Gay Marriage And Its Slow Progression Of Acceptance

With the recent legalization of gay marriage and its slow progression of acceptance in society, sexuality is a subject that plays a huge role in daily life and is becoming a common and prominent theme in society as more time passes. According to the American Psychological Association, sexual orientation refers to the sex or sexual interest to whom one is sexually and romantically attracted to. Heterosexuality, homosexuality and bisexuality are the three mostly familiar categories of sexual orientation for a typical person, and these sexualities make up for 98.9% of the sexual orientation among American adults (Ward 1, et al). But what about the other 1.1% of sexualities? While these three categories continue to be widely used to refer to†¦show more content†¦Kinsey, working with his colleagues Wardell Pomeroy and Clyde Martin, developed â€Å"The Heterosexual-Homosexual Rating Scale,† in 1948. Also known as the â€Å"Kinsey Scale,† this rating scale explains a nd classifies people that did not fit into the exclusive categories of heterosexuality or homosexuality. Kinsey’s scale consists of six levels, with level 0 being exclusively heterosexual and contains no homosexual desires, to level 6 being exclusively homosexual, with no heterosexual desires. The remaining levels of the scale, in between 0 and 6, consist of sexualities with varying degrees of bisexuality. Like any other social trait, a person’s sexual preferences, attitudes, behaviors and identities can be flexible to some degree. This was seen in Kinsey’s study, because while the majority of men and women reported to be either exclusively heterosexual or homosexual, many individuals in the study still disclosed behaviors and attraction somewhere in between, according to the information found on â€Å"KinseyInstitute.org†. One of these particular attributes is â€Å"sexual fluidity.† Sexual fluidity is a sexual orientation in which one identifies as either homosexual or heterosexual, but changes preferences based on their surrounding environment. For example, a woman may identify as heterosexual, but given certain circumstances or by being introduced to a new environment, she might develop a sexual interest