A spectrum, not two boxes
The familiar categories — heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual — remain useful, but research now describes orientation more as a continuum than as separate compartments. Other orientations are equally recognised, including asexuality (little or no sexual attraction, with romantic attraction possible independently) and pansexuality (attraction regardless of gender).
Orientation is distinct from gender identity: being transgender says nothing about who a person is attracted to. Nor is orientation always fixed. Longitudinal studies show that how people describe themselves can change over a lifetime without making an earlier description untrue.
What is established
- Same-sex couples have relationships as varied, stable and fulfilling as anyone else's. There is no sexual practice specific to homosexuality and no distinctive way of running a relationship.
- The World Health Organization removed homosexuality from its classification of diseases in 1990.
- Children raised by same-sex parents develop like other children: one of the most consistent findings in developmental psychology.
- No single cause has been identified, and the question of origin makes no practical difference to how anyone lives.
Conversion practices
Practices aimed at changing sexual orientation or gender identity are ineffective and harmful: they increase depression, anxiety and suicide risk. A growing number of countries prohibit them, in some cases criminally, and consent does not make them lawful where they are banned.
Telling people, or not
There is no universally right moment. A few points that recur in people's accounts:
- Start with someone you are reasonably confident about: a first positive response changes what follows.
- You owe no one a disclosure — not at work, not in the family.
- Where the family reaction is uncertain, plan the practical side first: housing, money, documents.
- For someone under eighteen, charity helplines are anonymous and do not contact the family.
If you are on the receiving end: listen, thank them for the trust, avoid intrusive questions about their sex life, and do not pass the information on without permission.
Health and prevention
Prevention needs follow practices, not identities. Regular testing for sexually transmitted infections, vaccination against HPV and hepatitis B, and access to HIV prevention medication matter for anyone whose practices expose them. Free and anonymous testing exists in most countries.
The law country by country
The legal framework, the procedure, the time limits and the costs differ from one country to another. Each country below has a detailed page: governing texts, key facts, the actual procedure, costs, where to go and the traps to avoid.
Select a country to open its detailed page.