textbook chapter 14

gay pride day

• Celebrates gay, lesbian, bisexiual and transgender culture

• Commemorates first time that lgbtq people openly fought back against police harassment in june 1969 in a gay bar in new york

Sexual identity

ones self label as hetero, gay etc 

• Could be a disceptancy between identity and behaviour

Sexual orientation

who we are emotionally, romantically and sexually attracted to 

homo and lesbians meaning

Homo meaning: greek root meaning “same”

Lesbian meaning: sappho was a greek poet who lived on island of lesbos and wrote poetry to other women and her lesbian feelings were the focus of her life

demi sexual

attraction is based on emotional bond, not on gender

pansexual

 attracted to people regardless of gender

sexual minorities

people who arent heterosexual

changing sexual orientations

• Diamond: women changed their status due to relationship experiences and these changes occurred in all directions

• Dickson: women were more likely to report changes than men 

asexuality research

• First discovered by kinsey

• Some people think its a sexual dysfunction

  • Some research supports this because they have lower excitatory processes

  • But asexual people are not distressed by this so idk  

• Considered a sexual identity because it is biologically based, unchangeable and does not have treatment 

• Have later onset of menarche, shorter, weighed less - evidence for why it is biologically based

• To test if asexuality is caused by problems with physiological arousal, they did a study where they made asexual women watch porn and found that sexual attraction was less but no differences in genital sexual arousal so proves that it shouldnt be a disorder

kinseys continuum

• Was sick because he said orientation was not gay or straight but rather a continuum 

• It only refers to behaviour and not to attraction 

  • Exclusive heterosexual

  • Mostly heterosexual with incidental homosexual experience

  • Heterosexual with substantial homosexual experience

  • Equal heterosexual and homosexual experience

  • Homosexual with substantial heterosexual experience

  • Homosexual with incidental heterosexual experience

  • Exclusively homosexual

lgb prevalence

• 2% of men and 1% of women are gay

• 1-2% are bisexual

homophobia

strong, irrational fear of gay individuals 

• Dislike is called homonegativity, antigay, prejudice

• IAT test has shown that people have an implicit preference for straight people 

Heterosexism/Heteronormativity

Heterosexism: being heterosexual is normal and healthy way for people to be 

Heteronormativity: heterosexuality is the norm

• Related to each other

consequences of homonegativity and heterosexism

• Can cause pain and suffering 

• Makes it difficult for people to accept their identity

• Devaluate their self worth and attempt suicide 

• Hate crimes

• Verbal or physical harassment harassement

attitudes toward bisexuals

• Rarely recognizable 

• People think they are internally conflicted or immature 

• Told theyre denying their identity

positive aspects of bisexuality

• Variety in sexual and human relationships

• Open to the widest variety of experiences 

• Research shows they are real in in study that showed they spent equal time looking at swimsuit pics of girls and guys 

Attitudes toward asexuals

• Many people hold a committed relationship ideology so dont understand asexuals but not all asexuals are aromantic 

what improves attitudes toward lgbtq

• Workshops for university students 

• Parents considering the messages they convey to their children 

• Examine our interactions with people 

• Strong sex education program with open discussions of sexual orientation 

• Anti homophobic education in schools

• Safe Spaces Project: university staff have stickers on their doors to let people know they are a safe space and wont tolerate discrimination 

lgb development

• No exact answer

• Gender variance in childhood predicts later LGB orientation

• Gay men have their same sex experiences earlier than lesbians 

• Bullying impacts the coming out process 

• Parent support is important

sexual fluidity

 changes over time in sexual attractions

when do peple realize bisexual and asexual identities

• Bisexual people realize this in early to mid 20s

  • Base it on their feelings of sexual attraction or capacity to fall in love with women or men 

• Same stuff for asexual

lgb social life

• Gay bars

• Internet 

• Gay newspapers, magazines and internet sites

positive aspects of same sex relationships

• Respecting and appreciating individual differences

• Generating positive emotions and interactions

  • Use more positive interaction styles

• Effectively communicating and negotiating

• Egalitarian ideals 

  • Freed from traditional gender roles and male domination

lesbian and gay families

3 questions people have

1. Will they be less psychologically healthy 

2. Will they get made fun of because of their unusual family situations 

3. Will they show disturbances in gender identity of sexual identity 

• All not true if they have loving supportive parents 

• May have to deal with peers making fun of them

conversion/reparative therapy

• Usually because of family pressure 

• Makes people feel guilty

• Causes mental health problems 

• They do not work

• Ethical issues

biological theories for lgbtq

Genetic factors: 

• Twin studies show rates of concordance were higher for identical twins 

Prenatal factors:

• Stress to a mother during pregnancy produces gay kids because reduced amount of tesosterone in the fetus 

• Later birth order

• Some people think it depends on length of ring finger 

Brain factors:

• Anatomical differences between brains

• Differences in hypothalanus but this study had issues

Hormonal factors: 

• Have not found hormonal differences between men

sociological theories for lgbtq

• Labelling has a big impact in society because being called gay can make a kid think he is gay and then a gay man has been created through labelling 

• Societies that have great maternal and low paternal involvement with infants and have rigid gender roles have the highest incidence of same sex sexual behaviour in males

differences between gay men and lesbians

• Women more likely to be bi 

• Women show more flexibility in sexual orientation

• Gay men reach developmental milestones earlier than lesboans 

• Lesbian women were less likely to report engaging in sexual activity more than twice a week but the duration of the sex was longer and no differences in sexual satisfaction

sexual orientations in multicultural perspectives

• Canadian ethnocultural communities have less tolerance for homosexuality and so they stay in the closet 

• In some cultures, tops are considered masculine and heterosexual and bottoms are considered gay

• Doing dirt between women is desirable but lesbianism is not

• Definition of hoomosexuality is set by culture