ABSTRACT
Same-sex relationships have been stigmatized or ignored by social scientists, perhaps because they violate the cultural imperative to procreate and because they depart from sex-role expectations. Yet, romantic relationships are at least as developmentally significant to an adolescent who is attracted to same-sex individuals as they are to an adolescent who is attracted to different-sex individuals. Diamond (chap. 4, this volume) notes, “The average sexual-minority youth spends far more time ruminating about love and romance than about suicide, hate crimes, or homelessness, and they have nowhere to turn with their concerns.” When considering the multiple transitions that occur during adolescence for healthy development, love does not discriminate based on sexual orientation or the object of one’s infatuation.
