Factors contributing to sexual orientation.

Factors contributing to sexual orientation.

Sexual orientation is the person’s attraction to a particular gender (male or female or both). There are heterosexual, heteroflexible, homosexual, bisexual, pansexual, and many other sexual orientations. Sexual orientation is formed based on several factors in a person's life.

● Anatomy, biology, and hormones

Anatomically, boys and girls are almost the same till age 5 or 6. However, many homosexuals claim they knew their sexual orientation at a very young age. So far, there is no proven hormonal or anatomical differences between heterosexual and homosexual males, or heterosexual and lesbian females. Science has not established that anatomy and hormones have a role in sexual orientation yet. Extreme anatomical and hormonal cases like hermaphrodite is a different story. A hermaphrodite is usually a female phenotype with the 2 male and female sex organs. This is not a case of sexual orientation, homosexuality or bisexuality, this is a case of actual hermaphroditic.


● Identity, feelings, and emotions

Sexual identity starts with the parents and society identifying a child as a boy or girl from birth. A child is actually taught to recognize himself or herself as a boy or girl by his parent and the society. What a child learns and believes at a very young age is usually imprinted in his or her belief system. It is like learning to speak a language marked on the hard drive of his or her brain computer. This is why in many cases there is a struggle when a person feels different than what society have decided for him or her at a very young age. Sexual identity is different from a sexual orientation in non-heterosexual individuals. A person can be a gender but feel and have the emotions of the same gender, the other gender, both genders, or neither.

● Appearance

It is noticeable that some gay men look and act feminine and some lesbians look and act masculine. However, this can be a learned behavior since the same person may change his or her behavior and voice too. In some cases, boys with feminine looking features or girls with masculinity may be stereotyped as gay or homosexual. However, this may change entirely with puberty. So, a person’s appearance may not be a factor in deciding a person’s sexual orientation.

● Experience and environment
Some claim when a person experiments with homosexuality in early life, he or she may turn homosexual. There has not been any proves or basis for this proposal. Also, this proposal doesn’t explain homosexuality in animals or primates. 10% of goats are homosexual even some are monogamous. Almost all bonobo monkeys are bisexual. In some countries, like Afghanistan, men practice pedophilia by choosing a boy from a young age and use him until he is a teenager. If such a boy turns out to be a receiving homosexual, it could be just a learned behavior since he was forced into it from a very young age. It can be just a way to survive too. Forced homosexuality in such a society is similar to compulsory heterosexuality in others.






Compulsory heterosexuality and how society may influence the expression of sexuality


Compulsory heterosexuality is considered a normal sexual relation in many societies. The Relationship between a man and a woman is the only relationship that is acceptable in numerous cultures. Heterosexuality is usually a social obligation for everyone to have sexual activity only with the opposite sex to have children. Compulsory heterosexuality forces individuals to suppress their sexual desires and orientation to fit into the society. This undoubtedly influences the expression of sexual preference. Lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgenders, queers and or questioning (LGBTQ) are forced into marriages with their opposite gender to have children disregarding their sexual desires or preference.




Factors affected her sexual orientation and attraction.
She Stated:
"I believe my experience and environment have significantly affected my sexual expression. My father and mother have been divorced before I was born. I grow up in a house full of only women.  I lived with my mother, my aunts who were separated from their husbands too, and female cousins. I had no male role model to support my childhood or give me a male parental love. I missed on the feeling of protection, security, or support provided by a father."


"My mother and aunts were not educated and never gave me any sexual teaching. They haven't even taught me about expecting my first monthly menstrual period which was a shocking, and terrifying experience. I also spent my puberty in a Catholic all-girls school, and sex talk or education was forbidden by society, as well as the family. I grew up sheltered by women. I was told what to do all the time, and I followed. I never had experience on my own. I was and still am naive."


"At a young age, I found myself to be attracted to beautiful girls not in a sexual way, but in a romantic way. I used to collect beautiful model pictures and keep them in a notebook. I felt nervous, and my heart was beating fast the first time I saw a naked girl in the school showers when I was a teenager. I was excited about her body and breasts, but not her genitals.


In high school, I had an innocent friendship with a boy. I went to his home to do homework once, and right away he spread a rumor that we had sex. I heard the boys and girls whisper nasty things about me. I was the most popular and highest grades but, all my friends abandoned me, and I spent the rest of high school alone. Some of my classmates whom I thought are my friends stole my homework more than once, and I had to redo it 3 times. My friends wrote unsigned nasty letters and left it on my desk. I didn’t trust friends anymore.


"At 16, I fell for the first older guy who told me he liked me. From 16 to 21, I was in a relationship with a person who hurt me, used me, cheated on me, controlled me, terrified me, and threatened to spray acid on my face and kill me if I leave him. I thought this was normal. At 21, my family tricked me into coming to America for fear of my X boyfriend might hurt me more." 
"in America, I had another relationship with a guy who lied to me, used me, cheated on me and I found out that he had a fiance. Again, I thought it was normal. I made new friends who were girls, and they betrayed me like my high school friends. We went to a club to dance together, but at midnight, they all hooked up with boys and abandoned me. They left me alone at midnight without a ride home. Other friends borrowed my money and never gave it back. I realized I don't make new friends because I learned the hard way not to trust friends."


"Because all of the above, I am not sexually attracted to boys my age because I find them to be childish, immature and not to be trusted. I am not attracted to pretty girls my age because I find them to be selfish, not sincere, and want to have what is mine. I find myself attracted to an older mature, stable man who will protect, support, and love me like the father I never had. I still feel more comfortable to follow than to make decisions. So, I find myself to be safer with a strong man who will make decisions for me or who is even controlling but honest, loving, and a caring father figure. When it comes to girls, I like cute petite girls who would submit to me and whom I can protect and control a little. I do not like girls who are stronger than me because I am afraid they may betray me like before. I like pretty girls bodies but not genitals."!