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Because sexual identity development is a process for which GLB individuals have been unprepared and which is contextually unsupported and stigmatized, it would seem that the process would be characterized by inconsistency or incongruence among its affective, cognitive, and behavioral components, such that behavior may not always coincide with affect and/or identity. Rather, GLB individuals are often raised in communities that are either ignorant of or openly hostile toward homosexuality. Unlike members of other minority groups (e.g., ethnic and racial minorities), most GLB individuals are not raised in a community of similar others from whom they learn about their identity and who reinforce and support that identity. The development of a gay, lesbian, or bisexual (GLB) sexual identity is a complex and often difficult process. The finding that youths who transited to a gay/lesbian identity differed from consistently gay/lesbian youths suggests that identity integration continues after the adoption of a gay/lesbian sexual identity. Contrary to the hypothesis that females are more sexually fluid than males, female youths were less likely to change identities than male youths.
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Although youths who consistently identified as gay/lesbian did not differ from other youths on time since experiencing sexual developmental milestones, they reported current sexual orientation and sexual behaviors that were more same-sex centered and they scored higher on aspects of the identity integration process (e.g., more certain, comfortable, and accepting of their same-sex sexuality, more involved in gay-related social activities, more possessing of positive attitudes toward homosexuality, and more comfortable with others knowing about their sexuality) than youths who transited to a gay/lesbian identity and youths who consistently identified as bisexual. Fifty-seven percent of the youths remained consistently self-identified as gay/lesbian, 18% transited from bisexual to gay/lesbian, and 15% consistently identified as bisexual over time. A longitudinal report of 156 gay, lesbian, and bisexual youths examined changes in sexual identity over time.