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"Homosexual" redirects here. For the album, see Homosexual (album).
This article is about homosexuality in humans. For homosexuality in other species, see Homosexual behavior in animals.

Homosexuality is sexual attraction, romantic attraction, or sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender.[1][2][3] As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" exclusively to people of the same sex or gender.[4] It "also refers to a person's sense of identity based on those attractions, related behaviors, and membership in a community of others who share those attractions."[5][6]

Along with bisexuality and heterosexuality, homosexuality is one of the three main categories of sexual orientation within the heterosexual–homosexual continuum.[5] Although no single theory on the cause of sexual orientation has yet gained widespread support, scientists favor biological theories.[7][8][9] There is considerably more evidence supporting nonsocial, biological causes of sexual orientation than social ones, especially for males.[7][10][11] A major hypothesis implicates the prenatal environment, specifically the organizational effects of hormones on the fetal brain.[7][9] There is no substantive evidence which suggests parenting or early childhood experiences play a role in developing a sexual orientation.[7][12] Scientific research shows that homosexuality is a natural and normal variation in human sexuality and is not in and of itself a source of negative psychological effects.[5][13] There is insufficient evidence to support the use of psychological interventions to change sexual orientation.[14][15]

The most common terms for homosexual people are lesbian for females and gay for males, but the term gay also commonly refers to both homosexual females and males. Other common labels that include gay people are LGBTQ and queer. The percentage of people who are gay or lesbian and the proportion of people who are in same-sex romantic relationships or have had same-sex sexual experiences are difficult for researchers to estimate reliably for a variety of reasons, including many gay and lesbian people not openly identifying as such due to prejudice or discrimination such as homophobia and heterosexism.[16] Homosexual behavior has also been documented in many non-human animal species,[22] though humans are one of only two species known to exhibit a homosexual orientation (the other is sheep).[7]

Many gay and lesbian people are in committed same-sex relationships. These relationships are equivalent to heterosexual relationships in essential psychological respects.[6] Homosexual relationships and acts have been admired as well as condemned throughout recorded history, depending on the form they took and the culture in which they occurred.[23] Since the end of the 20th century, there has been a global movement towards freedom and equality for gay people, including the introduction of anti-bullying legislation to protect gay children at school, legislation ensuring non-discrimination, equal ability to serve in the military, equal access to health care, equal ability to adopt and parent, and the establishment of marriage equality.

  1. ^ "Definitions Related to Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity in APA Documents" (PDF). American Psychological Association. 2015. p. 6. Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 April 2022. Retrieved 6 February 2020. Sexual orientation refers to the sex of those to whom one is sexually and romantically attracted. ... [It is] one's enduring sexual attraction to male partners, female partners, or both. Sexual orientation may be heterosexual, samesex (gay or lesbian), or bisexual. ... A person may be attracted to men, women, both, neither, or to people who are genderqueer, androgynous, or have other gender identities. Individuals may identify as lesbian, gay, heterosexual, bisexual, queer, pansexual, or asexual, among others. ... Categories of sexual orientation typically have included attraction to members of one's own sex (gay men or lesbians), attraction to members of the other sex (heterosexuals), and attraction to members of both sexes (bisexuals). While these categories continue to be widely used, research has suggested that sexual orientation does not always appear in such definable categories and instead occurs on a continuum .... Some people identify as pansexual or queer in terms of their sexual orientation, which means they define their sexual orientation outside of the gender binary of 'male' and 'female' only.
  2. ^ Eric B. Shiraev; David A. Levy (2016). Cross-Cultural Psychology: Critical Thinking and Contemporary Applications, Sixth Edition. Taylor & Francis. p. 216. ISBN 978-1134871315. Archived from the original on 24 November 2021. Retrieved 15 September 2021. Sexual orientation refers to romantic or sexual attraction to people of a specific sex or gender. ... Heterosexuality, along with bisexuality and homosexuality are at least three main categories of the continuum of sexual orientation. ... Homosexuality is a romantic or sexual attraction between persons of the same sex or gender.
  3. ^ James R. Lehman; Kristine Diaz; Henry Ng; Elizabeth M. Petty; Meena Thatikunta; Kristen Eckstrand, eds. (2019). The Equal Curriculum: The Student and Educator Guide to LGBTQ Health. Springer Nature. p. 5. ISBN 978-3030240257. Archived from the original on 24 November 2021. Retrieved 15 September 2021. Homosexual, literally meaning "same sex", is used as an adjective to describe same-sex or same-gender attraction. ... The term introduces ambiguity because is often applied as an identity label to a person or group based on their behaviors, not because of self-identified sexual orientation or sexual desires. ... in addition to having potentially negative connotations, homosexual is unclear as to what group of people it describes...
  4. ^ "General Definitions". LGBT Resource Center. Retrieved 4 August 2023.
  5. ^ a b c "Sexual orientation, homosexuality and bisexuality". American Psychological Association. Archived from the original on 8 August 2013. Retrieved 10 August 2013.
  6. ^ a b "Case No. S147999 in the Supreme Court of the State of California, In re Marriage Cases Judicial Council Coordination Proceeding No. 4365... – APA California Amicus Brief — As Filed" (PDF). p. 30. Archived (PDF) from the original on 3 January 2020. Retrieved 21 December 2010.
  7. ^ a b c d e Bailey JM, Vasey PL, Diamond LM, Breedlove SM, Vilain E, Epprecht M (2016). "Sexual Orientation, Controversy, and Science". Psychological Science in the Public Interest. 17 (21): 45–101. doi:10.1177/1529100616637616. PMID 27113562.
  8. ^ Frankowski BL; American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Adolescence (June 2004). "Sexual orientation and adolescents". Pediatrics. 113 (6): 1827–32. doi:10.1542/peds.113.6.1827. ISSN 0031-4005. PMID 15173519. Archived from the original on 20 March 2013. Retrieved 18 September 2012.
  9. ^ a b Bogaert, Anthony F.; Skorska, Malvina N. (1 March 2020). "A short review of biological research on the development of sexual orientation". Hormones and Behavior. 119: 104659. doi:10.1016/j.yhbeh.2019.104659. ISSN 0018-506X. PMID 31911036.
  10. ^ LeVay, Simon (2017). Gay, Straight, and the Reason Why: The Science of Sexual Orientation. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-029737-4. OL 26246092M – via Open Library.
  11. ^ Balthazart, Jacques (2012). The Biology of Homosexuality. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199838820. Archived from the original on 26 January 2021. Retrieved 27 July 2019.
  12. ^ "Submission to the Church of England's Listening Exercise on Human Sexuality". The Royal College of Psychiatrists. Archived from the original on 16 October 2015. Retrieved 13 June 2013.
  13. ^ "'Therapies' to change sexual orientation lack medical justification and threaten health". Pan American Health Organization. Archived from the original on 23 May 2012. Retrieved 26 May 2012.
  14. ^ "Resolution on Appropriate Affirmative Responses to Sexual Orientation Distress and Change Efforts". American Psychological Association. 2009. Archived from the original on 23 April 2022. Retrieved 18 August 2022.
  15. ^ "Psychological practices that attempt to change sexual orientation: Position statement". Australian Psychological Society. Archived from the original on 12 November 2020. Retrieved 28 January 2020.
  16. ^ LeVay, Simon (1996). Queer Science: The Use and Abuse of Research into Homosexuality Archived 13 December 2017 at the Wayback Machine. Cambridge: The MIT Press ISBN 0-262-12199-9
  17. ^ "Same-sex Behavior Seen in Nearly All Animals, Review Finds". ScienceDaily. Archived from the original on 18 June 2009. Retrieved 9 March 2018.
  18. ^ "1,500 animal species practice homosexuality. The Medical News, 23 October 2006". Archived from the original on 10 February 2011.
  19. ^ Sommer, Volker & Paul L. Vasey (2006), Homosexual Behaviour in Animals, An Evolutionary Perspective. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. ISBN 0-521-86446-1
  20. ^ (Bagemihl 1999)
  21. ^ Cite error: The named reference Biological Exuberance: Animal was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  22. ^ [17][18][19][20][21]
  23. ^ Sexual Orientation Archived 26 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine. American Psychiatric Association.