ABSTRACT
Given that bisexual people are much less likely to be ‘out’ than lesbians or gay men, one is likely to not know which of the clients are bisexual. One way to remedy that is to make sure that the initial client paperwork asks for sexual orientation and gender identity and includes many options, for example, ‘sexual orientation’ should allow someone to check heterosexual, gay, lesbian, bisexual, pansexual, asexual, queer, and ‘other,’ at a minimum. Very few people are literally 50—50 bisexual, that is, with exactly equal attraction to males and females. While many ‘mixed-orientation’ couples are comprised of one gay and one straight partner, many include a straight and a bisexual member. However, when one partner is bisexual, the bisexual partner is often genuinely in love with and attracted to their straight spouse, which makes staying together in a meaningful marriage a more viable possibility. Few studies have actually compared couples where a partner is bisexual rather than gay.
