Sexual orientation

Sexual orientation refers to the sex or gender of people who are the focus of a person's amorous or erotic desires, fantasies, and spontaneous feelings, the gender(s) toward which one is primarily "oriented". The alternative terms sexual preference and sexual inclination have similar meanings. Clinicians and those who believe sexuality is fixed early in life tend to use the former term; those believing sexuality is fluid and reflects preference and choice tend towards the latter terms.

Sexual orientation and mental health

Clinically, heterosexual acts are considered most common in today's cultures (statistically most likely), but the concept of "normal" and "abnormal" with its connotations of sickness or moral judgment are no longer considered valid by most medical professionals.

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Some Abrahamic groups maintain that homosexuals as such do not exist and that homosexuality is actually an unnatural choice, illness or addiction. Many of these groups support reparative therapy to cure homosexuality or stricter laws to prevent individuals engaging freely in homosexual activity, much in the same way as any other harmful mental illness or inappropriate abberation (which is how they tend to view it). One major advocate of this line of thought is the American National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality, which rejects the consensus of the major psychological associations in removing homosexuality from the list of mental illnesses in 1973.

Related Topics:
Abrahamic - Addiction - National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality - 1973

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In 1998, the American Psychological Association stated that the psychological profession's view on homosexuality and mental health was, "the reality is that homosexuality is not an illness. It does not require treatment and is not changeable."

Related Topics:
1998 - American Psychological Association

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