Sexual Identity And Sexual Orientation

Kinsey Scale by Own work – Sexual Behavior in the Human Female (1953). Licensed under CC0 via Wikimedia Commons

Annotated Links

APA Answers Answers to common questions about sexual orientation from the American Psychological Association.

APA Answers Answers to common questions about transgender individuals and gender identity from the American Psychological Association.

APA Files Two Briefs In Support of Same-Sex Couples According to this press release, APA has filed two friend-of-the-court briefs—one in the U.S. 1st Circuit Court of Appeals and one in the Montana Supreme Court—that support the legal rights of same-sex couples. The cases are significantly different in their arguments before the court, but the briefs rely on the same social science research showing that homosexuality is a normal expression of human sexuality and that same-sex couples are not any less fit or capable than heterosexual parents and that their children are no less adjusted.

Coming Out Exercise Barry A. Schreier of Purdue University developed this exercise to assist individuals with the experience of loss that is often associated with Coming Out. Loss can come in many ways from the loss of a job, the loss of friends and family members, the loss of autonomy, loss of affiliation with others, and so on. This exercise is used to access the vital emotional components of participants’ belief and attitude systems in the efforts of creating greater inclusivity in attitude and belief for people who are Gay, Lesbian, or Bisexual.

Debunking Myths About Sexual Fluidity Researcher and relationships expert Dylan Selterman, of the Science of Relationships website explains what sexual fluidity is and clarifies some misconceptions and controversies around the concept including bisexuality, emotional bonding, sexual desire, and gender differences in fluidity. Posted November, 2014.

The Development of Sexual Orientation: A Teaching Resource. Lynn A. Elmore of Hartwick College, wrote this resource to help teachers plan and teach a class on the development of sexual orientation. The seven teaching modules begin with an introduction to the topic and a review of the resources found within it…I highlight particular scenes or “teaching topics” that will be helpful in getting across important facts, ideas, concepts, and theories…[E]ach module ends with a review of some significant web sites. (opens in PDF format)

e-textbook From the electronic textbook created for undergraduate courses in General Psychology by George Boeree of Shippensburg University.

Ethics Updates Edited by Lawrence M. Hinman of the University of San Diego, this site presents a summary of media resources, court decisions, Internet resources, and philosophy regarding sexual orientation.

Gay Sex vs. Straight Sex The dating site OKCupid collects background research on its over 3.2 million gay and straight users. Using charts and numbers, Christian Rudder used the data to test common misconceptions including gay promiscuity, homophobic thinking, and sexual desire. He went even further and identified personality and interest differences between gay and straight men and lesbian and straight women. Lots of finding here sure to spark discussion in your class.

Gender Identity Research and Education Society (GIRES) The aim of this website is to inform a wide public of the issues surrounding gender identity and transsexualism. It is also a resource for gender variant people and their families, the medical and other professionals that provide their care, Health Authorities, Members of Parliament and other policy makers.

Gender Identity Variance Should teenagers who believe they are transgender be helped to change sex? And if so, what about the four-year-olds who feel the same way? Viv Groskop [writer for The Guardian] meets the parents and doctors in favour of intervention

GLBT Alliance in Social and Personality From the website: GASP (GLBT Alliance in Social and Personality) is a nonprofit organization affiliated with (but independent of) the Society for Personality and Social Psychology. GASP provides support and professional information to Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) students and faculty in social and personality psychology and their hetorosexual allies. The site includes a data base of GASP Measures; information on research and funding; links to teaching resources; and a GLBT resouces and mentor page.

Genetics and Sexual Orientation Do genes determine whether we are lesbian, gay, bisexual or straight? A Position Paper by The Council for Responsible Genetics, a non-profit, non-government organization (also available in PDF format).

Homosexual Behavior Largely Shaped By Genetics And Random Environmental Factors. According to the world’s largest study of twins by Niklas Långström and colleagues published in the Archives of Sexual Behavior, June 7, 2008, homosexual behaviour is largely shaped by genetics and random environmental factors…which may include biological processes (which are specific to an individual, and may include biological processes such as different hormone exposure in the womb), are important determinants of homosexual behaviour.

Is 10% of the Population Really Gay? Drawing on the widest survey of sexual behaviour since the Kinsey Report, David Spiegelhalter, in his book Sex By Numbers, answers key questions about our private lives. Here he reveals how Kinsey’s contested claim that 10% of us are gay is actually close to the mark. From The Guardian, April 5, 2015.

Mental Health The American Psychological Association presents this article Being Gay Is Just as Healthy as Being Straight as part of its online series Psychology Matters.

Mermaids: Family Support Group for Children and Teenagers with Gender Identity Issues This UK organization offers support to parents, families, carers, and others, raises awareness about gender issues amongst professionals (e.g. teachers, doctors, social services, etc.,) and the general public and campaigns for the recognition of this issue and the increase in professional services. This website features an overview of medical issues, hints for families and carers, definitions, resources, research opportunities, and the writing of young people struggling with gender identity issues.

Multicultural Pavilion Paul Gorski at the University of Virginia Diversity designed, facilitates and maintains this site which features links on a wide range of topics including sexual orientation, religious diversity, gender, and ethnicity, e-mail forums, and online networking.

Parenting A summary of research on lesbian and gay parenting. The APA describes this online book as: Part I is a summary of research findings on lesbian mothers, gay fathers, and their children written by Charlotte J. Patterson, PhD. Part II is an annotated bibliography of the literature cited in the summary. Part III provides some additional resources relevant to lesbian and gay parenting in the forensic context: APA amicus briefs, professional association policies, and contact information for relevant organizations.

Pupil Dilation Reveals Sexual Orientation Pupils were highly telling: they widened most to videos of people who participants found attractive, thereby revealing where they were on the sexual spectrum from heterosexual to homosexual. according to research published in PLoS ONE and summarized here, in Science Daily, August 6, 2012.

The Possible Role of Epigenetics in Sexual Orientation Epigenetics – how gene expression is regulated by temporary switches, called epi-marks – appears to be a critical and overlooked factor contributing to the long-standing puzzle of why homosexuality occurs, according to a study, published online in The Quarterly Review of Biology, and summarized here in Medical News Today”, December 13, 2012.

Relative Length of Adults’ Fingers Indicator of Verbal Aggression: Prenatal Exposure to Testosterone Linked A new study links verbal aggression to prenatal testosterone exposure, using the 2D:4D finger ratio measure to predict verbal aggression. This study is the first to use this method to examine prenatal testosterone exposure as a determinant of a communication trait according to the study published in the Journal of Communicationand summarized here in ScienceDaily, November 29, 2012.

Science, Education and Policy This site describes itself as featuring the work of Gregory Herek, from UCLA an internationally recognized authority on sexual prejudice (also called homophobia), hate crimes, and AIDS stigma. It provides factual information to promote the use of scientific knowledge for education and enlightened public policy related to sexual orientation and HIV/AIDS.

Sexual Diversity Sexual Diversity provides a range of resources for teachers, parents and others who work with young people to help make schools more supportive and inclusive for same sex attracted and transgender young people and staff. Their website contains training resources, materials, activities, handouts, references and more.

She’s Not There Writer Jennifer Finney Boylan writes about her transgender experience with tremendous insight and great candidness in her book “She’s Not There”. Her website includes an excerpt from the book, her National Press Club speech, readers responses to the book, an interview and more.

Sexual Orientation and Youth Just the Facts About Sexual Orientation & Youth: A Primer for Principals, Educators and School Personnel. Available online or as a PDF from the American Psychological Association Public Interest Directorate.

Store Dresses Down Bride for Being a Lesbian Yet another illustration of the ignorant and often negative attitudes that non-heterosexual people face. A bridal shop owner refuses to sell a woman a wedding dress because she didn’t want to be associated with an impending illegal action i.e. her marriage to another woman.

Summary This summary provides a textbook summary of the emerging scientific understanding of sexual orientation from Myers, D. G. (2006), Psychology, 8th edition. New York: Worth Publishers.

Teaching Sexual Orientation Psychologist David G. Myers suggests ways of teaching controversial topics like sexual orientation by focusing on evidence-based conclusions and how psychologists might test whether social policies affect the health and well-being of gay people. From the APS “Observer”, 27(5), May/June, 2014.

Transgender: Kye Allums: Transgender man playing NCAA women’s basketball. Kye Allums, a biological female, took the bold step of changing her outward identity — her name and use of masculine pronouns — to match her inward feelings of being a man. George Washington University’s Women’s basketball team has accepted his decision and NCAA rules allow him to continue to play. Read about his story in this summary fromOutSports.com, November 1, 2010.

Transgender Today Throughout history, transgender people have been misunderstood and seldom studied. That’s beginning to change according to this article by Eve Glicksman for the APA Monitor on Psychology, April 2013, volume 44, number 4, page 36.

US Views on Gays, Lesbians, Shift Sharply According to the 2010 update of the General Social Survey (GSS) at NORC at the University of Chicago, not only do a plurality of Americans approve of same-sex marriage, but they overwhelmingly support freedom of expression and basic civil liberties for gays and lesbians. This article summarizes these findings and includes two graphs which illustrate this trend toward increased tolerance over time.

Virtual Pamphlets Online pamphlets from various college and university health services on sexual orientation, transsexuality, coming out, self-identity and others.

What If My Fiance Is Gay? A reader asks I’m engaged to a man I love. I had no worries until two weeks ago, when he confessed that he used to have gay relationships. What to do? Psychology Today writer Hara Estroff Marano reviews the research and provides advice to this reader.

Who’s Gay On TV? Dads, Journalists, Investigators, And Footmen Presents an interesting account of the various portrayals of gays and lesbians found on TV today. Though the number of gays and lesbians has increased in recent years, for some, the portrayals may not be as realistic as they could be. Published January 3, 2013. (also available in audio running 7 minutes, 45 seconds).

Assignments, Exercises, and Activities

Activity: The Complexity of Sexual Orientation The Understanding Prejudice website has a special section on college classroom activities. In this activity, students fill out a Sexual Orientation Identification sheet (on the website) which describes the behaviors and attractions of various hypothetical people. Students must decide if the person described is lesbian, gay, bisexual, or straight. The items are designed to provoke differences of opinion to spark a discussion as to what defines sexual orientation: behavior, desire, self-identification, or some combination of all three. Includes discussion questions.

Heterosexist Bias Lesson Plan and Questionnaire The Advocates for Youth website provides this lesson plan To give straight people an opportunity to experience the types of questions that are often asked of gay, lesbian, and/or bisexual people. Students answer a questionnaire and discuss the experience in small groups. Takes about 40 minutes. Includes questions for discussion.

Heterosexual Privilege The Student Counseling Center at Texas Tech University features a number of activities, handouts and other resources on their website. In this activity, students answer 32 questions that illustrate heterosexual privilege in ways straight people do not have to think about. For example, questions range from I can, if I wish, legally marry my life partner to My sexual orientation is represented in the media and I don’t feel excluded.

Homosexuality: A Values Clarification Exercise John Suler, Rider University, maintains the excellent Teaching Clinical Psychology website. To make students aware of their preconceptions and subtle attitudes towards homosexuality, he puts 10 statements on the board and students discuss the statements in a group. He then tallies the group votes and leads the class in a discussion of their own preconceptions, along with theory and research evidence.

Sexual Trichotomy Model An explanation of the trichotomy of sexual identity, sexual behavior, and sexual orientation. Students discuss how this trichtomy might apply to 6 hypothetical people and in the process discover how sexuality is fluid and how a person’s identity, orientation and behavior can change throughout life.

Electronic Texts

Examples and Illustrations

Gender Non-Conformity in a Tide Ad This ad depicts a mom who is exasperated at her daughter’s non-conformity with gender roles. While the mom tries to be supportive of her daughter’s non-traditional efforts, her obvious discomfort illustrate that gendered expectations for behavior still run strong.

Lecture Notes

Slide Presentations

Tests, Measures, and Scales

Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgendered Alliance in Social and Personality From the website: GASP (GLBT Alliance in Social and Personality) is a nonprofit organization affiliated with (but independent of) the Society for Personality and Social Psychology. GASP provides support and professional information to Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) students and faculty in social and personality psychology and their hetorosexual allies. The site includes information on research and funding; links to teaching resources; a GLBT resouces and mentor page and an extensive data base of GLBT measures.

Sexual Behavior Scales. The Center for AIDS Prevention Studies (CAPS) at the University of California, San Francisco, provides various surveys designed and tested by CAPS scientists for use by HIV prevention program planners and designers. Topics include condom use, sexual attitudes, the National Sexual Health Survey, and much, much more.

Multimedia Resources

Bad Questions to Ask a Transsexual The background information for this sarcastic video starts After years of teeth-grindingly ignorant and insulting questions, Calpernia Addams finally snaps and shares her list of Bad Questions which you should never ask a transsexual. These are all real questions from real life! The video ends with the disclaimer If you [are] offended by this

it means you’re most likely someone who thinks these questions are Ok to ask…Everyone has curiosity about things they don’t understand, the key is knowing what and when to ask. (14 minutes, 20 seconds). This video is sure to get your students asking questions and challenging their assumptions.

It’s Time — Marriage Equality — GetUp! Australia This Australian public service announcement takes a novel and moving approach in its support for marriage equality.

Born This Way This blog is a photo/essay project for gay adults (male and female) to submit pictures from their childhood (roughly ages 2 to 12) – with snapshots that capture them, innocently, showing the beginnings of their innate LGBT selves. According to the blog’s editor, So, some of the pix here feature gay boys with feminine traits, and some gay girls with masculine traits. And even more gay kids with NONE of those traits. Just like real life, these gay kids come in all shades and layers of masculine and feminine. And this project is not about furthering stereotypes. The result is often charming, thoughtful, and very real. Also check out a photo essay from NPR (February 2, 2011) about the blog here.

Homeosexuality in the DSM: 81 words In this episode of the NPR program This American Life, originally broadcast January 18, 2002, host Ira Glass describes The story of how the American Psychiatric Association decided in 1973 that homosexuality was no longer a mental illness and struck out 81 words from the DSM. (60 minutes; Can be listened to online for free, download for a small fee, or purchased on CD).

Human Rights Campaign: Working for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Equal Rights. As part of the Human Rights Campaign’s mission to education the public, o this website they provide background information on visibility and coming out, a video about understanding transgender issues through the personal story of Donna Rose, information on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, and a blog.

Prenatal Testosterone and Finger Ratio Can you predict the winner of an athletic contest by looking at finger ratios? John Manning explains how finger length ratio reflect prenatal hormone exposure which is also related to athletic ability in this short video from the BBC program Secret of the Sexes (runs 6 minutes, 8 seconds).

Sexual Identity, Sexual Orientation, and Sexual Behavior The Science of Relationships blog, written by psychologists, presents this short primer on the differences between the three in the spirit that understanding will lead to less hate. Posted October 21, 2012, runs 3 minutes, 49 seconds.

Transgenderism in Children: Two Families Grapple with Sons’ Gender Preferences: Psychologists Take Radically Different Approaches in Therapy. Transgenderism in Teens: Parents Consider Treatment to Delay Son’s Puberty: New Therapy Would Buy Time to Resolve Gender Crisis. In May 2008 NPR reporter Alix Spiegel did a sensitive two-part series on transgenderism. Part I considers whether transgenderism is “a pathology due to a dysfunctional environment” or a just a “moral variant of human behavior” (22 minutes 45 seconds). In Part II one family struggles with what to do with their transgendered daughter as she is about to go through puberty (20 minutes 12 seconds).

Twin Research This story and video from the CBS news program 60 Minutes takes a look at the impact of genetics on sexual orientation.