My bold stream by Karleigh Mullins https://padlet.com/137612/bcsjw66y3xbf Made with a taste for adventure en-us 2018-07-25 14:10:04 UTC 2024-10-26 07:56:49 UTC hello@padlet.com Sexual orientations 137612 https://padlet.com/137612/bcsjw66y3xbf/wish/271093873 In today's society, if you date a person of the same sex, lots of people will automatically assume you are part of the LGBTQ+ community, specifically labelling you as being gay, lesbian, pansexual or bisexual. This situation can be very daunting, especially if you yourself are unsure of your sexual orientation. Personally, I was going into the eighth grade when I started to notice that I liked girls. This was extremely difficult for me to deal with, predominantly as nobody in my family has dated anyone of the same sex that I am aware of. It was also frightening because this was four years ago, when people weren't so open about different sexualities and did not understand different sexual orientations. During the summer of 2014, I told my mother that I had feelings for girls as well as boys. I remember how terrified I was before I told her, I had been preparing myself for the worst, as there are so many stories in the media of people being kicked out of their houses by their parents, all because of their sexuality. I had planned out an entire speech, which I can now see was slightly overdramatic. At the end of this speech, my mother did not say much at all. She did not have a positive, nor negative reaction, all she said was "okay". I remember feeling mildly offended by this as I was hoping for a better reaction from her, having planned out my long, almost theatrical speech, just for her to say "okay". I asked her why she did not say anything else, she looked at me and said how she wished that people could stop labelling themselves, that people should just love who they want to love without feeling the pressure to put a label on themselves or partner. Three years have passed since that day and I still have feelings for both boys and girls, and I feel lucky to have family that support this, along with friends, and who do not expect me to label myself for other people. 
 What makes a sexual orientation and how can somebody like me find out who they are? 
When an individual looks up “sexual orientation facts” the first thing that will come up will be “Sexual orientation is an enduring pattern of 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.”-Wikipedia. Although yes, that is the definition, it doesn’t go into how to find out what ones sexual orientation is or what different kinds of orientations there are. I tried looking up something different to find answers “what causes sexual orientations?” and found an article from planned parenthood. “Research shows that sexual orientation is likely caused partly by biological factors that start before birth.” So does this mean that someone in my family is lesbian or gay if I have attractions to the same sex? I asked my friend, Eva, who is a leader at her schools GSA club, if sexual orientations run in families and she told me that they did not. So what is the truth? I decided to look up "biology behind sexual orientations" and came across an article by Wikipedia saying; "While scientists do not know the exact cause of sexual orientation, they theorize that a combination of genetic, hormonal, and social factors determine it."  Perhaps I may never know exactly what makes a sexual orientation or what sexual orientation I am; perhaps I do not have to know. Maybe I don't have to label myself as one thing like what my mother told me all those years ago. I should just love who I love without having to put a label on it.
 




https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_orientation

https://www.plannedparenthood.org/learn/sexual-orientation-gender/sexual-orientation


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