Struggling with Sexual Identity

Sexual identity or gender identity is the feeling of belonging to one or other gender, being convinced of being a man or a woman. It is important to differentiate this with sexual orientation, which refers not to who we are but with the sexual attraction we may feel towards men, women or both.  Typically we define our sexual identity in our childhood and strengthen it during our adolescence. Many people doubt their sexual identity when they feel attracted to someone of their same gender, which is absolutely wrong. Feeling attraction to someone of your own gender does not mean your identity is not defined, you can be a woman and feel attraction to another woman and that won´t make you less feminine. If your doubts are about your sexual orientation, the fact of fantasizing about or feeling occasionally attracted to someone of your own gender does not make you homosexual. In fact, a large percentage of heterosexuals at some moment feels attracted to someone of their same sex or may even have a homosexual experience. If that is occasional and you are basically attracted to the opposite gender, you are a typical hetero with some bisexual desires, which are more common than you may think. Only if you start noticing you are losing desire for the opposite sex and all your sexual thoughts are focused on people of your same gender—it is then that you could possibly be having a sexual orientation confusion. If you feel uncomfortable with your body and with the gender your name and sexual organs show, you should seek counseling until you find out if this a temporary issue or if in fact, you may actually be struggling with your identity. ~