Editing Sexual orientation (section)

===Androphilia, gynephilia, and other terms===
{{Main|Androphilia and gynephilia}}
{{See also|Attraction to transgender people}}

''Androphilia'' and ''gynephilia'' (or ''gynecophilia'') are terms used in behavioral science to describe sexual attraction, as an alternative to a homosexual and heterosexual conceptualization. They are used for identifying a subject's object of attraction without attributing a [[sex assignment]] or [[gender identity]] to the subject. Related terms such as ''[[Pansexuality|pansexual]]'' and ''[[Polysexuality|polysexual]]'' do not make any such assignations to the subject.<ref name="Firestein" /><ref name="Sex and society2">{{cite book|title=Sex and Society|volume=2|page=593|last=Rice|first=Kim|isbn=978-0-7614-7905-5|publisher=[[Marshall Cavendish]]|year=2009|editor=Marshall Cavendish Corporation|contribution=Pansexuality|access-date=October 3, 2012|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YtsxeWE7VD0C&q=Pansexuality&pg=PA593|archive-date=November 13, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201113100728/https://books.google.com/books?id=YtsxeWE7VD0C&q=Pansexuality&pg=PA593|url-status=live}}</ref> People may also use terms such as ''[[queer]]'', ''pansensual,'' ''[[polyfidelitous]],'' ''ambisexual,'' or personalized identities such as ''byke'' or ''biphilic''.<ref name="Firestein" />

Using ''androphilia'' and ''gynephilia'' can avoid confusion and offense when describing people in non-western cultures, as well as when describing intersex and transgender people. Psychiatrist [[Anil Aggrawal]] explains that androphilia, along with gynephilia,<ref name="Aggrawal2008">Aggrawal, Anil (2008). ''Forensic and medico-legal aspects of sexual crimes and unusual sexual practices.'' CRC Press, {{ISBN|978-1-4200-4308-2}}</ref>{{Page needed|date=August 2021}}<blockquote>is needed to overcome immense difficulties in characterizing the sexual orientation of trans men and trans women. For instance, it is difficult to decide whether a trans man erotically attracted to males is a heterosexual female or a homosexual male; or a trans woman erotically attracted to females is a heterosexual male or a lesbian female. Any attempt to classify them may not only cause confusion but arouse offense among the affected subjects. In such cases, while defining sexual attraction, it is best to focus on the object of their attraction rather than on the sex or gender of the subject.</blockquote>Sexologist [[Milton Diamond]] writes, "The terms heterosexual, homosexual, and bisexual are better used as adjectives, not nouns, and are better applied to behaviors, not people. This usage is particularly advantageous when discussing the partners of transsexual or intersexed individuals. These newer terms also do not carry the social weight of the former ones."<ref name="diamond2010">Diamond M (2010). Sexual orientation and gender identity. In Weiner IB, Craighead EW eds. ''[[iarchive:corsiniencyclope0004unse/page/1578/mode/2up|The Corsini Encyclopedia of Psychology]]'', Volume 4.  p. 1578. John Wiley and Sons,  {{ISBN|978-0-470-17023-6}}</ref>

Some researchers advocate use of the terminology to avoid [[bias]] inherent in [[Western culture|Western]] conceptualizations of human sexuality. Writing about the [[Samoa]]n ''[[fa'afafine]]'' demographic, sociologist Johanna Schmidt writes that in cultures where a [[third gender]] is recognized, a term like "homosexual transsexual" does not align with cultural categories.<ref name="schmidt2001">Schmidt J (2001). [http://wwwsshe.murdoch.edu.au/intersections/issue6/schmidt.html Redefining fa’afafine: Western discourses and the construction of transgenderism in Samoa.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080322034626/http://wwwsshe.murdoch.edu.au/intersections/issue6/schmidt.html |date=2008-03-22 }} ''Intersections: Gender, history and culture in the Asian context''</ref>

Some researchers, such as [[Bruce Bagemihl]], have criticized certain ways the labels "heterosexual" and "homosexual" have been used for transgender people, writing, "...the point of reference for 'heterosexual' or 'homosexual' orientation in this nomenclature is solely the individual's genetic sex prior to reassignment (see for example, Blanchard et al. 1987, Coleman and Bockting, 1988, Blanchard, 1989). These labels thereby ignore the individual's personal sense of gender identity taking precedence over biological sex, rather than the other way around." Bagemihl goes on to take issue with the way this terminology makes it easy to claim transsexuals are really homosexual males seeking to escape from stigma.<ref name="bagemihl">Bagemihl B. Surrogate phonology and transsexual faggotry: A linguistic analogy for uncoupling sexual orientation from gender identity. In ''Queerly Phrased: Language, Gender, and Sexuality''. Anna Livia, Kira Hall (eds.) pp. 380 ff. Oxford University Press {{ISBN|0-19-510471-4}}</ref>

Terms have been proposed for sexual attraction to a [[Assigned male at birth|person born male]] with a feminine gender expression, including ''gynandromorphophilia'' (adjective: ''gynandromorphophilic'')<ref name="Blaney-Krueger2014" /><ref name=Patterson-2020>{{cite thesis |last=Petterson |first=Lanna J |title=Male sexual orientation: a cross-cultural perspective |website=OPUS: Open Uleth Scholarship |date=2020 |url=https://hdl.handle.net/10133/5763 |type=thesis |location=Lethbridge, Alberta |page=iii, 1–276|hdl=10133/5763 }}</ref> and ''gynemimetophilia'' (adj.: ''gynemimetophilic'').<ref name=Money-Lamacz-1984>{{cite journal |first1=John |last1=Money |first2=Margaret |last2=Lamacz |title=Gynemimesis and gynemimetophilia: Individual and cross-cultural manifestations of a gender-coping strategy hitherto unnamed |journal=Comprehensive Psychiatry |volume=25 |issue=4 |year=1984 |pages=392–403 |issn=0010-440X |publisher=Elsevier |url=https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0010-440X%2884%2990074-9 |doi=10.1016/0010-440X(84)90074-9 |pmid=6467919 |access-date=2021-08-09 |archive-date=2022-03-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220309213852/https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0010440X84900749?via%3Dihub |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref name="Blaney-Krueger2014">{{cite book |last1=Blaney |first1=Paul H. |last2=Krueger |first2=Robert F. |last3=Millon |first3=Theodore |title=Oxford Textbook of Psychopathology |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VoEZBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA592 |date=19 September 2014 |edition=3rd |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York |isbn=978-0-19-981177-9 |pages=592– |oclc=900980099 |access-date=6 March 2021 |archive-date=11 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210511080008/https://books.google.com/books?id=VoEZBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA592 |url-status=live }}</ref>