Bisexual Phenomena Among Gay-Identified Men

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Human Sexuality
• Sexual Orientation

Background:

• A significant number of gay men report experiencing aspects of bisexuality during their lives.
• Some gay men identify as bisexual before later identifying as gay, a phenomenon termed transitional bisexuality.
• Existing research categorizes gay men with any reported attraction to women as mostly homosexual.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate sexual history, arousal, and disgust patterns in gay men with and without a history of transitional bisexuality.
• To compare mostly homosexual (Kinsey 5) and completely homosexual (Kinsey 6) men regarding sexual arousal to female and male stimuli.
• To differentiate between bisexual identification and actual sexual arousal in gay men.

Main Methods:

• Comparative analysis of sexual history, self-reported arousal/disgust, and genital arousal patterns.
• Inclusion of gay men with and without transitional bisexuality history.
• Assessment of men across the Kinsey scale, specifically Kinsey 5 and Kinsey 6.

Main Results:

• Gay men with transitional bisexuality history generally lacked current sexual attraction and arousal toward women compared to other gay men.
• Transitional bisexuality in future gay men appears to be primarily a matter of identification rather than consistent arousal.
• Mostly homosexual men (Kinsey 5) exhibited significantly increased genital arousal to female stimuli compared to completely homosexual men (Kinsey 6).

Conclusions:

• Transitional bisexuality among individuals who later identify as gay is largely characterized by identification rather than persistent sexual responsiveness to women.
• A distinction exists between bisexual identification and actual sexual arousal patterns in gay men.
• Mostly homosexual men demonstrate a greater physiological sexual responsiveness to female stimuli than completely homosexual men, suggesting a spectrum of sexual response.