sexual orientation essays

sexual orientation essays Sexual orientation has been and to some degree is still seen as a taboo topic. For many years it has been argued that sexual orientation is based on one's gender and one's sexual preference, should be based on one's sex (i.e. females should be attracted to males and males to females). For generations, these narrow views were considered to be the norm. However, hidden within society was a lifestyle that once aired was seen as deviant. Homosexuality and many sexual orientations were seen as sexual deviancy that needed some type of treatment to cure. Many people use the term sexual preference to describe someone's sexual orientation, such as heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, etc. Heterosexuals are individuals attracted to the opposite sex, homosexuals are individuals who are attracted to the same sex, while bisexuals are people who are attracted to both sexes. However this term is outdated because "sexual orientation is no longer considered to be one's conscious individual preference or choice, but is instead thought to be formed by a complicated network of social, cultural biological, economic and political factors (http:// www.siews.org/pubs/fact/fact0006.html)." Sexual orientation is based on one' erotic, romantic and affectional attractions. These attractions could occur with the same gender (sex), to the opposite gender (sex) or both. Society is obsessed with finding what determines one' sexual orientation, if an individual is homosexual or bisexual. Surprising, society is not really fascinated why heterosexuals are 'straight'. "Straight people do not 'come out' because our society assumes that people are straight unless they say that they are not (Planned Parenthood. 2000, p. 3)." This assumption is known as heterosexism, which is quite offensive and disrespectful towards the homosexual community. A large sector of the population fails to realize how difficult 'coming out' might be for homosexuals to their f...