Sexual orientation
Sexual orientation is an enduring personal quality that inclines people to feel romantic or sexual attraction to persons of the opposite sex or gender, the same sex or gender, or to both sexes or more than one gender. These attractions are generally subsumed under heterosexuality, homosexuality, and bisexuality,[1][2] while asexuality is sometimes identified as the fourth category.[3][4][5][6] These categories are aspects of the more nuanced nature of sexual identity.[1] For example, people may use other labels, such as
pansexual or
polysexual,[7] or none at all.[1] According to the American Psychological Association, sexual orientation "also refers to a person's sense of identity based on those attractions, related behaviors, and membership in a community of others who share those attractions".[1][8] The term
sexual preference largely overlaps with sexual orientation, but is generally distinguished in psychological research.[9] A person who identifies as bisexual, for example, may sexually prefer one sex over the other.