ABSTRACT
This chapter explains sex therapy with lesbian and gay male couples. The Census Bureau collected data on 'unmarried partners' in 1990 and did not begin to analyze the data on same sex couples until 2000. It can be assumed that many same sex couples did not reveal their status honestly in the census, and there are many more self-identified gay and lesbian persons who are not in defined coupled relationships, but likely having sexual relationships. In this chapter we will often use the term queer, when the terms gay or lesbian couple are too restrictive to describe the sexuality of the 'same sex' couples we are describing. Although research is currently flourishing on issues related to marriage equality, same-sex parenting, and LGBTQ health disparities, the intimate lives of lesbians and gay men remains almost as secretive as it was when sodomy was illegal, and homosexuality was still a 'dirty little secret'.
