Gay identity
LGBTI+ sexual identity and orientation
Sexual identity and sexual orientation are part of what makes you who you are. Sexual orientation is your sexual preference for people of the equal sex, the opposite sex, or both.
Sexual identity is the label that you might use to allow others know who you are as a sexual being.
LGBTI+ stands for sapphic, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex.
Coming out
"Coming out" is the term used by LGBTI+ people to illustrate their experience of finding out, self-acceptance, openness and truth about their LGBTI+ identity.
Whoever you are, or whatever your circumstances, coming out can be a challenging time. You may be afraid that family and friends might reject you when they find out you are LGBTI+. This can put a strain on your mental health.
Most people know they are LGBTI+ for some day before they decide to tell others. This can be a challenging exposure, but a rewarding one.
Most people get a positive and supportive response from family and friends and feel happy that they made the decision to come out.
Bullying or harassment
LGBTI+ people can experience homophobic or transphobic bullying or harassment.
This type of bullying ca
Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Definitions
Sexual orientation
An inherent or immutable enduring emotional, romantic or sexual attraction to other people. Note: an individual’s sexual orientation is independent of their gender identity.
Gender identity
One's innermost concept of self as male, female, a blend of both or neither – how individuals perceive themselves and what they call themselves. One's gender identity can be the same or distinct from their sex assigned at birth.
Gender expression
External appearance of one's gender persona, usually expressed through deed, clothing, body characteristics or voice, and which may or may not conform to socially defined behaviors and characteristics typically connected with being either masculine or feminine.
Transgender
An umbrella phrase for people whose gender identity and/or expression is different from cultural expectations based on the sex they were assigned at birth. Being transgender does not imply any specific sexual orientation. Therefore, gender non-conforming people may identify as straight, gay, lesbian, pansexual, etc.
Gender transition
The process by which some people compete to more closely
Sexual Identity
In the simplest terms, sex refers to the two groups that most living things are divided into (male and female) according to differences in their biology e.g. hormones, chromosomes and reproductive systems. Each year, a very small number of individuals are born with Differences of Sex Development (DSDs), which is a legal title used to describe some conditions in which a person is born with a reproductive anatomy that doesn’t fit the usual definitions of male or female. For more knowledge on DSDs, visit DSD Families
Your sexual identity, or sexual orientation, is a phrase used to describe the sex of a person, or people, you are attracted to in a sexual or romantic way. Most people become attentive of their sexual orientation when they reach puberty, but it is achievable for these feelings to change over time, or never appear at all. Everyone has a sexual orientation and may narrate themselves as;
- Heterosexual/Straight: a person physically and emotionally attracted to someone of the opposite sex, so a male attracted to a female and a female attracted to a male
- Gay: a male physically and emotionally attracted to another male or a female physically and emotionally attr
Nearly 16% of people changed their sexual identity over a 12-year period, according to a new analyze I conducted with my colleagues, involving around 35,000 residents of Stockholm County. This challenges long-held opinions about sexual identity existence largely fixed.
Between 2010 and 2021, we found that 15.7% of people aged 18 and older in Stockholm experienced shifts in their sexual identity. Attracted to both genders people had a upper rate of change, with 52% reporting a switch during the study period. Within this group, 33% changed to identifying as heterosexual in 2014 or 2021 and 9% moved towards a homosexual identity.
Homosexual people followed at 36%. Within this group, 26% changed to identifying as heterosexual in 2014 or 2021 and 7% shifted to a bisexual identity.
Heterosexual people had a much lower rate of alter at 7%. Notably, about half of those detecting as bisexual in 2021 had previously identified as heterosexual in 2010.
Similar patterns have been observed internationally. In countries prefer Australia, New Zealand, the UK, and the US, studies report that between 5% and 30% of people changed their sexual identity over various age periods.
These findings challenge the common be
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