“I Didn’t Know Ace Was a Thing”: Bisexuality and Pansexuality as Identity Pathways in Asexual Identity Formation

Identity formation for asexual people can be complicated by limited societal awareness of asexualities. Consequently, people who eventually identify as asexual often adopt other sexual identities in their early lives. In this paper, we extend sexual identity development theory by analyzing the identity trajectories of asexual people who once identified as bisexual or pansexual. Quantitative data suggests that about half of asexual respondents once identified as bisexual or pansexual and a third closely associate with bisexual or pansexual terminology. Qualitative data supports these findings, revealing that bisexuality, pansexuality, and asexuality are not always seen as mutually exclusive categories by asexual individuals. We argue that the intelligibility of bi-/pansexuality positions them as identity pathways for many asexual individuals who experience equal (albeit little to no) attractions toward men and women.

Sexual Identity in Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer or Questioning Emerging Adults: The Role of Parental Rejection, and Sexuality Specific Family Support

The present study provides critical contributions to the study of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer or questioning (LGBTQ) emerging adults by examining the role of family and sexuality specific family support, as well as the moderating effect of gender, on sexual identity development. Specifically, the role of mother and father rejection and sexuality specific family support on both affirmed identity and identity struggles of students were assessed. Using a sample of 338 LGBTQ emerging adults at a midwestern University, findings illustrate that for sexual identity development, mother and father parental rejection positively influenced identity struggles while sexuality specific family support positively influenced affirmed identity. Also, moderation by participant gender was not supported. Limitations and future directions are discussed.

Attachment Patterns for Lesbian/Gay Individuals with Unaccepting Parents

While much research has considered how lesbian/gay parents affect straight children, less attention has been paid to how heterosexual parents affect their lesbian/gay children. At the same time, attachment theorists are trying to determine how contiguous individuals’ differential attachments are to each other, especially in predictive utility. A secure base is best for exploratory processes such as sexual-identity development. Given that lovers share the role of primary attachment with parents in adulthood, lovers for lesbian/gay individuals, compared to heterosexuals, may be a unique source of social support against rejection sensitivity and victimization by unaccepting parents. The results of this study suggest that rejection sensitivity moderates the effect of parents’ acceptance/rejection on parental attachment patterns. Moreover, parental attachment patterns differentially predict romantic attachment dimensions across orientation, and exert limited influence on lesbian/gay romantic attachment and satisfaction relative to heterosexuals. This suggests that lesbians/gays use their romantic attachment as primary to a greater degree than heterosexuals, and dissociate their romantic attachment from their parental attachment in a manner not observed for heterosexuals. This likely reflects protective adaptations given adversarial parental relationships.

SELF-EFFICACY AND THE PROCESS OF GAY SEXUAL IDENTITY DEVELOPMENT AMONG GAY MEN IN MALAYSIA

"The development of gay identity sexual among Malaysian gay men were not discussed openly in this country. This is because the government do not approve same sex orientation lifestyle. However, gay men exist in many communities in this country and they are living freely as a citizen and work in the country like others. Malaysia is one of the countries that openly against the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transsexual and Queer (LGBTQ). Nevertheless, they continue to develop their sexual identity as a part of their lives which at the same time causes a great distress in them. Thus, their decision to identify themselves as gays takes huge courage and effort. These courage and effort were found not only just intricately, since it involves emotional and social support from their family, friends and communities. It is also believed that this social support might help gay men to develop their self-efficacy as well. Therefore, it is in the interest of the researchers to explore about self-efficacy by looking at emotional and social support they received and its relation to the development of sexual identity among the gay men who lives in Malaysia. In this qualitative research, semi structured questions were developed to explore sexual identity development among the gay men. Six (6) respondents who have identified themselves as gay, aged between 21- 44 years old, from different walk of life were interviewed. Data were analysed using thematic analysis. Our study has found that emotional and social support, are the important factors that contribute to their self-efficacy and help them in developing their sexual identity."

Intersectionality and Identity Configurations: A Qualitative Study Exploring Sexual Identity Development Among Emerging Adults Within the United States

Although modern comprehensive conceptual models of sexual identity development acknowledge contextual factors, existing models have placed less emphasis on (a) the influence of multiple domains of identity on sexual identity formation and (b) centrality and negotiation of various domains of identity. The present study sought to explore processes, identity conflicts, and management of sexual identity relative to other identity domains among sexual minority emerging adults in the United States. Fourteen sexual minority emerging adults (20–25 years) with a diverse array of identities participated in semistructured individual interviews, and five participants engaged in two follow-up focus groups. Findings supported two broad categories with subthemes: identity conflict (unaffirming and oppressive contexts, lack of resources to explore identity) and identity coherence (resources used to manage and facilitate identity coherence; acceptance, affirmation, and harmony; and centrality and salience of sexual identity within identity configurations). Findings have implications for the study of sexual identity development within the context of other domains of identity.