Significance There has long been skepticism among both scientists and laypersons that male bisexual orientation exists. Skeptics have claimed that men who self-identify as bisexual are actually homosexual or heterosexual. (The existence of female bisexuality has been less controversial.) This controversy can be resolved using objective, genital responses of men to male and female erotic stimuli. We combined nearly all available data (from eight previous American, British, and Canadian studies) to form a dataset of more than 500 men, much larger than any previous individual study, and conducted rigorous statistical tests. Results provided compelling evidence that bisexual-identified men tend to show bisexual genital and subjective arousal patterns. Male sexual orientation is expressed on a continuum rather than dichotomously. The question whether some men have a bisexual orientation—that is, whether they are substantially sexually aroused and attracted to both sexes—has remained controversial among both scientists and laypersons. Skeptics believe that male sexual orientation can only be homosexual or heterosexual, and that bisexual identification reflects nonsexual concerns, such as a desire to deemphasize homosexuality. Although most bisexual-identified men report that they are attracted to both men and women, self-report data cannot refute these claims. Patterns of physiological (genital) arousal to male and female erotic stimuli can provide compelling evidence for male sexual orientation. (In contrast, most women provide similar physiological responses to male and female stimuli.) We investigated whether men who self-report bisexual feelings tend to produce bisexual arousal patterns. Prior studies of this issue have been small, used potentially invalid statistical tests, and produced inconsistent findings. We combined nearly all previously published data (from eight previous studies in the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada), yielding a sample of 474 to 588 men (depending on analysis). All participants were cisgender males. Highly robust results showed that bisexual-identified men’s genital and subjective arousal patterns were more bisexual than were those who identified as exclusively heterosexual or homosexual. These findings support the view that male sexual orientation contains a range, from heterosexuality, to bisexuality, to homosexuality.

Both straight (i.e., heterosexual) and gay/lesbian individuals still question and erase bisexual identities. Skeptics contend that people adopt bisexual identities for strategic motivations, such as avoiding the stigma associated with identifying as gay, or for attention-seeking purposes. Across two studies, self-identified gay ( N = 168), straight ( N = 237), and bisexual ( N = 231) participants completed a sexual identity Implicit Association Test, a measure that can provide insight into automatic associations and lessen the influence of impression management strategies. All three groups displayed implicit sexual identities that were consistent with their self-ascribed identities. Gay men and lesbians implicitly identified as more gay and less bisexual than bisexual men and women, who in turn identified as less straight and more bisexual than straight men and women. These findings show that self-reported sexual identities converge with implicit identities and have implications for understanding the psychology of sexual orientation.

toward bisexual people or bisexuality as a sexual orientation. Biphobic prejudice commonly presents as denial that bisexuality is a genuine sexual orientation Biphobia or monosexism is aversion toward bisexual people or bisexuality as a sexual orientation. Biphobic prejudice commonly presents as denial that bisexuality is a genuine sexual orientation, negative stereotypes about people who are bisexual (such as the beliefs that they are promiscuous or dishonest), or bisexual erasure. The hatred of bisexual women is referred to as bimisogyny or less comm Biphobia…