Sexual Fluidity

Last week on Oprah she talked to several women who had been heterosexual and married for years but later discovered that they weren’t heterosexual at all. They were actually attracted to women and ended up in long term relationships with these women. One of the most interesting things that caught my attention about this show was Dr. Lisa Diamond, the expert that was there who just wrote a book about sexual fluidity called Sexual Fluidity: Understanding Women’s Love and Desire. In her book she describes the Kinsey scale of sexuality and that actually very few people are completely heterosexual or completely homosexual. This scale ranges from zero to six, zero being totally heterosexual and six being totally homosexual. The Kinsey Reports were done from 1948 to 1953 so even back then some doctors realized that we don’t really fit into a few boxes such as heterosexual or homosexual beings.
Dr. Lisa Diamond is continuing her research at the University of Utah’s Department of Psychology and also often lectures on her findings about sexual fluidity and relationships, straight and gay. I think that this book and this subject on such mainstream media as Oprah is great and it may lead all people to a better understanding of sexuality, which would be great for both the straight and gay communities. Maybe this is the beginning of some understandings that could lead to less hate crimes, less discrimination, more empathy, more unity and maybe even less political division amongst society as a whole.