Homosexuality

Homosexuality is a sexual orientation involving enduring romantic, sexual, or emotional attraction to people of the same gender. It may describe an identity, attraction, or both.

Sexual orientation: A pattern of romantic, sexual, or emotional attraction toward people of particular genders. Homosexuality is one orientation within this broader concept.
Heterosexuality: A sexual orientation involving attraction to people of a different gender. It contrasts with homosexuality in the genders toward which attraction is directed.
Richard von Krafft-Ebing: A nineteenth-century psychiatrist whose work helped establish medical classifications of sexuality. His influential writings framed same-sex attraction as a subject of psychiatric study.
Homosexuality and the DSM: The history of how the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual classified and later removed homosexuality as a mental disorder. The classification dispute shaped medical practice and public perceptions.
Sexual orientation development: The processes through which patterns of sexual attraction and identity emerge over a person’s life. It addresses how homosexual orientation develops without reducing it to one cause.
Gay: An identity label commonly used by people attracted to people of the same gender. Many men and some other people use this label for their homosexuality.
Bisexuality: A sexual orientation involving attraction to more than one gender. It differs from homosexuality in the range of genders toward which attraction may occur.
Havelock Ellis: A British physician and sexologist who wrote early studies of human sexuality. His work challenged some moralized accounts of same-sex attraction.
Stonewall riots: A series of 1969 protests in New York City following a police raid on the Stonewall Inn. The uprising became a landmark in modern gay and lesbian activism.
Biology of sexual orientation: Research on genetic, prenatal, hormonal, and other biological correlates of sexual orientation. Findings suggest multiple influences rather than a single biological determinant.

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