"Understanding Sexual Orientation"

In my point of view, article explains that heterosexuality and homosexuality were a continuum. A number of studies have been published over the past decade reporting that 5% or less of adolescents were aware of homosexual feelings, a finding also inconsistent with Kinsey's data. These studies have rejected prenatal hormones and rearing by homosexual parents as influencing sexual orientation. If Kinsey's data are correct and 40% or more of adolescents are aware of homosexual feeling the findings of these studies are invalid. Two replications of an initial study with representative samples of medical students found over 40% of both males and females currently aware of some homosexual feelings, consistent with Kinsey's conclusion. The ratio of reported homosexual to heterosexual feelings correlated with opposite sex-linked behaviors in the male, supporting the validity of the subjects' reports. If subjects representative of other subgroups of the population are investigated with this easily implemented method and report similar data, this theoretically and sociologically significant divergence of belief concerning the incidence of the heterosexual/homosexual balance would be resolved.

I think labels like homosexual and heterosexual can be useful, but I think we still have a lot of progress to make as far as some being more acceptable than others. People should be able to label themselves as homosexual if they want to without fear of being treated differently for being so, and I think a lot of the gray area that exists between homo and hetero exists as a result of that fear. The bad kind of gray area where people can’t come to terms with their own sexual and emotional needs, rather than the good kind of gray area that Michael Stipe seems to know all about, where he realizes that labels can be irrelevant as long as you are comfortable with who you are and what you want.