What Does Sexual Orientation Mean?

The term sexual orientation is used in reference to the direction of a person's sexuality, frequently in relation to the person's own sex or gender. It is intimately linked with sexual preference. The common terms that describe sexual orientation include heterosexual (straight), bisexual (bi) and homosexual (lesbian/gay).

With the sexual revolution there are more and more terms cropping up, although they are rarely found in scientific literature. For example the term pansexuality is usually used to refer to an individual's attraction that is not based on a particular gender. This term can include a preference for transgender and intersex persons who may not fall neatly into a binary gender system. Some of the other terms include "fluid", "homoflexible", "heteroflexible"; and "sapiosexual".

Under the conventional classification heterosexual people are those whose sexual attraction is primarily to people of the opposite sex/gender; homosexuality refers to attraction to the same sex/gender, while bisexuality refers to a primary sexual attraction to both men and women. It is important to note that there are other terms like asexuality, autosexuality and monosexuality yet individuals may not conform consistently to any one term and they need time to discover their own sexual orientation.

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It means the type of partner that attracts you sexually: Male, female, old, young, wearing particular clothing, dominant, submissive, etc. Etc.

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