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There is great debate over whether sexuality and sexual orientation identity is stable throughout life or is fluid and malleable. Essentialism refers to the belief that sexual orientation and desire is fundamentally biological and, therefore, does not change throughout life. The results of a large-scale, longitudinal study by Savin-Williams, Joyner, & Rieger (2012) indicated that stability of sexual orientation identity over a six-year period was more common than change, particularly for men. While stability may be more common than change, change in sexual orientation does occur and the vast majority of research indicates that female sexuality is more fluid than male. This could be attributed to gender differences in erotic plasticity or to sociocultural factors affecting gendered sexuality. Due to the apparent gender differences in the stability of sexual orientation identity, male and female sexuality cannot be treated as functioning via the same mechanisms and research should focus on the fluidity of sexual orientation of subgroups (i.e., bisexual, lesbian, gay, etc.).

Essentialism
The essentialist view holds that sexual orientation and desire is fundamentally biological and, therefore, does not change throughout life. In support of the essentialist view is the finding that sexual orientation change efforts (SOCEs) are rarely successful. In Maccio’s (2011) review of sexual reorientation therapy attempts, she lists two studies that claim to have successfully converted homosexual men and women to heterosexuals and four that demonstrate the contrary. She sought to settle the debate using a sample that was not recruited from religious organizations. The study consisted of 37 former conversion therapy participants (62.2% were male) from various cultural and religious backgrounds who currently or previously identified as lesbian, gay, or bisexual. The results indicated that there were no statistically significant shifts in sexual orientation from pre- to post-treatment. In follow-up sessions, the few changes in sexual orientation that did occur following therapy did not last. This study stands as support for the essentialist view of sexual orientation but the largely male sample population confounds the findings. A similar study using a female sample should be done to determine whether SOCEs could potentially be more effective on women.

Further support for the essentialist view of sexual orientation is that gender atypical behaviour in childhood (i.e., a young boy playing with dolls) appears to predict homosexuality in adulthood. A longitudinal study looked at young girls with gender identity disorder (an extreme example of gender atypical behaviour) and found that the majority of these girls grew up to identity as bisexual or lesbian. Many retrospective studies looking at childhood behaviour are criticized for potential memory errors so a recent study used home videos to investigate the relationship between childhood behaviours and adult sexual orientation. The results of this study support essentialism but we need to understand how cultural assumptions about sexuality can affect to sexual identity formation.

There is strong evidence for a relationship between fraternal birth order and male sexual orientation.

There has been some biological research done to investigate potential biological determinants of sexual orientation in men and women. One theory is the second to fourth finger ratio (2D:4D) theory. Some studies have discovered that heterosexual women have higher 2D:4D ratios than lesbian women but the difference was not found between heterosexual and gay men. One study found that gay men have pelvic structures that, on average, more closely resemble that of females. Similarly, one study has shown that homosexual men have a sexually dimorphic nucleus in the anterior hypothalamus that is the size of females’. Twin and family studies have been conducted in an attempt to decipher a gene responsible for determining sexual orientation but these attempts have not been unsuccessful. While some biological research has interesting results, a critical review by Mutanski, Chivers, and Bailey’s (2002) lists many methodological problems with such research on sexual orientation. The vast majority is done with only males and adults, many use problematic measures of sexual orientation, and the results have not been replicable. Research on whether sexual orientation is an innate and therefore stable trait has not come to any formal conclusions. It appears that, for some, change in sexual orientation occurs while for others it does not.

Bisexuality as a transitional phase
It has been suggested that bisexuality is a transitional phase on the way to identifying as exclusively lesbian/gay. In a large-scale, longitudinal study, participants who identified as bisexual at one point in time were especially likely to change sexual orientation throughout the six-year study. While this supports the idea that bisexuality is a transitional phase, the majority of the bisexually identifying participants that shifted orientation, shifted towards heterosexuality. A second longitudinal study found conflicting results. If bisexuality is a transitional phase, as people grow older the number identifying as bisexual should decline. Over the 10-year span of this study (using a female-only sample), the overall number of individuals identifying as bisexual remained relatively constant (hovering between 50-60%) suggesting that bisexuality is a third orientation, distinct from homosexuality and heterosexuality and can be stable. A third longitudinal study by Kinnish, Strassberg, and Turner (2005) supports this theory. While sex differences in sexual orientation stability were found for heterosexuals and gays/lesbians, no sex difference was found for bisexual men and women.

Bisexuality remains “undertheorized and underinvestigated”. Recently more research has focused on bisexuality and treated it as a distinct sexual orientation but more research is necessary.

Gender differences
There are numerous studies that indicate female sexuality is more fluid and malleable compared to male sexuality. Stimulated by the findings that the 1970s sexual revolution affected female sexuality more so than male, a seminal review of sexual orientation literature was conducted. The paper reviewed various studies and came to three conclusions: (when compared to men) females have lower concordance between sexual attitudes and behaviours, sociocultural factors affect female sexuality to a greater degree, and personal change in sexuality is more common for females.

The idea that sexual desire is a product of cultural and psychosocial processes is called the social constructionist view. This theory holds that men and women are socialized differently, which can explain differences in sexual desire and stability of sexual orientation. Evidence suggests that male sexuality is centered around physical factors, whereas female around sociocultural factors making female sexuality inherently more open to change. The fact that female sexuality changed more so than male sexuality during the 1970 sexual revolution supports this theory and some have hypothesized that female shifts in sexual orientation could be due to greater exposure to moderating factors (such as the media). In Western culture, women are expected to be more emotionally expressive and intimate than men towards males and females. As women will be socialized to act this way, the flexibility of sexual orientation could seem more appropriate for women. Whether female sexuality is naturally more fluid and therefore changes from social factors or social factors cause female sexuality to be less stable is unknown.

A few, more recent, studies came to similar conclusions that personal change in orientation is more common in females. Using dimensional and categorical measures of sexual orientation, one study concluded that females (lesbian and heterosexual) changed significantly more than males on both dimensional and categorical levels. Findings also show that the majority of homosexual women who previously identified as a different sexual orientation, identified as heterosexual whereas for males, the majority previously identified as bisexual which the authors believe support the idea of greater fluidity in female sexuality. Another study found that females reported having identified with more than one sexual orientation more often than males and were found to have higher levels of sexual orientation mobility. Females were also found to be more likely to report being bisexual or unsure, whereas males more commonly reported being exclusively gay or heterosexual. Similarly, a third study found that women displayed more shifts in sexual orientation throughout the 6-year study and were more likely to define their sexual orientation with nonexclusive terms.

While most studies point to female sexuality as being quite fluid, an influential longitudinal study concluded that stability of sexual orientation was more common than change. Gender differences in the stability of sexual orientation may vary by subgroup and could possibly be related to individual differences more than gender-wide characteristics.

Youth (age 14-21)
There has been some research done to investigate the fluidity of sexual orientation in youth, specifically. While these studies indicate that sexuality can be fluid during adolescence, there is less focus on gender differences of stability (as in research with adults) and more on subgroup differences (i.e., lesbian, gay, heterosexual, etc.) in fluidity.

One study that did compare the stability of youth sexual orientation identity across genders found results opposite to most done with adult samples. The study compared nonheterosexual male and female sexual orientation over a year (mean age of participants was 18.3 years) and concluded that female youth were more likely to report consistent sexual identities than males. While these are interesting results, the study was conducted over a single year. More research over longer time periods is necessary to come to any conclusions comparing the stability of sexuality in female and male youth.

On the contrary, another study found that youth appears to be when most change in sexual orientation occurs for females. A 10-year study compared sexual orientation as measured at four times during the study. The most change was found between the first (taken at 18 years of age) and second (taken at 20 years of age) measurements which was the only time bracket that fell during adolescence.

A population-based study conducted over 6 years found that nonheterosexual (gay/lesbian/bisexual) male and female participants were more likely to change sexual orientation identity than heterosexual participants. A yearlong study found that sexual identity was more stable for gay and lesbian youth participants when compared to bisexual participants. These studies indicate that bisexual youth have the most fluid sexuality. Gay and lesbian youth have more consistent sexual orientation identity when compared to bisexual youth, but when compared to heterosexual youth their sexuality is more fluid.

The identity integration process that individuals go through during adolescence appears to be associated with changes in sexual identity; adolescents who score higher on identity integration measures are more consistent in their sexual orientation. Bisexual youths seem to take longer to form their sexual identities than do consistently homosexual or heterosexual identifying youths so bisexuality may be seen as a transitional phase during adolescence. Rosario et al. (2006) conclude that “acceptance, commitment, and integration of a gay/lesbian identity is an ongoing developmental process that, for many youths, may extend through adolescence and beyond.” The fluidity of sexuality during adolescence may not reflect absolute changes in sexual orientation but rather a process of change. While results of studies interested in the stability of youth sexuality are interesting, they must not be compared with or generalized to those looking at adult sexuality.

Transgender individuals
Transgender individuals must be studied independently from those identifying with culturally conventional gender roles. Some transgender individuals do not consistently identify as one gender and some consider the conventional sexual orientation labels inadequate. There is little to no research to date on the stability of sexual orientation identity within the transgender community.