Is Sexual Orientation Immutable? The Science May Surprise You. | The Stream

Is Sexual Orientation Immutable? The Science May Surprise You. | The Stream

"In a fascinating YouTube speech at Cornell University (2013), [University of Utah psychology professor Lisa] Diamond describes her research on sexual orientation, which surprised her. She expected sexual orientation to be immutable but concluded that fluidity is a general feature of human sexuality. Based on her research, she observes that sexuality often changes throughout a lifetime. Here is what she concludes about her research:

"'I am not suggesting we should throw out categories like gay and bisexual. I think they are useful. But we have to remember as researchers that they are heuristics, they're short cuts. We are not in fact cutting nature at its joints. We are imposing some joints on a very messy phenomenon. It is useful to use these categories, such as for recruiting people for studies, because they have meaning in our culture. But we have to be careful about presuming they represent natural phenomena like height....

'We can make strong claims for civil rights protections that don't rely on the immutability and distinctiveness and uniqueness of these groups. As a community, the queers need to stop saying, "Please help us, we are born this way and can't change," as an argument for legal standing. I don't think we need that argument, and that argument is going to bite us in the a** because now we know that there's enough data out there, that the other side is aware of as much as we are aware of it.'"