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Hi. You have some sort of sexual orientation that you identify with. You might struggle with naming it, or might not name it. You might not tell people, maybe let them assume something about you. Or maybe it’s not safe for you to identify publicly. You’re still valid. Our students might be in any of those situations above. They’re still valid. How we explore, how we identify our sexual orientation, how we decide to define that to ourselves or others is like many other identity development processes. Since we are surrounded by people, not just students, we need to be empathetic to those processes. Sexual orientation is an invisible identity. Be kind.

Mueller and Cole’s research they found four themes when a student identified as heterosexual: 1 - it means not being homosexual. 2 - it may mean being in conflict with one's faith. 3 - it means distancing oneself from homophobia. 4 - It means being invisible. There was a fifth theme that provided context for all of the other themes, which were precursors to meaning-making. Title of theory: Heterosexuality Identity Year theory was published: 2009 Students originally studied: 14 undergrad and graduate heterosexual students, ages 20 to 24. The study was done through exploratory interviews, which occured three times over a 3- or 4-week period. They wanted to know how students understoof their heterosexual identity and how they made meaning of that identity. Background of the author: Dr. John Mueller is a professor at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. He has served in leadership roles within ACPA, including the directorate of the Standing Committee for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual Awareness...

I went to undergrad at Ithaca College. It’s a pretty liberal small liberal arts college next to a pretty liberal town in the middle of almost nothing. It’s beautiful. Like, take-your-breath-away beautiful. It also attracts people from many different walks of life. A good friend of mine helped push the idea of gender neutral housing into existence in 2008 (maybe 2007?, I might be a year off). There were entire weeks, maybe a full month, of Pride events. The campus flew (it might still, I haven’t been back in a while) the Pride flag 24/7/365. I was introduced to the idea of someone being pansexual my junior year. I grew up in a fairly liberal-minded but rural community. We knew about being gay. We were taught safe sex, for all types of sexual experiences. But, once I was in college I had friends who were openly out, openly themselves, openly participating in Pride events. Eventually I’d attend two gay weddings. But some folks from where I grew don’t understand. Some don’t want to u...