ABSTRACT
We all slept over at my house one night. Eating pizza, watching movies, etc. Katie1 had just gotten her tongue pierced. We were all sitting around talking about what it would be like to kiss someone with a tongue ring. However it came up, Katie agreed to kiss everyone so they would know. But that wouldn’t be fair because then Katie kissed four girls and we all kissed one. We all ended up kissing each other. Every slumber party we had after that turned into something sexual. Swimming naked, kissing, rubbing, etc. Those were my first experiences with other women. The experiences were soft, enjoyable, comfortable and intimate. Captioned: “Slumber parties with my four best girl friends.” (20-year-old Caucasian woman, Ashley)
Exploring and constructing one’s sexual identity is a fundamental developmental task throughout adolescence and young adulthood that informs later management of physical and emotional intimacy in rela-
tionships with others (Arnett, 2000; Collins & Sroufe, 1999; Erikson, 1968). For adolescents and young adults in general, this time can be characterized by recognizing one’s sexual attractions, acting on these attractions, and beginning to develop a sexual identity. For sexual minorities specifically, this frequently involves the discovery of attraction to and initial sexual experiences with the same-sex (Rust, 2003; SavinWilliams, 1995).
