Source: Globe and Mail, USA Today
Bisexuality is not a phase or a period of experimentation that inevitably leads toward same-sex partnerships, new research has found.

Being bisexual is a distinct orientation, not a temporary stage, says the study by Lisa Diamond, an associate professor of psychology and gender studies at the University of Utah. It is being published next week in the January issue of Developmental Psychology, a journal of the American Psychological Association.

Diamond conducted face-to-face interviews around New York state in 1995, when the women (who identified themselves as lesbian, bisexual or unlabeled, but not heterosexual) were ages 18-25. She then spoke with them by phone every two years.

"These findings are therefore more consistent with the model of bisexuality as a stable identity than a transitional stage," the study says.

The findings fly in the face of the popularly held notion within both straight and gay communities that bisexuality is not a real form of sexuality, but a temporary attraction, said Diamond.

"We're a culture that still has a very rigid notion of sexual categories: If you're not totally gay you must be totally straight," Dr. Diamond said. "Bisexuality throws that right out the window. So it's easier to dismiss bisexuality as not being real."

But Dr. Diamond found that her subjects' definition of their own sexuality was quite fluid.

Seventeen per cent of respondents switched from a bisexual or unlabelled identity to a heterosexual identity at some point during the study.

But more than half of those women switched back to bisexual or unlabelled by the end of the 10-year period.

And of the women who identified as lesbian during the last round of interviews, 15 per cent reported having sexual contact with a man during the prior two years.

"The distinction between lesbian and bisexual women is not a rigid one," Diamond said. "Like with most people, a lot seems to depend on who you happen to meet."

Over the 10-year study, the most common identity for women to switch to was unlabelled, she added, a message that may comfort young people who feel pressure to conform to either straight or gay lifestyles.

"One of my subjects explained it to her mom by saying, 'It's kind of like a garage,' " Dr. Diamond recounted. " 'I'd be happy driving a red car, I'd be happy driving a blue car, but I've only got a one-car garage.' "

Of the subjects who had babies during the period of the study, the majority were with male partners.

Sociologist Paula Rust of East Brunswick, N.J., has conducted quantitative research on bisexuality and says Diamond's study is important as the only long-term look at women's bisexuality to date.

"What she's doing is an in-depth study of people's lives," Rust says of the 79 women who participated. "For qualitative research, that's a pretty good number."

Other limitations noted in the study include a reliance on a small, exclusively female and disproportionately white and middle-class sample.

New attention has focused on young women today and their interest in experimenting with their own sexual identity, which Rust says is because the young are more open about sexuality and are more tolerant.

"I think young women are feeling a little bit freer," Rust says. "If they have anything other than purely heterosexual feelings, they are more free to think about it … and question their identity."

Although her study followed only women, Dr. Diamond believes that bisexuality means different things to different genders.

"I do think there's enough evidence now that women's sexuality does appear to be more fluid than men's," she said. "I think it's a combination of biological and social factors. For women, there's a closer link between emotional connections to other people and their sexual feelings."

Most of the women who had children with female partners self-identified as lesbian.

Dr. Diamond believes her research will help many people understand their own sexuality and feel less uncomfortable about their seemingly competing attractions to men and women.

Full article: globeandmail.com: Bisexuality: a 'third orientation'
Women's bisexuality an 'identity,' not phase | USA Today