Tue 13 Jul 2010 In: International News View at Wayback View at NDHA
A study of 'late blooming' lesbians has found many may have switched sexual orientation as they matured, suggesting that for women sexual orientation is more fluid than previously thought. Researcher Christan Moran from Southern Connecticut State University interviewed a small pool of just over 200 women. She has told the Daily Telegraph there is "great potential for heterosexual women to experience a first same-sex attraction well into adulthood". Ms Moran says many of the women who came out in middle age or after marriage were wrongly dismissed as having been in the closet or having repressed feelings. She argues there is evidence they may have actually changed their sexual orientation later in life. The researcher says many women who develop lesbian feelings at a more mature age refuse to come out for fear of society's reaction. She says those in long-term heterosexual relationships, especially if they have children, face even greater problems reconciling themselves to their new identities. "To leave a heterosexual marriage in favour of lesbian identity is to abdicate enormous and undeniable privilege," she told the Daily Telegraph. The findings are backed up by the study of a professor of psychology and gender studies at Utah University, Lisa Diamond. She followed nearly 100 women who felt some degree of attraction to the same sex; most described themselves as either lesbian or bisexual, while others declined to be labelled. Over the course of a decade two-thirds of the women changed their sexual orientations. Some bisexuals decided to redefine themselves as lesbians, while other women who had classified themselves as lesbians switched to being straight.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Tuesday, 13th July 2010 - 4:05pm