--- title: A New Sexuality: Not Straight. Not Bisexual. Mostly Straight description: Many young men identify as mostly straight — a sexual orientation that is not quite straight but also, they say, less gay than bisexuality canonical: https://time.com/5026092/mostly-straight-sexual-identity-bisexual-gay/ author: Ritch C. Savin-Williams article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-11-16T16:01:04.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-13T00:17:01.000Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Why ‘Mostly Straight’ Men Are a Distinct Sexual Identity og:description: One which encompasses nearly a million young Americans og:url: https://time.com/5026092/mostly-straight-sexual-identity-bisexual-gay/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltded7b63a53d8ed52/6988e605cf40a829dec4a3b2/mostly-straight.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4724 og:image:height: 2657 og:image:alt: mostly-straight-men-hands og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Why ‘Mostly Straight’ Men Are a Distinct Sexual Identity twitter:description: One which encompasses nearly a million young Americans twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltded7b63a53d8ed52/6988e605cf40a829dec4a3b2/mostly-straight.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Why ‘Mostly Straight’ Men Are a Distinct Sexual Identity > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=517ccafd-0019-4078-aa32-a1f80b3c8a98&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Larry Kramer on Gay Activism Today [Watch (HLS stream): Larry Kramer on Gay Activism Today](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/ila3DKMb.m3u8) (2:08)  _Published 2015-06-18. Larry Kramer isn't ready to slow down._ by [Ritch C. Savin-Williams](https://time.com/author/ritch-c-savin-williams/) ## Ritch C. Savin-Williams Updated: Dec 13, 2023 12:17 AM UTCPublished: Nov 16, 2017 4:01 PM UTC  Daniel Grizelj—Getty Images by [Ritch C. Savin-Williams](https://time.com/author/ritch-c-savin-williams/) ## Ritch C. Savin-Williams Updated: Dec 13, 2023 12:17 AM UTCPublished: Nov 16, 2017 4:01 PM UTC We hear a lot about the Big Three Sexualities — straight, bisexual and gay. Most of us assume that these three orientations encompass the universe of sexual identities. But there is a new kid on the block: The mostly straight male. To the uninitiated, _mostly straight_ may seem paradoxical. How can a man be _mostly_ heterosexual? If you’re a young man, you might assume that either you’re straight or you’re not, meaning you’re likely gay and maybe bisexual. Yet the evidence suggests that more young men identify or describe themselves as mostly straight than identify as either bisexual or gay combined. A [2011–2013](https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/zNaNB6c0Opg1Up?domain=cdc.gov) [U.S. government poll](https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/zNaNB6c0Opg1Up?domain=cdc.gov) [f](https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/zNaNB6c0Opg1Up?domain=cdc.gov)[ound](https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/zNaNB6c0Opg1Up?domain=cdc.gov) that among 18- to 24-year-old men, 6% marked their sexual attractions as “mostly opposite sex.” That’s nearly 1 million young men. Yet when these men were forced to choose between straight, bisexual or gay, about three-quarters marked straight because for them bisexual, even if it is understood as “bisexual-leaning straight,” is too gay to accurately describe their identity. Given such constraints, these young men were left with no place to truthfully register their sexuality, thus forcing them to be less than honest. For my book, I spoke with 40 mostly straight young men, some over the course of several years. They were a very diverse group. In high school, they were hipsters, jocks, nerds, druggies, skaters, class clowns, burnouts and straight-laced achievers. Long hair, short hair, clean-shaven, bearded, tattooed, pierced, muscular, lanky, hyper and pudgy. They wanted to change the world, fit in, drop out, go into medicine, advocate marketing strategies, fight for social justice, write novels or be unemployed, and many have no clue what they’ll do. Talking to them, I found that in the most general sense, a mostly straight young man is sexually and/or romantically distinctive; we might say that he’s _fluid_ or _flexible,_ supposedly uncharacteristic of male sexuality. Traditionally, our understanding has been that if you’re male and have even a slight attraction to the same sex, then you must be gay. Even if this isn’t immediately apparent, we tell men, it will become so once you come to terms with your true self and exit your “phase” of bicuriosity or questioning. Women, by contrast, we give more space to be sexually fluid, as the sizeable literature on the subject attests. The mostly straight man belongs to a growing trend of young men who are secure in their heterosexuality yet remain aware of their potential to experience far more. Perhaps he’s felt attracted to or fantasized about another guy to a slight degree or intermittently. He might or might not be comfortable with this seeming contradiction, a hetero guy who, despite his lust for women, rejects a straight label, a sexual category and a sexual description that feels foreign. He’d rather find another place on the sexual/romantic continuum, some location that fits him more comfortably. He knows he’s not gay, but straight with a dash of gayness. But how much gayness? Not much — a relatively small percentage, say around 5% to 10%, of his sexual and romantic feelings. Strict rules don’t apply. These attractions are sexual, romantic or both and can be expressed in various ways, from erotic fantasies to actual behavior. Perhaps he’s made out or he wants to make out with a guy friend. He’s participated in all-male group masturbation or is willing to receive oral sex from an attractive guy he’s just met. But it’s unlikely that he has had penetrative sex with a guy, though he might be willing to if the right guy or circumstance appeared. He might have had an intense guy crush. But to fall passionately in love with a guy is too much, though he might have quite strong feelings and cuddle with a best friend. He feels his same-sex sexuality _internally_ more than he lives it _externally._ Perhaps if his culture were not so stigmatizing of same-sex sexuality he might be more inclined to express himself through tangible expressions of sex or romance — not frequently but occasionally.  Harvard University Press He’s not transitioning toward identifying as bisexual or gay. He’s not a closeted gay man who fears being gay yet wants to keep a slight, perhaps secretive, gay side by dangling his potential for guy sex. He’s not saying, “I’m available for guys who want to have sex with a straight guy” while enjoying the privileges afforded to heterosexual men in our society. He’s not an equal opportunity bisexual in disguise trying to hold out hope for straightness, nor is he afraid to identify as bisexual because of societal stigma and prejudice. He is not a disgruntled straight man tired of sex with women, nor is he necessarily unhappy or frustrated with the availability of heterosexual sex. He may retreat from a full identification with heterosexuality, but rarely does he gravitate toward bisexuality, and almost never does he move toward homosexuality of any sort. Thus, he is a closer cousin to straight guys than to traditional bisexual guys. **“Mostly straight” is a category** that was not readily available to previous generations of men. A [2015](https://today.yougov.com/news/2015/08/20/third-young-americans-exclusively-heterosexual/) [survey](https://today.yougov.com/news/2015/08/20/third-young-americans-exclusively-heterosexual/) revealed striking contrasts across age groups. One question asked, “Thinking about sexuality, which of the following comes closer to your view?” * “There is no middle ground—you are either heterosexual or you are not.” * “Sexuality is a scale—it is possible to be somewhere near the middle.” A majority of millennials endorsed the second option, which means they believe in a spectrum of sexuality. Adults from other generations preferred the first, which signifies a two-category approach — straight, not straight — to sexuality. Millennials were also less likely than other groups to label themselves as “completely heterosexual.” And even among those who identified as straight, they were more likely than their parents’ generation to respond to the following three questions with “Very unlikely, but not impossible” or “Maybe, if I really liked them.” The lead-in was, “If the right person came along at the right time…” * “Do you think it is conceivable that you could be attracted to a person of the same sex?” * “Do you think it is conceivable that you could have a sexual experience with a person of the same sex?” * “Do you think it is conceivable that you could have a relationship with a person of the same sex?” To each of these questions, their parents’ generation overwhelmingly responded with “Absolutely not.” Identifying as mostly straight is now largely possible because the millennial generation is adding new complexity to sexual and romantic relationships. The New York _Times_ branded the cohort as [“Generation Nice.”](https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/ZpqpB1iY9MenT6?domain=nytimes.com) What does _nice_ mean? Contrasted with previous generations, young people today are more confident, connected, introspective, and open to change. They’re skeptical of traditional institutions and ways of viewing the world, and they are willing to improvise solutions that are both creative and good for the environment and future generations. As adolescents and young adults, they are happier and more satisfied with their lives than previous generations. They express liberal, progressive attitudes toward religion and race relations, social policies and sexuality. How do these values and practices play out in the future? Well, if we are prepared to accept mostly straight as a fourth sexual identity, we gain an increasingly nuanced understanding of sexual orientation — and its close cousin, romantic orientation. We won’t stop at four; no doubt we will soon recognize additional sexual identities — which might be yours. _Adapted with permission from_ [Mostly Straight: Sexual Fluidity Among Men](https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/lN4NB0c93E8gUJ?domain=amazon.com) _published by Harvard University Press._ **Correction**: The original version of this story misstated the title of the book from which it was adapted. It is _Mostly Straight: Sexual Fluidity Among Men_, not _Mostly Straight: Sexual Fluidity Among Gay Men._ ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] I don't regret anything I've done or said. No matter what you say, some people are gonna like it and some people aren't. So that doesn't shut me up at all. Inside I'm tempestuous, as always. 1981 and the first AIDS cases happened to my friends. [ MUSIC ] I could see that nobody was doing anything and no one knew what to do quite frankly. That lead to the beginning of my activist life which also included writing The Normal Heart. [ MUSIC ] It got terrible reviews, Normal Heart, when it opened to the public. The New York Times' Frank Rich was very unkind. Said I was creating a political statement, or whatever. Which I was, but it caught on. You made the same point. George Bush is- Plague! We are in the middle of a **** plague, and you behave like this! I don't see many activists anymore, I'm afraid. Act Up was this incredibly wonderful entity that got all of the drugs out there. That was the heyday for me of gay activism and now we had hundreds of dying young men who were willing to really fight. Now we don't have people who are as frightened as we were. And as many gay people as there are, and many of them are out of the closet, but they're really not out of the closet. Not to the extent that they're willing to be activists. Which means getting out there and showing yourself and being angry. 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