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A person's sexual orientation refers to heterosexual, bisexual or homosexual desire. Use of the term usually implies that such desire is inherent and unchangeable (compare sexual preference).

A rarely seen related term is affectional orientation which emphasizes elements of romance and affection.

The term, like sexual preference, is used to distinguish between an individual's desires and their actions. A person's sexual orientation is held to remain stable even if the person does not engage in sexual acts. Thus we may speak of a heterosexual virgin or a homosexual celibate. Historically, no such distinction was made -- a person was considered homosexual, for example, if and only if they had homosexual sex.

Research

According to two controversial studies, Sexual Behavior in the Human Male (1948) and Sexual Behavior in the Human Female (1953) by Dr. Alfred C. Kinsey, when asked to rate themselves on a continuum from completely heterosexual to completely homosexual, and when the individuals behavior as well as their identify is analyzed, the majority of people appear to be at least somewhat bisexual, i.e., most people have some attraction to either sex, although usually one sex is preferred. According to Kinsey, only a minority (5-10%) can be considered fully heterosexual or homosexual. Conversely, only an even smaller minority can be considered "fully" bisexual. See Kinsey Reports.

Modern scientific surveys find that nearly all people have a heterosexual orientation, while 1% or 2% in report a homosexual or bisexual orientation.

Researchers are divided over bisexual orientation. Some reserve the term "bisexual" for those having a balance of heterosexual and homosexual orientation, while others insist that even fleeting homosexual desire or experimental homosexual contact makes a person bisexual.

A very small percentage of people are not attracted to anyone (asexuality).

Religious viewpoints

Much religious teaching maintains that sexual behavior should conform to moral and religious codes. Traditionally, Christianity has considered homosexuality to be morally wrong. In recent years, most major Christian denominations have begun to differentiate between homosexuality as a sexual orientation and homosexual sex acts. Increasingly, some characterize the sexual orientation as not sinful in and of itself, but as a temptation or challenge to be overcome.

Most denominations continue to believe that homosexual sex is immoral and a sin. The Catholic Church prescribes chastity for homosexuals, as do many other major denominations. See Religion and homosexuality for a discussion of this subject in depth.

Recent Approaches: sexual orientation as a "construction"

Many people in Western societies today speak of "sexual orientation " as a unified and actual thing. Over the past thirty years anthropologists, historians, and literary critics have pointed out that it in fact comprises a variety of different things, including a specific object of erotic desire, and forms of erotic fulfilment (i.e. sexual behaviors). Many scholars have argued that "sexual orientation" and specific sexual orientations are historical and social constructions. In 1976 the historian Michel Foucault argued that homosexuality did not exist as such in the 18th century; that people instead spoke of "sodomy" (which involved specific erotic acts regardless of the sex of the actors) as a crime that was often ignored but sometimes punished severely. He further argued that it was in the 19th century that "homosexuality" came into existence as practicioners of emerging sciences as well as arts sought to classify and analyze different forms of sexual "perversion". Finally, Foucault argues that it was this emerging discourse that allowed some to claim that homosexuality is natural, and therefore a legitimate "sexual orientation."

Foucault's suggestions about Western sexuality led other historians and anthropologists to abandon the 19th century project of classifying different forms of "sexual" behavior or "sexual" orientation" to a new project that asks "what is "sexuality" and how do people in different places and at different times understand their bodies and desires? For example, they have argued that the famous case of some Melanesian societies in which adult men and pre-pubescent and adolescent boys engage in oral sex is not comparable to similar acts in the United States or Europe; that Melanesians do not understand or explain such acts in terms of sexual desire or as a sexual behavior, and that it in fact reflects a culture with a very different notion of sex, sexuality, and gender. Some historians have made similar claims about so-called homosexuality in ancient Greece; that behaviors that appear to be homosexual in modern Western societies may have been understood by ancient Greeks in entirely different ways.

Two Major Viewpoints

At stake in these new views are two different points. One is the claim that human sexuality is extraordinarily plastic, and that specific notions about the body and sexuality are socially constructed. The other is the fundamentally anthropological claim of cultural relativism: that human behavior should be interpreted in the context of its cultural environment, and that the language of one culture is often inappropriate for describing practices or beliefs in another culture. A number of contemporary scholars who have come to reject Foucault's specific arguments about Western sexuality nevertheless have accepted these basic theoretical and methodological points.

See: causes of sexual orientation, sexual behavior, bisexuality, reparative therapy, Homosexuality, Heterosexuality