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Sexual orientation other than heterosexual

Non heterosexual is a word for a sexual orientation or sexual identity that is not heterosexual. The term helps define the "concept of what is the norm and how a particular group is different from that norm". Non heterosexual is used in feminist and gender studies fields as well as general academic literature to help differentiate between sexual identities chosen, prescribed and simply assumed, with varying understanding of implications of those sexual identities. The term is similar to queer, though less politically charged and more clinical; queer generally refers to being non normative and non heterosexual. Some view the term as being contentious and pejorative as it "labels people against the perceived norm of heterosexuality,
thus reinforcing heteronormativity". Still, others say non heterosexual is the only term useful to maintaining coherence in research and suggest it "highlights a shortcoming in our language around sexual identity"; for instance, its use can enable bisexual erasure.

Many gay, lesbian and bisexual people were born into different cultures and religions that stigmatized, repressed or negatively judged any sexuality that differed from a heterosexual identity and orientation. Some common examples include same gender loving, men who have sex with men (MSM), women who have sex with women (WSW), bi curious and questioning. Non heterosexual is considered a better general term than homosexual, lesbian and gay, LGBT or queer for being more neutral and without the baggage or gender discrimination that comes with many of the alternatives.

Non heterosexual is found predominantly in research and scholarly environments possibly as a means to avoid terms deemed politically incorrect like lesbian, dyke, gay, bisexual, etc. that lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) people use as self descriptors. When used by those who do not identify as LGB or when used by LGB people disparagingly, the terms are generally considered pejorative, so non heterosexual is a default and innocuous term unlikely to offend readers. For example, the Kinsey scale can be divided between those exclusively heterosexual and everyone else. The term has come into more prominence in the academic field starting in the 1980s and more prominently in the 1990s with major studies of identities of non heterosexual youth and a smaller number of studies specifically looking at non heterosexual college students. Non heterosexual is also used to encompass transgender and intersex people, because although these are gender identities rather than sexual identities, they are within the LGBT and queer umbrella communities. In a 2004 book that integrates "the academic disciplines of cinema studies, sociology, cultural and critical studies" regarding the Big Brother phenomena, non heterosexual was used as a universal term to help compare information from over thirty countries. In Welfare and the State, the authors describe the perceived advantages of lesbians in the workplace as they, in theory, would not have children so would be advantageous to the labor force. The authors point out, however, that not only do many lesbians have children but they routinely identify as heterosexual through much of their lives or at least until their children are old enough that a non heterosexual identity would not greatly impact their families negatively. It came into wider use in this context when the AIDS pandemic's impact on gay male communities was being explored as many gay men created families out of extended networks of friends and these became their support systems.

The use of the term 'non heterosexual' to refer to LGBTQ people as a blanket term could perpetuate heteronormativity. Jonathan Ned Katz argues that historically, the term was used to force people into one of two distinct identities; the "normalization of a sex that was 'hetero' proclaimed a new heterosexual separatism — an erotic apartheid that forcefully segregated the sex normals from the sex perverts." He argues that it enforces the idea of "compulsory heterosexuality" and that anyone who does not fit into that category is going against the norm. According to Erika Feigenbaum, the use of the term non heterosexual indicates a departure from what is acceptable in society while highlighting the juxtaposition between the ideal heterosexual and unideal non heterosexual, stating, "Heterosexism is about dominance, and the practices that support it are often replicated, reinforced, and reflected by the attitudes, behaviors, and practices of even [the] best intentioned allies." Although "non heterosexuality" is considered a blanket term for all LGBTQ identities, it is often interpreted as another word for homosexual which contributes to the continuation of systematic bisexual erasure. Bisexuality has a long history of being overshadowed and ignored in favour of the belief in monosexuality, it "[represents] a blind spot in sex research." The term non heterosexual suggests a division between heterosexual and homosexual, the heterosexual homosexual dichotomy, rather than the heterosexual homosexual continuum, which accounts for identities that are not exclusively heterosexual or homosexual. By separating identities into either/or, bisexual identities are left in a place of ambiguity, "bisexuals transgress boundaries of sexually identified communities and thus are always both inside and outside a diversity of conflicting communities." The implied homosexual heterosexual dichotomy that the term puts in place negates its use as a truly inclusive term; "[the] categories are constructed in such a way as to allow everyone access to one and only one, and to insist that anyone who is not already neatly situated in one category or the other had best be on the way to one." This focus on either/or logic, heterosexuality or non heterosexuality, where non heterosexuality is closely associated with homosexuality rather than general queerness, slights those that the term attempts to describe; "where bisexuality does rate a mention, it is almost always rendered an epistemological and incidental by product, aftereffect, or definitional outcome of the opposition of hetero/homosexuality." Queer people "are often expected to account for [their] sexual identifications by either proving [their] normality (that is, [they] are inside the sphere of heteronormativity), or by accepting that [their] difference from the heterosexual norm constitutes some form of essence." The term non heterosexual is used to highlight the absolute difference between heterosexual and queer identities. The language needs to change to describe LGBTQ people as autonomous beings "rather than considering [them] solely as sexual beings constituted within a heterosexual logic of sameness or difference." The implied binary that the term non heterosexual perpetuates erases those whose identities fall in the spectrum between heterosexuality and homosexuality. The hetero/homosexual dichotomy continues the systematic erasure of bisexual identities by emphasizing an assumed oppositeness with nothing allowed in between. It ignores those who identify as non binary, as the term non heterosexuality has been interpreted as categorizing those who are sexually attracted to people of the 'same sex' as opposed to those who are attracted to those of the 'opposite sex.'