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Study Finds Women More Likely To Identify As Lesbian Later In Life After Being Straight

07/12/10-by Bridgette P. LaVictoire
Female sexuality is complex when compared to male sexuality. This is something that has long been known, though it is only just being really studied. A variety of studies have shown that women tend to be more bisexual then men who tend to be, more often, either/or. Women have a long term and short term sexuality as well. Women are more often looking for one set of traits, usually dealing with financial and emotional stability, when it comes to long term mates while women look for the most sexually attractive mates for short term dalliances. Apparently, women also tend to change sexuality over time more readily than men.

According to the study, up to two-thirds of lesbians use to be straight and changed their sexual orientation sometime in their thirties. Unfortunately, according to Christan Moran, a researcher at Southern Connecticut State University, women who begin to identify as lesbian later in life are less willing to come out because of the problems that they face more social problems than they do remaining in the closet. Moran interviewed 200 married lesbians and she found that there was a “great potential for heterosexual women to experience a first same-sex attraction well into adulthood.” Additionally, if the woman is married to a man and has children, the problems may be compounded. Moran also stated “To leave a heterosexual marriage in favour of lesbian identity is to abdicate enormous and undeniable privilege.”

While the researchers who are studying this are talking about it being more about nurture than nature, their conclusions may not be accurate. It is possible that most women are genetically programmed to switch sexual orientations as they get older and past the prime age for bearing children. The older a woman is when she bears a child, the more genetic faults can creep in. Women who are older tend to also have fewer resources to give a child physically than those who are younger.

A study out of Utah University by Professor Lisa Diamond found that women’s sexualities were more fluid. She is a professor of psychology and gender studies. She followed 100 women over a decade and discovered that how they identified changed over time with some bisexual women identifying as lesbian later in life, some lesbians identifying as straight, etc.

Both studies are not large enough to give concrete conclusions since they are such small numbers, but they do offer some additional layers when it comes to female sexuality.