Editing Sexual fluidity (section)

==Background==
Often, sexual orientation and [[sexual identity]] are not distinguished, which can impact accurately assessing sexual identity and whether or not sexual orientation is able to change; sexual orientation identity can change throughout an individual's life, and may or may not align with biological sex, sexual behavior or actual sexual orientation.<ref name="Sinclair"/><ref name="Rosario et al."/><ref name="Concordance/discordance in SO"/> While the [[Centre for Addiction and Mental Health]] and [[American Psychiatric Association]] state that sexual orientation is innate, continuous or fixed throughout their lives for some people, but is fluid or changes over time for others,<ref>{{cite web|title=Question A2: Sexual orientation |url=http://knowledgex.camh.net/amhspecialists/Screening_Assessment/assessment/ARQ2/Pages/arq2_question_a2.aspx |publisher=Centre for Addiction and Mental Health |access-date=3 February 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141228033920/http://knowledgex.camh.net/amhspecialists/Screening_Assessment/assessment/ARQ2/Pages/arq2_question_a2.aspx |archive-date=28 December 2014 }}</ref><ref name="What is">[http://www.psychiatry.org/lgbt-sexual-orientation "LGBT-Sexual Orientation: What is Sexual Orientation?"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140628094701/http://www.psychiatry.org/lgbt-sexual-orientation |date=2014-06-28 }}, the official web pages of APA. Accessed April 9, 2015</ref> the [[American Psychological Association]] distinguishes between sexual orientation (an innate attraction) and sexual orientation identity (which may change at any point in a person's life).<ref name=apa2009>{{cite web |title=Appropriate Therapeutic Responses to Sexual Orientation|publisher=[[American Psychological Association]]|pages=63, 86|date=2009|access-date=February 3, 2015|url=http://www.apa.org/pi/lgbc/publications/therapeutic-response.pdf}}</ref> Scientists and mental health professionals generally do not believe that sexual orientation is a choice.<ref name="pediatrics2004"/><ref name="Kersey-Matusiak"/>

The American Psychological Association states that "sexual orientation is not a choice that can be changed at will, and that sexual orientation is most likely the result of a complex interaction of environmental, cognitive and biological factors...is shaped at an early age...[and evidence suggests] biological, including genetic or inborn hormonal factors, play a significant role in a person's sexuality."<ref name="Lamanna"/> They say that "sexual orientation identity—not sexual orientation—appears to change via psychotherapy, support groups, and life events."<ref name=apa2009/> The American Psychiatric Association says individuals may "become aware at different points in their lives that they are heterosexual, gay, lesbian, or bisexual" and "opposes any psychiatric treatment, such as 'reparative' or [[Conversion therapy|'conversion' therapy]], which is based upon the assumption that homosexuality ''[[Per se (terminology)|per se]]'' is a mental disorder, or based upon a prior assumption that the patient should change his/her homosexual orientation". They do, however, encourage [[gay affirmative psychotherapy]].<ref name="What is"/>

In the first decade of the 2000s, psychologist [[Lisa M. Diamond]] studied 80 non-heterosexual women over several years. She found that in this group, changes in sexual identity were common, although they were typically between adjacent identity categories (such as 'lesbian' and 'bisexual'). Some change in self-reported sexual feeling occurred among many of the women, but it was small, only averaging about 1 point on the [[Kinsey scale]] on average. The range of these women's potential attractions was limited by their sexual orientations, but sexual fluidity permitted movement within that range.<ref name="Bailey"/>{{rp|56}}

In her book ''Sexual Fluidity'', which was awarded with the 2009 Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Issues Distinguished Book Award by Division 44 of the American Psychological Association, Diamond speaks of [[female sexuality]] and trying to go beyond the language of "phases" and "denial", arguing that traditional labels for sexual desire are inadequate. For some of 100 non-heterosexual women she followed in her study over a period of 10 years, the word ''[[bisexual]]'' did not truly express the versatile nature of their sexuality. Diamond calls "for an expanded understanding of same-sex sexuality."<ref>[http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674032262&content=reviews''Sexual Fluidity - Understanding Women's Love and Desire''], Lisa M. Diamond 2009, [[Harvard University Press]]. Accessed April 6, 2015</ref>

Diamond, when reviewing research on lesbian and bisexual women's sexual identities, stated that studies find "change and fluidity in same-sex sexuality that contradict conventional models of sexual orientation as a fixed and uniformly early-developing trait."<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Diamond|first1=Lisa|title=Was it a phase? Young women's relinquishment of lesbian/bisexual identities over a five-year period|journal=Journal of Personality and Social Psychology|date=2003|volume=84|issue=2|pages=352–364|doi=10.1037/0022-3514.84.2.352|pmid=12585809}}</ref> She suggested that sexual orientation is a phenomenon more connected with female [[non-heterosexual]] sexuality, stating, "whereas sexual orientation in men appears to operate as a stable erotic 'compass' reliably channeling sexual arousal and motivation toward one gender or the other, sexual orientation in women does not appear to function in this fashion... As a result of these phenomena, women's same-sex sexuality expresses itself differently from men's same-sex sexuality at every stage of the life course."<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Diamond | first1 = Lisa M. | year = 2012 | title = The Desire Disorder in Research on Sexual Orientation in Women: Contributions of Dynamical Systems Theory | url = https://www.psych.utah.edu/people/files/diamond54a1.pdf | journal = Arch Sex Behav | volume = 41 | issue = 1| pages = 73–83 | doi = 10.1007/s10508-012-9909-7 | pmid = 22278028 | s2cid = 543731 | url-status=dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120518153549/http://www.psych.utah.edu/people/files/diamond54a1.pdf | archive-date = 2012-05-18 }}</ref>