationships in the United States: a social science perspective, The American Psychologist, 61, 6, 607â€“21, September 2006, 16953748, 10.1037/0003-066X.61.6.607,psychology.ucdavis.edu/rainbow/html/AP_06_pre.PDF, dead,psychology.ucdavis.edu/rainbow/html/AP_06_pre.PDF," title="web.archive.org/web/20100610164736psychology.ucdavis.edu/rainbow/html/AP_06_pre.PDF,">web.archive.org/web/20100610164736psychology.ucdavis.edu/rainbow/html/AP_06_pre.PDF, 10 June 2010, JOURNAL, How Does the Gender of Parents Matter, 10.1111/j.1741-3737.2009.00678.x, 72, Journal of Marriage and Family, 3â€“22, 2010, Biblarz, Timothy J., Stacey, Judith, WEB,www.cpa.ca/cpasite/userfiles/Documents/advocacy/brief.pdf, Brief presented to the Legislative House of Commons Committee on Bill C38 by the Canadian Psychological Association, 2 June 2005, 2 September 2012,www.cpa.ca/cpasite/userfiles/Documents/advocacy/brief.pdf," title="web.archive.org/web/20121013225547www.cpa.ca/cpasite/userfiles/Documents/advocacy/brief.pdf,">web.archive.org/web/20121013225547www.cpa.ca/cpasite/userfiles/Documents/advocacy/brief.pdf, 13 October 2012, dead, A 2001 review suggested that the children with lesbian or gay parents appear less traditionally gender-typed and are more likely to be open to homoerotic relationships, partly due to genetic (80% of the children being raised by same-sex couples in the US are not adopted and most are the result of previous heterosexual marriages.NEWS, Census 2010: One-Quarter of Gay Couples Raising Children, SUSAN, DONALDSON JAMES,abcnews.go.com/Health/sex-couples-census-data-trickles-quarter-raising-children/story?id=13850332, ABC News, United States, 23 June 2011, 11 July 2013, “Still, more than 80 percent of the children being raised by gay couples are not adopted, according to Gates.”, 1 November 2019,web.archive.org/web/20191101191951/https://abcnews.go.com/Health/sex-couples-census-data-trickles-quarter-raising-children/story?id=13850332, live, ) and family socialization processes (children grow up in relatively more tolerant school, neighborhood, and social contexts, which are less heterosexist), even though majority of children raised by same-sex couples identify as heterosexual.JOURNAL, Stacey J, Biblarz TJ, 2001, (How) Does the Sexual Orientation of Parents Matter?,faculty.law.miami.edu/mcoombs/documents/Stacey_Biblarz.pdf, American Sociological Review, 66, 2, 159â€“183, This may be partly due to genetic and family socialization processes, but what sociologists refer to as “contextual effects” not yet investigated by psychologists may also be important...even though children of lesbian and gay parents appear to express a significant increase in homoeroticism, the majority of all children nonetheless identify as heterosexual, as most theories across the essentialistt” to “social constructionist” spectrum seem (perhaps too hastily) to expect., 10.2307/2657413, 2657413, 11 July 2013, 28 September 2011,faculty.law.miami.edu/mcoombs/documents/Stacey_Biblarz.pdf," title="web.archive.org/web/20110928195415faculty.law.miami.edu/mcoombs/documents/Stacey_Biblarz.pdf,">web.archive.org/web/20110928195415faculty.law.miami.edu/mcoombs/documents/Stacey_Biblarz.pdf, live, A 2005 review by Charlotte J. Patterson for the American Psychological Association found that the available data did not suggest higher rates of homosexuality among the children of lesbian or gay parents.American Psychological Association Lesbian & Gay Parenting {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923221332www.apa.org/pi/lgbt/resources/parenting-full.pdf |date=23 September 2015 }}
Health
{{Further|Lesbian#Health}}
Physical
File:Map_of_blood_donation_policies_for_men_who_have_sex_with_men.svg|thumb|right|upright=1.5|Blood donation policies for men who have sex with men Blood donation policies for men who have sex with menThe terms “men who have sex with men” (MSM) and “women who have sex with women” (WSW) refer to people who engage in sexual activity with others of the same sex regardless of how they identify themselvesâ€”as many choose not to accept social identities as lesbian, gay and bisexual.WEB,www.aidsportal.org/News_Details.aspx?id=5208&nex=5, MSM in Africa: highly stigmatized, vulnerable and in need of urgent HIV prevention, Aidsportal.org, 24 August 2010, dead,www.aidsportal.org/News_Details.aspx?ID=5208," title="web.archive.org/web/20070713125016www.aidsportal.org/News_Details.aspx?ID=5208,">web.archive.org/web/20070713125016www.aidsportal.org/News_Details.aspx?ID=5208, 13 July 2007, WEB
, UNAIDS: Men who have sex with men
, UNAIDS
,www.unaids.org/en/PolicyAndPractice/KeyPopulations/MenSexMen/default.asp
, asp
, 24 July 2008, dead
,www.unaids.org/en/PolicyAndPractice/KeyPopulations/MenSexMen/default.asp" title="web.archive.org/web/20080618190907www.unaids.org/en/PolicyAndPractice/KeyPopulations/MenSexMen/default.asp">web.archive.org/web/20080618190907www.unaids.org/en/PolicyAndPractice/KeyPopulations/MenSexMen/default.asp
, 18 June 2008, WEB
, Greenwood
, Cseneca
, Mario Ruberte
, African American Community and HIV (Slide 14 mentions TG women)
, East Bay AIDS Education and Training Center
, 9 April 2004,www.hawaii.edu/hivandaids/African_American_Transgenders_and_HIV.ppt
, ppt
, 24 July 2008, dead
,www.hawaii.edu/hivandaids/African_American_Transgenders_and_HIV.ppt" title="web.archive.org/web/20080910171338www.hawaii.edu/hivandaids/African_American_Transgenders_and_HIV.ppt">web.archive.org/web/20080910171338www.hawaii.edu/hivandaids/African_American_Transgenders_and_HIV.ppt
, 10 September 2008, JOURNAL, Operario D, Burton J, Underhill K, Sevelius J, Men who have sex with transgender women: challenges to category-based HIV prevention, AIDS Behav, 12, 1, 18â€“26, January 2008, 17705095, 10.1007/s10461-007-9303-y, 31831055, JOURNAL, Operario D, Burton J, HIV-related tuberculosis in a transgender networkâ€”Baltimore, Maryland, and New York City area, 1998â€“2000, MMWR Morb. Mortal. Wkly. Rep., 49, 15, 317â€“20, April 2000, 10858008,www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm4915a1.htm, 9 September 2017, 19 October 2017,web.archive.org/web/20171019190220/https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm4915a1.htm, live, 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 by some, however, because they “obscure social dimensions of sexuality; undermine the self-labeling of lesbian, gay, and bisexual people; and do not sufficiently describe variations in sexual behavior”.JOURNAL, Young RM, Meyer IH, The trouble with “MSM” and “WSW”: erasure of the sexual-minority person in public health discourse, Am J Public Health, 95, 7, 1144â€“9, July 2005, 15961753, 1449332, 10.2105/AJPH.2004.046714,
In contrast to its benefits, sexual behavior can be a disease vector. Safe sex is a relevant harm reduction philosophy.WEB, STI Epi Update: Oral Contraceptive and Condom Use,www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/publicat/epiu-aepi/std-mts/std511_e.html, Public Health Agency of Canada, 23 April 1998, 11 July 2007, dead,www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/publicat/epiu-aepi/std-mts/std511_e.html," title="web.archive.org/web/20060927063228www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/publicat/epiu-aepi/std-mts/std511_e.html,">web.archive.org/web/20060927063228www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/publicat/epiu-aepi/std-mts/std511_e.html, 27 September 2006, Many countries currently prohibit men who have sex with men from donating blood; the policy of the United States Food and Drug Administration states that “they are, as a group, at increased risk for HIV, hepatitis B and certain other infections that can be transmitted by transfusion.“WEB, Cber / Fda,www.fda.gov/cber/faq/msmdonor.htm, FDA Policy on Blood Donations from Men Who Have Sex with Other Men, Food and Drug Administration, 24 August 2010,web.archive.org/web/20071011035223/https://www.fda.gov/cber/faq/msmdonor.htm, 11 October 2007,
Public health
These safer sex recommendations are agreed upon by public health officials for women who have sex with women to avoid sexually transmitted infections (STIs):

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.Mravack, Sally A. (July 2006).“Primary Care for Lesbians and Bisexual Women”, American Family Physician 74 (2) pp.279â€“286.

These safer sex recommendations are agreed upon by public health officials for men who have sex with men to avoid sexually transmitted infections:

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) during analâ€“oral sex.
Cover sex toys that penetrate more than one person’s anus with a new condom for each person; consider using different toys for each person.
Use latex or vinyl gloves and lubricant for any manual sex that might cause bleeding.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.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|0-345-41496-9}}, 9780345414960.

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.Schlager, Neil, ed. (1998). Gay & Lesbian Almanac. St. James Press. {{ISBN|1-55862-358-2}}, p.152.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.JOURNAL, Ilan Meyer, Meyer, Ilan H., Prejudice, social stress, and mental health in lesbian, gay, and bisexual populations: conceptual issues and research evidence, Psychological Bulletin, 129, 5, 674â€“97, September 2003, 12956539, 2072932, 10.1037/0033-2909.129.5.674, Evidence indicates that the liberalization of these attitudes over the 1990s through the 2010s is associated with a decrease in such mental health risks among younger LGBT people.WEB,www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-10/cums-bgm100207.php, Black gay men, lesbians, have fewer mental disorders than whites, says Mailman School of PH study, Eurekalert.org, 24 August 2010, 7 May 2010,www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-10/cums-bgm100207.php," title="web.archive.org/web/20100507073023www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-10/cums-bgm100207.php,">web.archive.org/web/20100507073023www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-10/cums-bgm100207.php, live,
Gay and lesbian youth
{{See also|Suicide among LGBT 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”.{{citation |title=Report of the Secretary’s Task Force on Youth Suicide |editor-first=Marcia R. |editor-last= Fenleib |year=1989 |publisher=United States Government Printing Office |isbn=0-16-002508-7 |last=Gibson |first=P. |contribution=Gay and Lesbian Youth Suicide}} Further, LGBT 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.“JOURNAL,www.apa.org/journals/features/ccp733477.pdf, Victimization Over the Life Span: A Comparison of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Heterosexual Siblings, Kimberly F., Balsam, Esther D. Rothblum, June 2005, Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 73, 3, 477â€“487, dead,www.apa.org/journals/features/ccp733477.pdf," title="web.archive.org/web/20070311233920www.apa.org/journals/features/ccp733477.pdf,">web.archive.org/web/20070311233920www.apa.org/journals/features/ccp733477.pdf, 11 March 2007, 10.1037/0022-006x.73.3.477, 15982145, Crisis centers in larger cities and information sites on the Internet have arisen to help youth and adults.{{citation |title=Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Suicide |url=http://www.suicide.org/gay-and-lesbian-suicide.html |first=Kevin |last=Caruso |website=Suicide.org |access-date=4 May 2007 |archive-date=30 April 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070430000229www.suicide.org/gay-and-lesbian-suicide.html |url-status=live }} The Trevor Project, a suicide prevention helpline for gay youth, was established following the 1998 airing on HBO of the Academy Award winning short film Trevor.WEB,www.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/07/02/trevor.project/index.html, 24-hour help for gay youth, CNN, 2 July 2008, 26 July 2015, Wilson, Jacque, 30 December 2014,www.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/07/02/trevor.project/index.html," title="web.archive.org/web/20141230213800www.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/07/02/trevor.project/index.html,">web.archive.org/web/20141230213800www.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/07/02/trevor.project/index.html, live,
Law and politics
Legality
{{World homosexuality laws map|align=right|size=350px}}{{LGBT rights}}Most nations do not prohibit 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 countries and jurisdictions mandate that all individuals restrict themselves to heterosexual activity and disallow homosexual activity via sodomy laws. Offenders can face the death penalty in Islamic countries and jurisdictions ruled by sharia. There are, however, often significant differences between official policy and real-world enforcement.Although homosexual acts were decriminalized in some parts of the Western world, such as Poland in 1932, Denmark in 1933, Sweden in 1944, and England and Wales in 1967, it was not until the mid-1970s that the gay community first began to achieve limited civil rights in some developed countries. A turning point was reached in 1973 when the American Psychiatric Association, which previously listed homosexuality in the DSM-I in 1952, removed homosexuality in the DSM-II, in recognition of scientific evidence. 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, several developed countries enacted laws decriminalizing homosexual behavior and prohibiting discrimination against lesbian and gay people in employment, housing, and services. On the other hand, many countries today in the Middle East and Africa, as well as several countries in Asia, the Caribbean and the South Pacific, outlaw homosexuality. In 2013, the Supreme Court of India upheld Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code,NEWS, Shyamantha, Asokan, India’s Supreme Court turns the clock back with gay sex ban,www.reuters.com/article/us-india-rights-gay-idUSBRE9BA05620131211, 23 December 2013, Reuters, 11 December 2013, 16 December 2013,web.archive.org/web/20131216040454/https://www.reuters.com/article/2013/12/11/us-india-rights-gay-idUSBRE9BA05620131211, live, but in 2018 overturned itself and legalized homosexual activity in India.NEWS, Supreme Court of India scraps ban on homosexuality with its judgment on Section 377., 9 September 2018, NDTV,www.ndtv.com/india-news/supreme-court-verdict-of-section-377-full-text-1912373, 7 September 2018, 7 September 2018,web.archive.org/web/20180907192214/https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/supreme-court-verdict-of-section-377-full-text-1912373, live, Ten countries or jurisdictions, all of which are predominantly Islamic and governed according to sharia law, have imposed the death penalty for homosexuality. These include Afghanistan, Iran, Brunei, Mauritania, Saudi Arabia, and several regions in Nigeria and Jubaland.WEB, Aengus Carroll, Lucas Paoli Itaborahy, State-Sponsored Homophobia: A World Survey of Laws: criminalisation, protection and recognition of same-sex love,ilga.org/downloads/2017/ILGA_State_Sponsored_Homophobia_2017_WEB.pdf, International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex association, 5 April 2019, May 2015, 23 April 2019,web.archive.org/web/20190423183404/https://ilga.org/downloads/2017/ILGA_State_Sponsored_Homophobia_2017_WEB.pdf, live, NEWS,www.theguardian.com/world/2019/mar/28/brunei-brings-in-death-by-stoning-as-punishment-for-gay-sex, Brunei introduces death by stoning as punishment for gay sex, correspondent, Hannah Ellis-Petersen South-east Asia, 28 March 2019, The Guardian, 28 March 2019, en-GB, 0261-3077, 14 March 2021,web.archive.org/web/20210314174740/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/mar/28/brunei-brings-in-death-by-stoning-as-punishment-for-gay-sex, live, NEWS, Brunei says it won’t enforce gay death penalty after backlash,www.reuters.com/article/us-brunei-lgbt-sultan/brunei-says-it-wont-enforce-gay-death-penalty-after-backlash-idUSKCN1SB0FS, Reuters, 6 May 2019, 19 August 2019, 14 August 2019,web.archive.org/web/20190814145052/https://www.reuters.com/article/us-brunei-lgbt-sultan/brunei-says-it-wont-enforce-gay-death-penalty-after-backlash-idUSKCN1SB0FS, live, BOOK,ilga.org/downloads/ILGA_State_Sponsored_Homophobia_2019.pdf, State-Sponsored Homophobia 2019, Mendos, Lucas RamÃ³n, ILGA, 2019, Geneva, 359, 4 February 2021, 22 December 2019,web.archive.org/web/20191222220100/https://ilga.org/downloads/ILGA_State_Sponsored_Homophobia_2019.pdf, live, WEB, UAE Penal Code,www.adjd.gov.ae/sites/Authoring/AR/ELibrary%20Books/E-Library/PDFs/Penal%20Code.pdf, ADJD.gov.ae, 1 February 2020, 29 April 2020,web.archive.org/web/20200429154519/https://www.adjd.gov.ae/sites/Authoring/AR/ELibrary%20Books/E-Library/PDFs/Penal%20Code.pdf, live, NEWS,www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/06/13/here-are-the-10-countries-where-homosexuality-may-be-punished-by-death-2/, Here are the 10 countries where homosexuality may be punished by death, The Washington Post, 16 June 2016, 25 August 2017, 24 August 2017,web.archive.org/web/20170824094144/https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/06/13/here-are-the-10-countries-where-homosexuality-may-be-punished-by-death-2/, live,
Laws against sexual orientation discrimination
United States

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.“{{citation |title=Sexual Orientation and the Law |first=James M |last=Donovan |author2=American Association of Law Libraries Standing Committee on Lesbian and Gay Issues |year=2007 |publisher=William S. Hein & Co. |isbn=978-0-8377-0166-0}} Â§ 5:17 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,{{citation |title=Executive Order 13087 of May 28, 1998 |url=http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=1998_register&docid=fr02jn98-135.pdf |periodical=Federal Register |volume=63 |number=105 |date=2 June 1998 |access-date=7 September 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041118191439frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=1998_register&docid=fr02jn98-135.pdf |archive-date=18 November 2004 |url-status=dead }} and federal non-civil service employees may have recourse under the Due Process Clause of the U.S. Constitution.Ashton v. Civiletti, 613 F.2d 923, 20 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 1601, 21 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) paragraph 30297 (D.C. Cir. 1979) Private sector workers may have a Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 action under a quid pro quo sexual harassment theory,Kelly v. City of Oakland, 198 F.3d 779, 81 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 1455, 77 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) paragraph 46281 (9th Cir. 1999) a “hostile work environment” theory,{{ussc|name=Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services, Inc.|link=|volume=523|page=75|pin=|year=1998}}. a sexual stereotyping theory,{{ussc|name=Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins|link=|volume=490|page=228|pin=|year=1989}}. 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.{{citation |access-date=7 September 2007 |url=http://realestate.findlaw.com/tenant/tenant-fair-housing/tenant-fair-housing-orientation.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071210161544realestate.findlaw.com/tenant/tenant-fair-housing/tenant-fair-housing-orientation.html |archive-date=10 December 2007 |title=Renter’s Rights Against Sexual Orientation Discrimination}}
Hate crimes (also known as bias crimes) are crimes motivated by homophobia, or bias against an identifiable social group, usually groups defined by race (human classification), 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.{{citation|url=http://www.adl.org/99hatecrime/state_hate_crime_laws.pdf |title=State Hate Crime Laws |periodical=Anti-Defamation League |date=June 2006 |access-date=4 May 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070614124916www.adl.org/99hatecrime/state_hate_crime_laws.pdf |archive-date=14 June 2007 }} In October 2009, the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which “...gives the Justice Department the power to investigate and prosecute bias-motivated violence where the perpetrator has selected the victim because of the person’s actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability”, was signed into law and makes hate crime based on sexual orientation, amongst other offenses, a federal crime in the United States.WEB,www.hrc.org/13699.htm,www.hrc.org/13699.htm," title="web.archive.org/web/20091028224353www.hrc.org/13699.htm,">web.archive.org/web/20091028224353www.hrc.org/13699.htm, dead, 28 October 2009, President Barack Obama Signs Hate Crimes Legislation into Law, HRC, 28 October 2009, 24 August 2010,

European Union
In the European Union, discrimination of any type based on sexual orientation or gender identity is illegal under the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.s:Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union#CHAPTER III. EQUALITY|Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union]]
Political activism
{{Further|LGBT social movements}}{{more citations needed section|date=January 2018}}Since the 1960s, many LGBT people in the West, particularly those in major metropolitan areas, have developed a so-called gay culture. To many,{{Who|date=January 2012}} 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{{Who|date=January 2012}} it seems to be a frivolous display, perpetuating gay stereotypes.File:OriginalRainbowPrideFlag.jpg|thumb|Original Rainbow Pride Flag in San Francisco, designed by Gilbert Baker in 1978]]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.The 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).Publicly gay politicians have attained numerous government posts, even in countries that had sodomy laws in their recent past. Examples include Guido Westerwelle, Germany’s Vice-Chancellor; Pete Buttigieg, the United States Secretary of Transportation, Peter Mandelson, a British Labour Party cabinet minister and Per-Kristian Foss, formerly Norwegian Minister of Finance.LGBT movements are opposed by a variety of individuals and organizations. Some social conservatives believe that all sexual relationships with people other than an opposite-sex spouse undermine the traditional familyWEB, Salt Lake City, UT,newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=a1312e636369f010VgnVCM100000176f620aRCRD,newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=a1312e636369f010VgnVCM100000176f620aRCRD," title="web.archive.org/web/20080603123925newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=a1312e636369f010VgnVCM100000176f620aRCRD,">web.archive.org/web/20080603123925newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=a1312e636369f010VgnVCM100000176f620aRCRD, 3 June 2008, dead, First Presidency Message on Same-Gender Marriage, Newsroom.lds.org, 20 October 2004, 24 August 2010, and that children should be reared in homes with both a father and a mother.WEB, Brownback, Sam, Defining Marriage Down â€“ We need to protect marriage., National Review, 9 July 2004,www.nationalreview.com/comment/brownback200407090921.asp, dead,www.nationalreview.com/comment/brownback200407090921.asp," title="web.archive.org/web/20080601155703www.nationalreview.com/comment/brownback200407090921.asp,">web.archive.org/web/20080601155703www.nationalreview.com/comment/brownback200407090921.asp, 1 June 2008, WEB,www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/the-family-a-proclamation-to-the-world/the-family-a-proclamation-to-the-world?lang=eng, The Family: A Proclamation to the World, Lds.org, 23 September 1995, 24 August 2010, 3 June 2019,web.archive.org/web/20190603234916/https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/the-family-a-proclamation-to-the-world/the-family-a-proclamation-to-the-world?lang=eng, live, Some argue that gay rights may conflict with individuals’ freedom of speech,NEWS,www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/michael_gove/article805241.ece, The Times, I’d like to say this, but it might land me in prison, 24 December 2002, Michael, Gove, London, 27 June 2008, 18 September 2008,www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/michael_gove/article805241.ece," title="archive.today/20080918211024www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/michael_gove/article805241.ece,">archive.today/20080918211024www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/michael_gove/article805241.ece, live, NEWS,www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/christian-group-likens-tory-candidate-review-to-witch-hunt-1.644299, Christian group likens Tory candidate review to witch hunt, 28 November 2007, CBC News, dead,web.archive.org/web/20080605082143/https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/christian-group-likens-tory-candidate-review-to-witch-hunt-1.644299, 5 June 2008, religious freedoms in the workplace,NEWS,www.law.com/jsp/ihc/PubArticleIHC.jsp?id=1193735028038, Employer’s Dilemma: When Religious Expression and Gay Rights Cross, Judith, Moldover, New York Law Journal, 31 October 2007, 27 June 2008, 28 September 2008,www.law.com/jsp/ihc/PubArticleIHC.jsp?id=1193735028038," title="web.archive.org/web/20080928053154www.law.com/jsp/ihc/PubArticleIHC.jsp?id=1193735028038,">web.archive.org/web/20080928053154www.law.com/jsp/ihc/PubArticleIHC.jsp?id=1193735028038, live, NEWS,findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1374/is_1_68/ai_n24944645, Collision of religious and gay rights in the workplace, Humanist, Januaryâ€“February 2008, Bob, Ritter, dead,findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1374/is_1_68/ai_n24944645/," title="web.archive.org/web/20120305210524findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1374/is_1_68/ai_n24944645/,">web.archive.org/web/20120305210524findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1374/is_1_68/ai_n24944645/, 5 March 2012, the ability to run churches,NEWS,news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/6904057.stm, Bishop loses gay employment case, 18 July 2007, BBC News Online, 27 June 2008, 30 September 2017,news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/6904057.stm," title="web.archive.org/web/20170930123030news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/6904057.stm,">web.archive.org/web/20170930123030news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/6904057.stm, live, charitable organizationsNEWS,www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2080669/Catholic-adoption-service-stops-over-gay-rights.html,ghostarchive.org/archive/20220110/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2080669/Catholic-adoption-service-stops-over-gay-rights.html, 10 January 2022, subscription, live, Catholic adoption service stops over gay rights, 5 June 2008, The Daily Telegraph, Martin, Beckford, London, {{cbignore}}NEWS,www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2006/03/11/catholic_charities_stuns_state_ends_adoptions/, Catholic Charities to halt adoptions over issue involving gays, 10 March 2006, LeBlanc, Steve, The Boston Globe, 14 September 2009, 3 March 2016,www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2006/03/11/catholic_charities_stuns_state_ends_adoptions/," title="web.archive.org/web/20160303212653www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2006/03/11/catholic_charities_stuns_state_ends_adoptions/,">web.archive.org/web/20160303212653www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2006/03/11/catholic_charities_stuns_state_ends_adoptions/, live, and other religious organizationsNEWS,news.therecord.com/News/CanadaWorld/article/341201, 24 April 2008, Greg, Mercer, The Record, Christian Horizons rebuked: Employer ordered to compensate fired gay worker, abolish code of conduct, 21 August 2009, 6 July 2008,news.therecord.com/News/CanadaWorld/article/341201," title="web.archive.org/web/20080706173512news.therecord.com/News/CanadaWorld/article/341201,">web.archive.org/web/20080706173512news.therecord.com/News/CanadaWorld/article/341201, live, 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 do not align with those of the government.NEWS,www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/012/191kgwgh.asp, Banned in Boston: The coming conflict between same-sex marriage and religious liberty, Maggie, Gallagher, 15 May 2006, 011, 33, 27 June 2008, 16 May 2006,www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/012/191kgwgh.asp," title="web.archive.org/web/20060516000949www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/012/191kgwgh.asp,">web.archive.org/web/20060516000949www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/012/191kgwgh.asp, live, NEWS,www.nytimes.com/2007/08/14/nyregion/14civil.html, 14 August 2007, Church Group Complains of Civil Union Pressure, Jill, Capuzzo, The New York Times, 8 February 2017, 30 June 2017,www.nytimes.com/2007/08/14/nyregion/14civil.html," title="web.archive.org/web/20170630114638www.nytimes.com/2007/08/14/nyregion/14civil.html,">web.archive.org/web/20170630114638www.nytimes.com/2007/08/14/nyregion/14civil.html, live, NEWS,www.nytimes.com/2007/09/18/nyregion/18grove.html, Group Loses Tax Break Over Gay Union Issue, Jill, Capuzzo, The New York Times, 18 September 2007, 31 March 2010, 28 June 2017,www.nytimes.com/2007/09/18/nyregion/18grove.html," title="web.archive.org/web/20170628033942www.nytimes.com/2007/09/18/nyregion/18grove.html,">web.archive.org/web/20170628033942www.nytimes.com/2007/09/18/nyregion/18grove.html, live, NEWS,www.deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,700226242,00.html, LDS Church expresses disappointment in California gay marriage decision, 15 May 2008, Carrie, Moore, Deseret News, 21 August 2009, dead,www.deseretnews.com/article/1%2C5143%2C700226242%2C00.html," title="web.archive.org/web/20090601193325www.deseretnews.com/article/1%2C5143%2C700226242%2C00.html,">web.archive.org/web/20090601193325www.deseretnews.com/article/1%2C5143%2C700226242%2C00.html, 1 June 2009, Some critics charge that political correctness has led to the association of sex between males and HIV being downplayed.NEWS,www.netassets.co.za/medical/medical.asp?websiteContentItemID=67274,www.netassets.co.za/medical/medical.asp?websiteContentItemID=67274," title="web.archive.org/web/20160303222949www.netassets.co.za/medical/medical.asp?websiteContentItemID=67274,">web.archive.org/web/20160303222949www.netassets.co.za/medical/medical.asp?websiteContentItemID=67274, dead, 3 March 2016, James, Chin, The risks in hiding the HIV/AIDS truth, Business Day, 12 March 2007, 9,
Military service
File:Obama signs DADT repeal.jpg|thumb|U.S. President Barack Obama signs into law the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Repeal Act of 2010 Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Repeal Act of 2010Policies 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.{{Citation needed|date=March 2024}}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, three (United Kingdom, France and United States) do so. The other two 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). Israel is the only country in the Middle East region that allows openly LGB people to serve in the military.{{Citation needed|date=March 2024}}According to the American Psychological Association, empirical evidence fails to show that sexual orientation is germane to any aspect of military effectiveness including unit cohesion, morale, recruitment and retention.WEB, American Psychological Association,www.apa.org/about/governance/council/policy/military.aspx, Proceedings of the American Psychological Association, Incorporated, for the legislative year 2004. Minutes of the meeting of the Council of Representatives July 28 & 30, 2004, Honolulu, HI, 18 November 2004,www.apa.org/about/governance/council/policy/military.aspx," title="web.archive.org/web/20100215235251www.apa.org/about/governance/council/policy/military.aspx,">web.archive.org/web/20100215235251www.apa.org/about/governance/council/policy/military.aspx, 15 February 2010, Sexual orientation is irrelevant to task cohesion, the only type of cohesion that critically predicts the team’s military readiness and success.American Psychological Association: [Report of the APA Joint Divisional Task Force on Sexual Orientation & Military Service]
Society and sociology
{{Further|Societal attitudes toward homosexuality}}
Public opinion
(File:Acceptance of Homosexuality Worldwide (Pew Research Poll 2019-20).svg|thumb|upright=1.35|right|2019 Pew Global Research Poll: Should homosexuality be accepted in society? Percentage of responders that answered accept: {{div col|colwidth=6em}}{{legend|#a50026|0â€“10%}}{{legend|#d73027|11â€“20%}}{{legend|#f46d43|21â€“30%}}{{legend|#fdae61|31â€“40%}}{{legend|#fee090|41â€“50%}}{{legend|#e0f3f8|51â€“60%}}{{legend|#abd9e9|61â€“70%}}{{legend|#74add1|71â€“80%}}{{legend|#4575b4|81â€“90%}}{{legend|#313695|91â€“100%}}{{legend|#c0c0c0|No data}}{{div col end}}) Societal acceptance of non-heterosexual orientations such as homosexuality is lowest in Asian, African and Eastern European countries,NEWS, Anti-LGBT views still prevail, global survey finds,www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/17/global-lgbt-rights-new-survey-ilga, The Guardian, 17 May 2016, 4 August 2019, 18 May 2019,web.archive.org/web/20190518105707/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/17/global-lgbt-rights-new-survey-ilga, live, NEWS, Religious Belief and National Belonging in Central and Eastern Europe,www.pewforum.org/2017/05/10/social-views-and-morality/, Pew Research Center, 10 May 2017, 4 August 2019, 13 September 2019,web.archive.org/web/20190913212457/https://www.pewforum.org/2017/05/10/social-views-and-morality/, live, and is highest in Western Europe, Australia, and the Americas. Western society has become increasingly accepting of homosexuality since the 1990s. In 2017, Professor Amy Adamczyk contended that these cross-national differences in acceptance can be largely explained by three factors: the relative strength of democratic institutions, the level of economic development, and the religious context of the places where people live.BOOK, Adamczyk, Amy, Cross-National Public Opinion about Homosexuality: Examining Attitudes across the Globe, 2017, University of California Press, 3â€“7, 9780520963597,books.google.com/books?id=wly8DQAAQBAJ, 12 February 2017, 28 July 2020,web.archive.org/web/20200728131506/https://books.google.com/books?id=wly8DQAAQBAJ, live, Non-acceptance of the sexual identity of LGBTQ+ by the official laws of some countries, as well as the lack of teaching correct behavior towards homosexuals, has led to the formation of societal misconceptions about this group.{{Citation needed|date=November 2023}}These stereotypical beliefs of the people against the LGBTQ+ community have caused rejection and discriminatory behavior against them. Various researches have shown that LGBTQ+ people in societies that do not recognize homosexuality as a sexual identity of such group feel insecure, psychological pressure and isolated from the society.JOURNAL, Coleman, Hazir, 2019, The Impact of Discrimination Against The LGBTQ Community., Ramifications, 1, 1,digitalcommons.wcupa.edu/ramifications/vol1/iss1/4/, WEB, TakÃ¡cs, Judit, April 2006, Social exclusion of young lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in Europe.,www.salto-youth.net/downloads/4-17-948/ReportSocialExclusionIGLYOilga.pdf, WEB, A brief history of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender social movements,www.apa.org/topics/lgbtq/history, 2023-11-25, www.apa.org, WEB, Love is a human right,www.amnesty.org/en/what-we-do/discrimination/lgbti-rights/, 2023-11-25, Amnesty International, en, Kameel Ahmady, an anthropologist and social researcher, who along with team conducted a fieldwork study in Iran with the aim of understanding the attitude of the Iranian LGBTQ+ community towards their position in the Iranian society, believes that the traditional and religious structure of the society, along with the legal obstacles and restrictions, has caused this groups to not to be able to express themselves and often suppressing their gender identity.JOURNAL, Ahmady, Kameel. The Narrative of Lesbian Gays and Bisexual in Iran and the Chronic Closet, Swift Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vol 5(1) pp. 01â€“022 March 2019.,www.swiftjournals.org/sjssh/pdf/2019/march/Kameel4.pdf, Swift Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, BOOK, Ahmady, Kameel Et al 2018: Forbidden Tale (A comprehensive study on lesbian, gay, bisexuals (LGB) in Iran). Mehri Publishing, London-UK., JOURNAL, Kameel Ahmady, 2018-12-11, Migration and Gender for Iranian LGBT,scholarworks.arcadia.edu/agsjournal/vol4/iss1/2, The Journal of International Relations, Peace Studies, and Development, 4, 1, 2429-2133, JOURNAL, Ahmady, Kameel, 2023-06-03, CULTURAL PATHOLOGY OF MALE CIRCUMCISION IN IRAN: FOCUSING ON CHILDREN’S RIGHTS AND THE RIGHT TO THE BODY,www.russianlawjournal.org/index.php/journal/article/view/2279, Russian Law Journal, en, 11, 12s, 2313-7851, JOURNAL, Ahmady, Kameel, Kameel Ahmady, 2018-12-10, LGBT in Iran, Citizens with no rights? A Comprehensive Study on LGBT in Iran: Anaiysing current law, discussing legal rights of LGBT’s and way forward,jou.spsiran.ir/article_158346.html, Political Sociology of Iran., fa, 1, 3, 253â€“291, 10.30510/psi.2022.352097.3746, 2676-6663, WEB, “The situation of gays in Iran” [The situation of LGBTQ in Iran.],iranwire.com/fa/features/33241/, fa, Legal restrictions such as imprisonment, fear of execution, not been to allowed employment in governmental jobs, along with informal restrictions such as sexual abuse in society, exclusion from family and social groups, verbal and public humiliation, etc., have all made life difficult for the LGBTQ+ groups.JOURNAL, Ahmady, Kameel, 2023-05-11, Investigating the Dynamics of the Iranian LGBT Community from Legal and Religious Perspectives,lampyridjournal.com/index.php/journal/article/view/192, Lampyrid: The Journal of Bioluminescent Beetle Research, en, 13, 846â€“869, 2041-4900, JOURNAL, Ahmady, Kameel, 2021, LGBT IN IRAN: THE HOMOPHOBIC LAWS AND SOCIAL SYSTEM IN ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN,archives.palarch.nl/index.php/jae/article/view/10978, PalArch’s Journal of Archaeology of Egypt / Egyptology, en, 18, 18, 1446â€“1464, 1567-214X, JOURNAL, Ahmady, Kameel. Narratives and minority: Stories from lesbian, gay and bisexual individuals in Iran: And an overview on the prevalence of LGB groups, Paper presented at the 2th International Conferences on Economics and Social Sciences Hosted by The Polytechnic of Guarda PORTUGAL, pp. 543â€“557, August 27 â€“ 28, 2022., 2th International Conferences on Economics and Social Sciences,
Relationships
In 2006, the American Psychological Association, American Psychiatric Association and National Association of Social Workers stated in an amicus brief presented to the Supreme Court of California: “Gay men and lesbians form stable, committed relationships that are equivalent to heterosexual relationships in essential respects. The institution of marriage offers social, psychological, and health benefits that are denied to same-sex couples. By denying same-sex couples the right to marry, the state reinforces and perpetuates the stigma historically associated with homosexuality. Homosexuality remains stigmatized, and this stigma has negative consequences. California’s prohibition on marriage for same-sex couples reflects and reinforces this stigma”. They concluded: “There is no scientific basis for distinguishing between same-sex couples and heterosexual couples with respect to the legal rights, obligations, benefits, and burdens conferred by civil marriage.”
Religion
Though the relationship between homosexuality and religion is complex, current authoritative bodies and doctrines of the world’s largest religions view homosexual behaviour negatively.{{citation needed|date=November 2019}} 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 desire itself is sinful,WEB,www.upper-register.com/irons_trial/charges.pdf, Charge #1 and specifications preferred by the Presbytery of Southern California against The Rev. C. Lee Irons, 27 June 2008, Presbytery of Southern California of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, 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., 23 July 2008,www.upper-register.com/irons_trial/charges.pdf," title="web.archive.org/web/20080723194409www.upper-register.com/irons_trial/charges.pdf,">web.archive.org/web/20080723194409www.upper-register.com/irons_trial/charges.pdf, dead, others state that only the sexual act is a sin,Sex and Society â€“ Volume 3 â€“ Page 824 while others are completely accepting of gays and lesbians.The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Religion and Social Justice â€“ Page 543, Michael D. Palmer, Stanley M. Burgess â€“ 2012 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 throughout the world.{{sfn|CabezÃ³n|1992|p=vii}}
Discrimination
File:Cologne Germany Cologne-Gay-Pride-2015 Parade-17a.jpg|thumb|LGBT activists at Cologne Pride in 2015 carrying a banner with the flags of 70 countries where homosexuality is illegal ]]
Gay bullying
Gay bullying can be the verbal or physical abuse against a person who is perceived by the aggressor to be lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or generally queer, including persons who are actually heterosexual or of non-specific or unknown sexual orientation. In the US, teenage students heard anti-gay slurs such as “homo”, “faggot” and “sissy” about 26 times a day on average, or once every 14 minutes, according to a 1998 study by Mental Health America (formerly National Mental Health Association).WEB, Mental Health American, Bullying and Gay Youth,www.nmha.org/go/information/get-info/children-s-mental-health/bullying-and-gay-youth, “Mental Health America” formerly National Mental Health Association, 27 June 2012, dead,www.nmha.org/go/information/get-info/children-s-mental-health/bullying-and-gay-youth," title="web.archive.org/web/20120414144851www.nmha.org/go/information/get-info/children-s-mental-health/bullying-and-gay-youth,">web.archive.org/web/20120414144851www.nmha.org/go/information/get-info/children-s-mental-health/bullying-and-gay-youth, 14 April 2012,
Heterosexism and homophobia
{{Further|Heterosexism|Homophobia}}File:Uganda Anti-Homosexuality Bill protest.jpg|thumb|left|Protests in New York City against Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill ]]In many cultures, homosexual people are frequently subject to prejudice and discrimination. A 2011 Dutch study concluded that 49% of Holland’s youth and 58% of youth foreign to the country reject homosexuality.WEB, Half of young Dutch people reject homosexuality,community.expatica.com/forums/topic/2993/half-of-young-dutch-people-reject-homosexuality, Expatica/COC, 9 January 2012, dead,community.expatica.com/forums/topic/2993/half-of-young-dutch-people-reject-homosexuality," title="web.archive.org/web/20111201212113community.expatica.com/forums/topic/2993/half-of-young-dutch-people-reject-homosexuality,">web.archive.org/web/20111201212113community.expatica.com/forums/topic/2993/half-of-young-dutch-people-reject-homosexuality, 1 December 2011, Similar to other minority groups they can also be subject to stereotyping. These attitudes tend to be due to forms of homophobia and heterosexism (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. 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.WEB,www.genderandhealth.ca/en/modules/sexandsexuality/gss-homophobia-02.jsp, Riddle Homophobia Scale, 27 April 2021, 27 April 2021,www.genderandhealth.ca/en/modules/sexandsexuality/gss-homophobia-02.jsp," title="web.archive.org/web/20210427192627www.genderandhealth.ca/en/modules/sexandsexuality/gss-homophobia-02.jsp,">web.archive.org/web/20210427192627www.genderandhealth.ca/en/modules/sexandsexuality/gss-homophobia-02.jsp, live, 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 and more likely to abuse children, but there is no scientific basis to such assertions. Gay men and lesbians form stable, committed relationships that are equivalent to heterosexual relationships in essential respects. Sexual orientation does not affect the likelihood that people will abuse children.Michael Lamb, PhD: Affidavit â€“ United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts (2009) {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101225193923www.glad.org/uploads/docs/cases/gill-v-office-of-personnel-management/2009-11-17-doma-aff-lamb.pdf |date=25 December 2010 }}Gregory M. Herek, PhD: Facts About Homosexuality and Child Molestation {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100419022239psychology.ucdavis.edu/rainbow/HTML/facts_molestation.html |date=19 April 2010 }}American Psychological Association: Lesbian & Gay Parenting {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923221332www.apa.org/pi/lgbt/resources/parenting-full.pdf |date=23 September 2015 }} 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 homosexuals
{{Further|Rape}}In the United States, the FBI reported that 20.4% of hate crimes reported to law enforcement in 2011 were based on sexual orientation bias. 56.7% of these crimes were based on bias against homosexual men. 11.1% were based on bias against homosexual women. 29.6% were based on anti-homosexual bias without regard to gender.{{citation |title=Victims |url=https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/hate-crime/2011/narratives/victims |periodical=FBI |access-date=26 July 2013 |archive-date=8 July 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160708091754www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/hate-crime/2011/narratives/victims |url-status=live }} The 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard, a gay student, is a notorious such incident in the U.S. LGBT people, especially lesbians, may become the victims of “corrective rape”, a violent crime with the supposed aim of making them heterosexual. In certain parts of the world, LGBT people are also at risk of “honor killings” perpetrated by their families or relatives.NEWS,www.cbsnews.com/news/honor-killings-target-turkeys-lgbt-community/, ‘Honor killings’ target Turkey’s LGBT community, CBS News, 12 October 2011, 23 December 2013, 13 February 2021,web.archive.org/web/20210213215545/https://www.cbsnews.com/news/honor-killings-target-turkeys-lgbt-community/, live, WEB, Di Piero Russo,bari.repubblica.it/cronaca/2011/08/05/news/sei_il_disonore_della_famiglia-20061452/, Sei il disonore della famiglia” e accoltella il fratello gay, 5 August 2011, bari.repubblica.it, 23 December 2013, 24 December 2013,bari.repubblica.it/cronaca/2011/08/05/news/sei_il_disonore_della_famiglia-20061452/," title="web.archive.org/web/20131224192322bari.repubblica.it/cronaca/2011/08/05/news/sei_il_disonore_della_famiglia-20061452/,">web.archive.org/web/20131224192322bari.repubblica.it/cronaca/2011/08/05/news/sei_il_disonore_della_famiglia-20061452/, live, WEB,www.hurriyetdailynews.com/father-confesses-to-killing-his-own-son-in-landmark-homosexual-murder-case.aspx?PageID=238&NID=47579&NewsCatID=341, Father confesses to killing his own son in landmark homosexual murder case, 25 May 2013, hurriyetdailynews.com, 23 December 2013, 19 October 2017,www.hurriyetdailynews.com/father-confesses-to-killing-his-own-son-in-landmark-homosexual-murder-case.aspx?PageID=238&NID=47579&NewsCatID=341," title="web.archive.org/web/20171019185457www.hurriyetdailynews.com/father-confesses-to-killing-his-own-son-in-landmark-homosexual-murder-case.aspx?PageID=238&NID=47579&NewsCatID=341,">web.archive.org/web/20171019185457www.hurriyetdailynews.com/father-confesses-to-killing-his-own-son-in-landmark-homosexual-murder-case.aspx?PageID=238&NID=47579&NewsCatID=341, live, In Morocco, a constitutional monarchy following Islamic laws, homosexual acts are a punishable offence. With a population hostile towards LGBT people, the country has witnessed public demonstrations against homosexuals, public denunciations of presumed homosexual individuals, as well as violent intrusions in private homes. The community in the country is exposed to additional risk of prejudice, social rejection and violence, with a greater impossibility of obtaining protection even from the police.WEB,www.ft.dk/samling/20161/almdel/uui/bilag/148/1735024.pdf, Morocco Situation of LGBT Persons, 21 March 2019, Danish Immigration Service, 21 August 2019,web.archive.org/web/20190821132917/https://www.ft.dk/samling/20161/almdel/uui/bilag/148/1735024.pdf, live,
Homosexual behavior in other animals
File:Manchot 01.jpg|thumb|Roy and Silo, two New York Central Park Zoo male chinstrap penguin chinstrap penguinHomosexual and bisexual behaviors occur in a number of other animal species. Such behaviors include sexual activity, courtship, affection, pair bonding, and parenting, and are widespread; a 1999 review by researcher Bruce Bagemihl shows that homosexual behavior has been documented in about 500 species, ranging from primates to gut worms.MAGAZINE, Harrold, Max, 16 February 1999, Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity,www.thefreelibrary.com/Biological+Exuberance:+Animal+Homosexuality+and+Natural+Diversity.-a053877996, The Advocate (LGBT magazine), The Advocate, TheFreeLibrary, 10 November 2023, 20 May 2011,www.thefreelibrary.com/Biological+Exuberance:+Animal+Homosexuality+and+Natural+Diversity.-a053877996," title="web.archive.org/web/20110520172429www.thefreelibrary.com/Biological+Exuberance:+Animal+Homosexuality+and+Natural+Diversity.-a053877996,">web.archive.org/web/20110520172429www.thefreelibrary.com/Biological+Exuberance:+Animal+Homosexuality+and+Natural+Diversity.-a053877996, live, Regent Media, 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.WEB, Gordon, Dennis, 10 April 2007, ‘Catalogue of Life’ reaches one million species,www.niwascience.co.nz/pubs/mr/archive/2007-04-10-3,www.niwascience.co.nz/pubs/mr/archive/2007-04-10-3," title="web.archive.org/web/20070713004634www.niwascience.co.nz/pubs/mr/archive/2007-04-10-3,">web.archive.org/web/20070713004634www.niwascience.co.nz/pubs/mr/archive/2007-04-10-3, 13 July 2007, 10 September 2007, National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, According to Bagemihl, “the animal kingdom [does] it with much greater sexual diversityâ€”including homosexual, bisexual and nonreproductive sexâ€”than the scientific community and society at large have previously been willing to accept”.WEB, Gay Lib for the Animals: A New Look At Homosexuality in Nature â€“ 2/1/1999 â€“ Publishers Weekly,www.publishersweekly.com/pw/print/19990201/26501-gay-lib-for-the-animals-a-new-look-at-homosexuality-in-nature-.html, dead,www.publishersweekly.com/pw/print/19990201/26501-gay-lib-for-the-animals-a-new-look-at-homosexuality-in-nature-.html," title="web.archive.org/web/20120729131204www.publishersweekly.com/pw/print/19990201/26501-gay-lib-for-the-animals-a-new-look-at-homosexuality-in-nature-.html,">web.archive.org/web/20120729131204www.publishersweekly.com/pw/print/19990201/26501-gay-lib-for-the-animals-a-new-look-at-homosexuality-in-nature-.html, 29 July 2012, 2 September 2012, Publishersweekly.com, According to Bailey et al., humans and domestic sheep are the only animals conclusively proven to exhibit a homosexual orientation.A review paper by N. W. Bailey and Marlene Zuk looking into studies of same-sex sexual behaviour in animals challenges the view that such behaviour lowers reproductive success, citing several hypotheses about how same-sex sexual behavior might be adaptive; these hypotheses vary greatly among different species.JOURNAL, Bailey, N. W., Zuk, M., 2009, Same-sex sexual behavior and evolution,www.faculty.ucr.edu/~mzuk/Bailey%20and%20Zuk%202009%20Same%20sex%20behaviour.pdf, Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 24, 8, 439â€“446, 10.1016/j.tree.2009.03.014, 19539396, 21 April 2013, 14 May 2013,www.faculty.ucr.edu/~mzuk/Bailey%20and%20Zuk%202009%20Same%20sex%20behaviour.pdf," title="web.archive.org/web/20130514185847www.faculty.ucr.edu/~mzuk/Bailey%20and%20Zuk%202009%20Same%20sex%20behaviour.pdf,">web.archive.org/web/20130514185847www.faculty.ucr.edu/~mzuk/Bailey%20and%20Zuk%202009%20Same%20sex%20behaviour.pdf, live, In October 2023, biologists reported studies of animals (over 1,500 different species) that found same-sex behavior (not necessarily related to human orientation) may help improve social stability by reducing conflict within the groups studied.JOURNAL, GÃ³mez, JosÃ© M., et al., 3 October 2023, The evolution of same-sex sexual behaviour in mammals,www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-41290-x, Nature (journal), Nature, 14, 5719, 2023NatCo..14.5719G, 10.1038/s41467-023-41290-x, 10547684, 37788987, 5719, NEWS, Zimmer, Carl, 3 October 2023, Same-Sex Behavior Evolved in Many Mammals to Reduce Conflict, Study Suggests, Same-Sex Behavior Evolved in Many Mammals to Reduce Conflict, Study Suggests, bot: unknown,web.archive.org/web/20231004011315/https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/03/science/same-sex-behavior-evolution-mammals.html#permid=128206761, 4 October 2023, 4 October 2023, The New York Times, Carl Zimmer,
See also
{{cols|colwidth=18em}}

LGBT rights by country or territory
LGBT rights at the United Nations
Anti-LGBT rhetoric
Biology and sexual orientation
Fraternal birth order and male sexual orientation
Gender dysphoria
Hate speech
Human male sexuality
List of nonfiction books about homosexuality
List of gay, lesbian or bisexual people
Religion and sexuality
Riddle homophobia scale
Sexual practices between men
Sexual practices between women
Sexuality and gender identity-based cultures
LGBT music

{{Div col end}}
Notes
{{Reflist}}
References
Books

1980s

Adam, Barry (1987). The Rise of a Gay and Lesbian Movement, G. K. Hall & Co. {{ISBN|0-8057-9714-9}}
{{Citation |first=John |last=Boswell |url=https://archive.org/details/christianitysoci00john |title=Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century |publisher=University of Chicago Press |year=1980 |isbn=978-0-226-06711-7 }}
Dover, Kenneth J., Greek Homosexuality, Gerald Duckworth & Co. Ltd. 1979, {{ISBN|0-674-36261-6}} (hardcover), {{ISBN|0-674-36270-5}} (paperback)
d’Emilio, John Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities: The Making of a Homosexual Minority in the United States, 1940â€“1970, University of Chicago Press 1983, {{ISBN|0-226-14265-5}}
{{Citation |title=The History of Sexuality |first=Michel |last=Foucault |author-link=Michel Foucault |year=1986 |publisher=Pantheon Books |isbn=0-394-41775-5 |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofsexuali03fouc }}
Roth, Norman. 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|0-913969-25-7}}

1990s

{{Citation|first1=Bruce|last1=Bagemihl|title=Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity|publisher=St. Martin’s Press|year=1999|isbn=0-312-19239-8|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5CbRGV8AAIQC|access-date=16 June 2015|archive-date=13 February 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210213215855books.google.com/books?id=5CbRGV8AAIQC|url-status=live}}
BÃ©rubÃ©, Allan, Coming out under Fire: The History of Gay Men and Women in World War Two, New York: MacMillan 1990, {{ISBN|0-02-903100-1}}
{{Citation |year=1997 |title=Two spirit people: American Indian, lesbian women and gay men |author1=Brown, Lester B. |editor1=Lester B. Brown |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-7890-0003-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AwnQBETJsvEC |access-date=16 June 2015 |archive-date=6 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150906160618books.google.com/books?id=AwnQBETJsvEC |url-status=live }}
{{Citation |year=2000 |title=Handbook of medieval sexuality |first1=Vern L. |last1=Bullough |first2=James A. |last2=Brundage |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-0-8153-3662-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PgSI1gvKhtAC |access-date=16 June 2015 |archive-date=6 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150906170302books.google.com/books?id=PgSI1gvKhtAC |url-status=live }}
{{Citation |year=1995 |title=(Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male World, 1890â€“1940) |author1=Chauncey, George |edition=reprint, illustrated |publisher=Basic Books |isbn=978-0-465-02621-0 }}
BOOK, CabezÃ³n, JosÃ© Ignacio, Buddhism, sexuality, and gender, 1992, SUNY Press, 978-0-7914-0758-5,books.google.com/books?id=IyI_SSNXaVsC&pg=PAvii,
{{Citation |year=1990 |title=Encyclopedia of homosexuality (2 Volumes) |first1=Wayne R. |last1=Dynes |first2=Warren |last2=Johansson |first3=William A. |last3=Percy |first4=Stephen |last4=Donaldson |publisher=Garland Pub. |isbn=978-0-8240-6544-7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TYyGAAAAIAAJ |access-date=16 June 2015 |archive-date=6 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150906170020books.google.com/books?id=TYyGAAAAIAAJ |url-status=live }}
{{Citation |year=1993 |title=Odd girls and twilight lovers: a history of lesbian life in twentieth-century America |author1=Faderman, Lillian |edition=4 |publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=978-0-231-07488-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=44i96GWYxSQC |access-date=16 June 2015 |archive-date=6 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150906172343books.google.com/books?id=44i96GWYxSQC |url-status=live }}
Hinsch, Bret, Passions of the Cut Sleeve: The Male Homosexual Tradition in China, The University of California Press, 1990, {{ISBN|0-520-06720-7}}
{{Citation |year=1994 |title=Outing: shattering the conspiracy of silence |author1=Johansson, Warren |author2=William A. Percy |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-56024-419-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-lZ903C-dkMC |access-date=16 June 2015 |archive-date=6 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150906171809books.google.com/books?id=-lZ903C-dkMC |url-status=live }}
{{Citation |year=1994 |title=Sex in America: a definitive survey |author1=Michael, Robert T. |publisher=Little, Brown |isbn=978-0-316-91191-7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PkjmGwAACAAJ |access-date=16 June 2015 |archive-date=6 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150906154114books.google.com/books?id=PkjmGwAACAAJ |url-status=live }}
{{Citation |year=1998 |title=Pederasty and Pedagogy in Archaic Greece |author1=Percy, William Armstrong |publisher=University of Illinois Press |isbn=978-0-252-06740-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TCvoj1efp8UC |access-date=16 June 2015 |archive-date=6 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150906164628books.google.com/books?id=TCvoj1efp8UC |url-status=live }}
{{Citation |year=1987 |title=CompaÃ±eras: Latina lesbians (an anthology) |author1=Ramos, Juanita |publisher=Latina Lesbian History Project |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ElVnAAAAMAAJ |access-date=16 June 2015 |archive-date=6 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150906171539books.google.com/books?id=ElVnAAAAMAAJ |url-status=live }}
Rousseau, George, Perilous Enlightenment: Pre- and Post-Modern Discoursesâ€”Sexual, Historical, Manchester University Press 1991, {{ISBN|0-7190-3301-2}}
{{Citation |year=1992 |title=Sexuality and eroticism among males in Moslem societies |author1=Schmitt, Arno |author2=Jehoeda Sofer |editor1=Arno Schmitt |editor2=Jehoeda Sofer |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-56024-047-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Kw_BVSVmNsUC |access-date=16 June 2015 |archive-date=6 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150906160228books.google.com/books?id=Kw_BVSVmNsUC |url-status=live }}
{{Citation |year=1999 |title=An American obsession: science, medicine, and homosexuality in modern society |author1=Terry, Jennifer |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-79367-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C6pGoWWLfhEC |access-date=16 June 2015 |archive-date=6 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150906150659books.google.com/books?id=C6pGoWWLfhEC |url-status=live }}

2000s

{{Citation |year=2005 |title=Regulating sex: the politics of intimacy and identity |first1=Elizabeth |last1=Bernstein |first2=Laurie |last2=Schaffner |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-415-94869-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YQzW5I2RGNcC |access-date=16 June 2015 |archive-date=6 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150906150656books.google.com/books?id=YQzW5I2RGNcC |url-status=live }}
{{Citation |year=2002 |title=Before Stonewall: activists for gay and lesbian rights in historical context |author1=Bullough, Vern L. |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-56023-193-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A7x_VnES2esC |access-date=16 June 2015 |archive-date=30 November 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161130210716books.google.com/books?id=A7x_VnES2esC |url-status=live }}
BOOK, The Greeks And Greek Love: A Radical Reappraisal of Homosexuality in Ancient Greece, Davidson, James, 2007, 978-0-297-81997-4, Weidenfeld & Nicolson,
BOOK, Gunther, Scott Eric, 2009, The Elastic Closet, A History of Homosexuality in France, 1942-present, New York, Palgrave Macmillan, 978-0-230-59510-1,
{{Citation |year=2004 |title=The lavender scare: the Cold War persecution of gays and lesbians in the federal government |author1=Johnson, David K. |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-40481-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_FM_hkMdxpIC |access-date=16 June 2015 |archive-date=6 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150906163301books.google.com/books?id=_FM_hkMdxpIC |url-status=live }}
{{Citation |year=2003 |title=Historical dictionary of the lesbian liberation movement: still the rage |author1=Myers, JoAnne |publisher=Scarecrow Press |isbn=978-0-8108-4506-0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dzYbAAAAYAAJ |access-date=16 June 2015 |archive-date=6 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150906145121books.google.com/books?id=dzYbAAAAYAAJ |url-status=live }}
{{Citation |year=2002 |title=Queering India: same-sex love and eroticism in Indian culture and society |author1=Vanita, Ruth |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-415-92950-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I9rrucxQbmEC |access-date=16 June 2015 |archive-date=6 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150906150133books.google.com/books?id=I9rrucxQbmEC |url-status=live }}

Journal articles

{{Citation |title=On the Prevalence of Homosexuality and Bisexuality, in a Random Community Survey of 750 Men Aged 18 to 27 |last1=Bagley |first1=Christopher |last2=Tremblay |first2=Pierre |location=New York |publisher=Haworth Press |year=1998 |journal=Journal of Homosexuality |volume=36 |issue= 2 |issn=0091-8369 |oclc=91129391|doi=10.1300/j082v36n02_01 |pages=1â€“18|pmid=9736328 }}
{{Citation |doi=10.2307/374839 |title=The Homophobic Imagination |last1=Crew |first1=Louie |last2=Norton |jstor=374839 |first2=Rictor |date=November 1974 |volume=36 |issue=3 |pages=272â€“290 |journal=College English |issn=0010-0994 |oclc=427092211 }}
{{Citation |title=New Evidence of Genetic Factors Influencing Sexual Orientation in Men: Female Fecundity Increase in the Maternal Line |last1=Iemmola |first1=Francesca |last2=Ciani |first2=Andrea Camperio |publisher=Springer |format=Article |year=2009 |journal=Archives of Sexual Behavior |pages=393â€“399 |volume=38 |issue=3 |issn=0004-0002 |oclc=360232526 |doi=10.1007/s10508-008-9381-6 |url=https://doi.org/10.1007%2Fs10508-008-9381-6 |pmid=18561014 |s2cid=508800 }}
{{Citation |doi=10.1126/science.1887219 |title=A difference in hypothalamic structure between heterosexual and homosexual men. |last=LeVay |first=Simon |year=1991 |journal=Science |pages=1034â€“1037 |issue=5023 |volume=253 |issn=0036-8075 |oclc=121655996 |pmid=1887219 |s2cid=1674111 |url=http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/253/5023/1034 |bibcode=1991Sci...253.1034L |access-date=26 September 2009 |archive-date=10 February 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090210022615www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/253/5023/1034 |url-status=live }}
{{Citation |title=Fraternal Birth Order and Ratio of Heterosexual/Homosexual Feelings in Women and Men |first9=N |last9=Martin |first8=J |last8=Bailey |first7=M |last7=Wright |first6=S |last6=MacGregor |last1=McConaghy |first5=M |first1=N |last2=Hadzi-Pavlovic |first2=D |last5=Keller |last3=Stevens |first3=C |last4=Manicavasagar |first4=V | display-authors = 8|year=2006 |journal=Journal of Homosexuality |pages=161â€“174 |issue=4 |volume=51 |issn=0091-8369 |oclc=202629885 |pmid=17135133 |doi=10.1300/J082v51n04_09 |s2cid=24828176 }}

Online articles

Burr, Chandler. Homosexuality and biology {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080516011900www.theatlantic.com/doc/199706/homosexuality-biology |date=16 May 2008 }}. The Atlantic, June 1997, {{ISSN|1072-7825}}. An overview of recent research in layman’s language.
BBC News (Feb 1998) {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060219052528news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/55169.stm |date=19 February 2006 }}: Fingerprints Study
BBC News (Apr 1999) {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060207094555news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/325979.stm |date=7 February 2006 }}: Doubt cast on ‘gay gene’
WEB,www.webmd.com/sex-relationships/news/20000329/pointing-finger-androgen-cause-homosexuality, Pointing the Finger at Androgen as a Cause of Homosexuality, WebMD, March 2000, 31 January 2017, 14 March 2017,www.webmd.com/sex-relationships/news/20000329/pointing-finger-androgen-cause-homosexuality," title="web.archive.org/web/20170314190108www.webmd.com/sex-relationships/news/20000329/pointing-finger-androgen-cause-homosexuality,">web.archive.org/web/20170314190108www.webmd.com/sex-relationships/news/20000329/pointing-finger-androgen-cause-homosexuality, live,
BBC News (Oct 2004) {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060704142807news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3735668.stm |date=4 July 2006 }}: Genetics of homosexuality
James Davidson, London Review of Books, 2 June 2005, “Mr and Mr and Mrs and Mrs” {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051012111141www.lrb.co.uk/v27/n11/davi02_.html |date=12 October 2005 }}â€”detailed review of The Friend, by Alan Bray, a history of same-sex marriage and other same-sex formal bonds

External links
{{Sister project links}}

{{curlie|Society/Gay,_Lesbian,_and_Bisexual/History/|Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual/History}}
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy â€“ Homosexuality

{{LGBT|main=yes|orientation=yes}}{{Sexual identities}}{{Authority control}}

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