Spatial abilities are generally hypothesized to differ between men and women, and people with different sexual orientations. According to the cross-sex shift hypothesis, gay men are hypothesized to perform in the direction of heterosexual women and lesbian women in the direction of heterosexual men on cognitive tests. This study investigated sexual orientation differences in spatial navigation ...

Findings are presented of a comparative study investigating the family relationships and the emotional and gender development of children raised in lesbian mother families. A total of 30 lesbian mother families with 4-8 year old children created as a result of donor insemination (DI) were compared with 38 heterosexual families with a DI child and with 30 heterosexual families who had a naturall...

Previous studies have shown that homosexual men differ from heterosexual men in several somatic traits and lay people accurately attribute sexual orientation based on facial images. Thus, we may predict that morphological differences between faces of homosexual and heterosexual individuals can cue to sexual orientation. The main aim of this study was to test for possible differences in facial s...

Elucidating the Origins of Heterosexual Sex Differences in Mating Psychology by Examining the Behaviour of Homosexual Men and Women Various competing theoretical frameworks have been invoked to explain heterosexual sex differences in mating psychology. Chapter One provides examples of such frameworks, details how considering both heterosexual and homosexual men and women can help identify the m...

The growing body of literature on the recognition of sexual orientation from voice ("auditory gaydar") is silent on the cognitive and social consequences of having a gay-/lesbian- versus heterosexual-sounding voice. We investigated this issue in four studies (overall N = 276), conducted in Italian language, in which heterosexual listeners were exposed to single-sentence voice samples of gay/les...

Coparenting is associated with child behavior in families with heterosexual parents, but less is known about coparenting among lesbian- and gay-parent families. Associations were studied among self-reported divisions of labor, coparenting observations, and child adjustment (Mage  = 3 years) among 104 adoptive families headed by lesbian, gay, or heterosexual couples. Lesbian and gay couples repo...

The purpose of this article is to propose a three-step model to help heterosexual therapists become more aware of the influence of their own heteronormative assumptions, heterosexual privileges, and heterosexual identities on the therapy process. This article also provides definitions of concepts central to the practice of affirmative therapy with lesbian, gay, and bisexual clients and strategi...

BACKGROUND More and more lesbian couples are planning parenthood through donor insemination and IVF and the number of planned lesbian families is growing in Sweden and other western countries. Research has shown that lesbian couples report as much overall satisfaction in their relationships as do heterosexual couples. However, although parenthood is highly desired, many parents are unaware of t...

OBJECTIVE To compare the prevalence of HIV risk behaviours reported by heterosexuals without major risks for HIV acquisition diagnosed with HIV in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, with those of the heterosexual general population. METHODS Demographic and sexual behaviour data for heterosexuals (without major risks for HIV) aged 16-44 from the British National Surveys of Sexual Attitudes ...