Introduction to the Special Section “The Puzzle of Sexual Orientation: What Is It and How Does It Work?”

Archives of Sexual Behavior, Feb 2012

Paul L. Vasey, Martin L. Lalumière

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Introduction to the Special Section “The Puzzle of Sexual Orientation: What Is It and How Does It Work?”

Paul L. Vasey 0 Martin L. Lalumie`re 0 0 P. L. Vasey (&) M. L. Lalumie`re Department of Psychology, University of Lethbridge , Lethbridge, AB T1K 3M4, Canada - In 1995, with the financial support of the Eugene Garfield Foundation, Lee Ellis organized the first International Behavioral Development Symposium on the Biological Basis of Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, and Sex-Typical Behavior in Minot, North Dakota. Word quickly spread that theMinot Meetingwas the meeting to attend among sex researchers who conduct studies informed by biology. So successful was this first meeting that Lee went on to expand upon and host another one in 2000 and yet another in 2005. The participants were a whos who of many of the worlds most innovative and respected sex researchers, as well as a younger contingent of up-and-comers. Many of the latter are now established, respected, and innovative sex researchers themselves. The presentations at these meetings were widely touted for their excellent content and polished execution. Invitations were highly coveted. Many participants felt that Minots relative isolation provided a key ingredient for success. In the absence of any big-city distractions, participants interacted intensively outside of the lecture hall, debating and discussing ideas over meals and even in their pajamas before bedtime in the university dorms that served as housing. In 2005, anticipating his retirement, Lee Ellis asked Sergio Pellis and Paul Vasey from the University of Lethbridge to consider taking over the running of the meeting. Lethbridgea small, relatively isolated city on the southern Alberta prairies seemed like Minots Canadian doppelganger. The location, coupled with the support for sex research at the University of Lethbridge, made it the ideal location for subsequent meetings. Lee confided that Having organized the first three conferences, my feelings are a little like a parent giving up a child for adoption, but I know that the Lethbridge meeting is in good hands.And so the torch was passed to the Lethbians. Early in 2009, Paul Vasey and Martin Lalumie`re, in consultation with Sergio Pellis, began outlining their vision for a new generation of Lethbridge meetings. First and foremost, we decided to keep the meeting small and concentrated on a particular research topic. Participants would address this topic from the standpoint of their particular research program. We thought that by implementing a small workshop model with roundtable discussions we could maximize the productive exchange of ideas. We also felt it was very important to incorporate undergraduate and graduate student participation in the workshop to nurture the next generation of sex researchers. In the process of choosing a unifying topic for the workshop, we came to realize through informal discussions that many of our colleagues were rethinking what was meant by sexual orientation and, in doing so, stretching this concept far beyond its original meaning. Like us, many of our colleagues were pondering how to characterize the sexual orientation of individuals whose peak sexual arousal and satisfaction results from unusual objects, activities, or locations. We believed that this nascent re-conceptualizing of sexual orientation held great theoretical promise and the potential to prompt all of us to rethink and possibly even reconfigure our research programs. In addition, we thought that this would be a great opportunity to gather together researchers who study gender preferences as well as those who study the paraphilias. As such, we settled upon The Puzzle of Sexual Orientation: What Is It and How Does It Work? as the theme for our 3-day workshop. Over the course of the workshop, we aimed to more accurately identify whatsexual orientationencompasses, so that we could then characterize the component parts of this phenomenon in an accurate and authentic fashion. In addition, a secondary, but ultimately related question that we addressed is How Does Sexual Orientation Work?As such, we examined how various proximate factors such as genes, hormones, neurobiology, learning, socialization, and culture influence sexual orientation. We also explored whether atypical sexual interests are disordered, non-pathological, or even adaptive. These questions were examined in light of various definitions of sexual orientation. Reflecting back on the previous conferences, Lee Ellis recalled When I first organized the International Behavioral Development Symposium back in 1995, I had no idea it would continue beyond that date. Back then, I also rather naively thought that once the best and brightest researchers studying sexual orientation had gotten together, they would be able to unravel the main causes of variations in sexual orientation rather quickly, certainly within my lifetime. As things have turned out, progress in understanding sexual orientation is certainly being made, but more slowly than expected. Fortunately, the Symposium has morp (...truncated)


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Paul L. Vasey, Martin L. Lalumière. Introduction to the Special Section “The Puzzle of Sexual Orientation: What Is It and How Does It Work?”, Archives of Sexual Behavior, 2012, pp. 11-12, Volume 41, Issue 1, DOI: 10.1007/s10508-012-9932-8