Resumen de A closer look at sexual diversity: differences in sexual health between lesbian, gay, bisexual and heterosexual people
Sexual health of gay and bisexual men has primarily been studied in the context of therisk of sexually transmitted infections (STI), such as HIV, whereas sexual health of lesbianand bisexual women has been understudied in general, because of their low presumedSTI/HIV risk. In addition, if LGB people are compared to heterosexual people, they are generally lumped together in one or at most two groups. The present study comparesLGB people to heterosexual people based on two dimensions of sexual orientation:attraction (exclusively other-sex attracted, mostly other-sex attracted, equally or mostlysame-sex attracted, exclusively same-sex attracted) and behavior (men who havesex with men, women who have sex with women, and people who exclusively haveheterosexual sex). We used data from “Sexual health in the Netherlands”: a periodicalsurvey of the sexual health of the Dutch adult population (N=16,648). The resultsshowed that it is worthwhile distinguishing more sexual attraction groups, especiallyfor women. Women who feel mostly attracted to men show a distinctive sexual healthprofile, that does not correspond to either heterosexual or lesbian women. In addition,lesbian, gay and bisexual people differ from heterosexual people in several aspects ofsexual health. The prevalence of sexual victimization, for example, was particularly highamong LGB people. More research into the context of these experiences is needed, aswell as a recognition of the diversity within the LGB population.
