Ritch C. Savin-Williams’s research while affiliated with Cornell University and other places

Sexual and romantic orientations and identities exist along a spectrum with varying degrees of compliance to traditional concepts of sex and romance. Recent investigations have focused on individuals who are not exclusive in their sexual and romantic lives—mostly straights and mostly gays/lesbians. Multi-disciplinary research reveals the diversity of individuals’ internal and external sexual and romantic feelings and expressions. One corrective strategy is to scrap categorically based assessment tools and replace them with continuum measures that capture the multiplicity of individuals’ sexual and romantic lives. Here I suggest several new measures that are more responsive to a spectrum approach.

The degree to which bisexual-identified individuals are distinct from either heterosexual or homosexual individuals in their sexual orientation is an ongoing debate. We examined potential differences between these groups with respect to a strong correlate of sexual orientation, gender nonconformity (femininity in males, masculinity in females). Across pooled data, we compared self-reports of childhood gender nonconformity (n = 919) and adulthood gender nonconformity (n = 1265) and observer ratings of adulthood gender nonconformity (n = 915) between sexual orientations. Most analyses suggested a steady increase in gender nonconformity from exclusively heterosexual to exclusively homosexual. However, in some analyses, bisexual men were closer to homosexual men than to heterosexual men in their gender nonconformity. The intermediate status of bisexual people in gender nonconformity was not due to the sample having a mixture of very gender-conforming and very gender-nonconforming individuals. In total, men and women with bisexual orientations appeared neither like heterosexual nor homosexual individuals, at least with respect to their gender-related traits.

Significance There has long been skepticism among both scientists and laypersons that male bisexual orientation exists. Skeptics have claimed that men who self-identify as bisexual are actually homosexual or heterosexual. (The existence of female bisexuality has been less controversial.) This controversy can be resolved using objective, genital responses of men to male and female erotic stimuli. We combined nearly all available data (from eight previous American, British, and Canadian studies) to form a dataset of more than 500 men, much larger than any previous individual study, and conducted rigorous statistical tests. Results provided compelling evidence that bisexual-identified men tend to show bisexual genital and subjective arousal patterns. Male sexual orientation is expressed on a continuum rather than dichotomously.

Purpose of Review To critically assess the prevalence, mental health, and heterogeneity of bisexual men and to highlight their inextricable linkage with each other Recent Findings When an inclusive definition of male bisexuality is used, prevalence rates increase from the standard 1 to 2% to a more accurate 10 to 20%. Previously documented physical, mental, and social health deficiencies of bisexual men are likely the result of sampling bias, disregard for sexual orientation domains, especially romantic dimensions, and failure to acknowledge bisexual subgroups (primary, concealed, transient, situational, sensation-seeking, clinical). These oversights, whether intended or not, have profound implications for healthcare providers. Summary To accurately determine the prevalence, mental health, and heterogeneity of bisexual men, future research should investigate various sexual and romantic domains, assume a continuous rather than a categorical approach, acknowledge the diversity of bisexuality by considering types of bisexual men, and study the positive attributes of bisexual men.

Recent evidence suggests it is useful to distinguish sexual identities among young men at the gay end of the spectrum because of group differences between primarily gay, mostly gay and gay orientations on several assessed physiological, behavioural and self-report measures. However, little is known about individuals’ rationales for choosing sexuality labels beyond traditional gay or bisexual categories. We addressed this issue by interviewing 24 young men with a non-exclusive gay orientation about their sexual desires and histories, drawing on both qualitative and numeric data. Undertaking an inductive analysis, we found four distinct rationales for identification with a sexual orientation label: sexual, romantic, intellectual and internalised homophobia. By examining what young men mean when they classify themselves as primarily gay, mostly gay or bisexual-leaning gay, this article provides data to understand these issues and proposes that greater focus should be placed on sexual identity for non-exclusive gay men. Although the sexual and affectional components of sexual orientation are meaningful, previous research has not sufficiently accounted for the importance of intellectual, cultural and romantic factors in non-exclusive sexual orientations. To address these issues, the use of in-depth interviews should be incorporated in future studies.

Effective therapy with lesbian and bisexual women and gay and bisexual men is best realized when clinicians are aware of the unique developmental challenges that lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals experience. This chapter considers these elements and highlights their potential impact on the psychotherapy process. Given the recent upsurge in acceptance of LGB sexualities that renders earlier research of questionable generalizability, the chapter focuses on studies published within the past decade. It reviews the scant, often deficient, findings related to sexual dysfunction in women who have sex with women (WSW) and men who have sex with men (MSM). Sexual dysfunction also can ebb and flow over the life course, especially during times of stressful transition, such as when coming out to self and others, starting or ending a romantic relationship, or changing a job or geographically relocating at which time coming out is once again experienced as a risk-laden undertaking.

Kinsey argued that sexuality exists along a continuum from exclusive attraction to one sex or the other, with degrees of gradations of nonexclusivity in-between. Other than bisexuality and, recently, mostly heterosexuality, possibilities within the nonexclusive spectrum are seldom investigated, especially among men. In two studies presented here, an additional point, primarily heterosexual, in-between exclusively heterosexual and mostly heterosexual, is proposed. The three were distinguished among 92 young men based on self-reports of three sexual indicators (attraction, fantasy, genital contact); two romantic indicators (infatuation, romantic relationship); and sexual identity. Exclusively heterosexuals differed from the other two in having lower levels of pupil dilation to same-sex (but not other-sex) pornographic stimuli and of gender nonconformity, a proxy for sexual orientation. Primarily and mostly heterosexuals did not differ from each other on either measure but did differ in the extent to which mostly heterosexuals were considerably more likely to endorse same-sex sexuality. Results supported the uniqueness of mostly heterosexual men and, descriptively, primarily heterosexual men. The second longitudinal study found the exclusively heterosexual point was the most stable. Across the three, there was greater movement toward same-sex than other-sex sexuality. This is interpreted in light of the increasing acceptance of same-sex sexuality within the millennial generation.

This exploratory study assessed physiological, behavioral, and self-report measures of sexual and romantic indicators of sexual orientation identities among young men (mean age = 21.9 years) with predominant same-sex sexual and romantic interests: those who described themselves as bisexual leaning gay (n = 11), mostly gay (n = 17), and gay (n = 47). Although they were not significantly distinguishable based on physiological (pupil dilation) responses to nude stimuli, on behavioral and self-report measures a descending linear trend toward the less preferred sex (female) was significant regarding sexual attraction, fantasy, genital contact, infatuation, romantic relationship, sex appeal, and gazing time to the porn stimuli. Results supported a continuum of sexuality with distinct subgroups only for the self-report measure of sexual attraction. The other behavioral and self-report measures followed the same trend but did not significantly differ between the bisexual leaning gay and mostly gay groups, likely the result of small sample size. Results suggest that romantic indicators are as good as sexual measures in assessing sexual orientation and that a succession of logically following groups from bisexual leaning gay, mostly gay, to gay. Whether these three groups are discrete or overlapping needs further research.

Pupil dilation to explicit sexual stimuli (footage of naked and aroused men or women) can elicit sex and sexual orientation differences in sexual response. If similar patterns were replicated with non-explicit sexual stimuli (footage of dressed men and women), then pupil dilation could be indicative of automatic sexual response in fully noninvasive designs. We examined this in 325 men and women with varied sexual orientations to determine whether dilation patterns to non-explicit sexual stimuli resembled those to explicit sexual stimuli depicting the same sex or other sex. Sexual orientation differences in pupil dilation to non-explicit sexual stimuli mirrored those to explicit sexual stimuli. However, the relationship of dilation to non-explicit sexual stimuli with dilation to corresponding explicit sexual stimuli was modest, and effect magnitudes were smaller with non-explicit sexual stimuli than explicit sexual stimuli. The prediction that sexual orientation differences in pupil dilation are larger in men than in women was confirmed with explicit sexual stimuli but not with non-explicit sexual stimuli.