'''Sexual orientation''' is an unchangeable and involuntary aspect of [[sexuality]] that refers to the [[Gender|gender]](s)]] or [[Gender Alignment|gender alignmentsalignment]]s that an individual feels [[Sexual Attraction|sexual attraction]] towards and how that sexual attraction is experienced.<ref> https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/bias-free-language/sexual-orientation</ref>
Typically, sexual orientation labels are derived using a prefix combined with the suffix "-sexual." [[Bisexual]], [[Straight|heterosexual]], and [[demisexual]] are all examples of sexual orientations. Other labels that do not use the "-sexual" suffix, such as [[gay]], [[lesbian]], and [[trixic]], can also be used to describe one's sexuality.
An individual who experiences no sexual attraction, or only experiences it rarely or weakly, may consider themselves [[asexual]].
The romantic counterpart is [[Romantic Orientation|romantic orientation]]. [[Perioriented]] individuals may prefer to identify only with their sexual orientation label, as one's romantic orientation is often socially assumed to be the same unless specified otherwise. For [[Asexual Spectrum|asexual-spectrum]], [[Aromantic Spectrum|aromantic-spectrum]], and otherwise [[varioriented]] individuals, it is often useful to identify with separate sexual and romantic orientations following the [[Split Attraction Model (SAM)|split attraction model]].
==History==
The [[Kinsey Scale|Kinsey scale]], also called the Heterosexual-Homosexual Rating Scale, was first published in ''Sexual Behavior in the Human Male'' in 1948 and was also featured in the 1953 sequel report ''Sexual Behavior in the Human Female''.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.187552 Archived copy of Alfred Kinsey's ''Sexual Behavior in the Human Male''.]</ref><ref>[https://archive.org/details/sexualbehaviorin00inst Archived copy of Alfred Kinsey's ''Sexual Behavior in the Human Female''.]</ref> The Kinsey scale provides a classification of sexual orientation based on the relative amounts of heterosexual and homosexual experience or desire in one's history at a given time rather than assuming that individuals are either exclusively heterosexual or exclusively homosexual.
The stigmatization of those who would not be classified as heterosexual, including heterosexual [[trans]] individuals, in the early and mid 1900s led to political organizing in the US around individualized marginalized sexual orientations and sometimes [[Gender|gender identities]], including organizations like Mattachine Society, which was primarily gay, and the Daughters of Bilitis, which was primarily lesbian.<ref>[https://www.google.com/books/edition/Gay_American_History/97MPAQAAMAAJ?hl=en ''Gay American History: Lesbians and Gay Men in the U.S.A.: A Documentary History'', Jonathan Ned Katz, Meridian Press.]</ref> After the [[The Stonewall Riots|Stonewall riots]] initially caused more co-organizing, however, some gay and lesbian individuals became less accepting of bisexual or transgender people in the late 1970s and the early 1980s.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=QiJryCzrZmYC ''Transgender Subjectivities: A Clinician's Guide'', Jack Drescher, Haworth Press].</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=2SOe4igsrbgC ''Bisexuality and Transgenderism: InterSEXions of The Others'', Jonathan Alexander and Karen Yescavage, Haworth Press.]</ref> From about 1988, activists began to use the initialism LGBT,<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=PiglAQAAIAAJ ''Research, policy and practice: Annual meeting'', American Educational Research Association Verlag AERA.]</ref> and it was not until the 1990s within the movement that gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender individuals had more or less equal respect.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=2SOe4igsrbgC ''Bisexuality and Transgenderism'', Alexander and Yescavage (again).]</ref>
==Culture==
==References==
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[[Category:Terminology]]
[[Category:Sexuality]]
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