How does a woman become bisexual or lesbian?

Question

What are the driving factors and motivation towards finding a woman partner for other women?

I want to know what drives bisexual and gay women to become this way?

Is it from birth or is it environmental?

Answer 1

I just happened to fall in love with a woman, a few times : ) I've also fallen in love with intersex and trans-people. I've been this way since I can remember.
Im called bisexual, but its more like I am attracted to the personality and the intellect rather than the body or the gender.

Answer 2

I'll proposed, based on my life and being around a bit a bit of rough data that I won't try to infer too much from. I would say, of the lesbians I've met, well over half have had some sort of relationship beyond friendship with a man. We can therefore infer from this that these people were not "born" this way; and that the incidence of actual lesbians is either very few or not real at all. Do people not believe that someone can ingrain an idea in them and make it feel as if part of them?* Crap, too much infering...and here come the thumbs down based on factual evidence - people can say that I must not have met enough, but survey groups can take groups of a thousand people and come out with results that are indicative of the entire country. I'm hardly insular...oh and how many bisexual women have you met that started with women? Yeah.

*emphasis on this. Damn Yahoo! and their lack of customisation.

Further evidence in the answer below mine. You've changed according to have things have gone...it doesn't have to be conscious.

Answer 3

No, more aren't becoming lesbians. They're just more free about expressing it. Also, lots of girls are acting out but are not bi or lesbian...they're just enjoying the freedom of not dealing with a man at the time. As you know, dealing with the opposite sex requires discipline....hanging with your own gender is sometimes just easier.

Answer 4

To become a lesbian or bisexual, you have to certify that you have an ongoing curiosity about other women. You submit this certification along with your application and a check or money order for $50 to the State Lesbian/Bisexual Board and then you have to pass a standardized test.

You will receive a pass/fail grade immediately, but you will have to wait for formal notification from the state before you can officially be considered a Lesbian or Bisexual.

Answer 5

i can only speak for myself, i have know i was a lesbian my entire life. yes there were situations that made me furious with men but that did not make me a lesbian.i knew way before that. a lot of women have gone through hard times with men and it doesn't make them a lesbian.
so to answer your question, it is my experience it was from birth

Answer 6

Combo of genetics and environment.
Environment: Deeply religious, conservative people are going to do everything they can to deny attraction to same sex partners.

Myths Q&A:
-No one can "make you gay", since you're either attracted to someone or not, right?
-If everyone who had ever been sexually molested or raped "turned gay", how many people would still be heterosexual? Trauma does not change your sexual orientation; it may depress it, but not change it.

Truth: There really is a tendency to be gay. It does run in families. I have a older relative who is gay (pretty closeted gay since he's my parent's generation, in his 70's), and I'm bisexual

Answer 7

There's a lot of political power to be had from claiming that it's all a matter of genetics, so careful thinkers might be alert to the fact that the "evidence" for this is far from conclusive. The motive here, in claiming that it's genetic, is to promote the view that it's beyond human control on any level, in order to justify the reduction of gay-tolerance issues to simple matters of civil rights.
___It's often said that we should "follow the money" when it comes to looking for corruption in politics. Following the political power is an equivalent source of potential corruption.
___Some persons exhibit homosexual orientation from their first awareness, and for some, there's probably a genetic component. But lots of women drift in and out of heterosexual and homosexual relationships, many of them victims of abuse, which indicates environmental influence. And the rate of homosexuality among homosexual adoptive families is higher than that of the general population, which also point toward environmental influence. Also it's difficult to tease out genetic factors of behavior from environmental ones, since most families exert both kind of influence simultaneously.
___This matters because seeing sexual orientation as environmental prompts the question of whether society wants to promote it or discourage it by shaping the environment through policy.
___A more general trend in the social "sciences" over the past century or so has been to omit personal behavior-choice and moral responsibility from the factors in determining who a person is. The narrow controversy between the two passive factors, nature or nurture, reflects this omission. Though the social "sciences" sometimes speak of self-fulfilling prophecies, there's little talk about how this passive, amoral view of the human condition can amplify itself through the effects of persuading people that they are the results of forces beyond their control. Other things being equal, the study of psychology can lower a person's capacity to make moral decisions. (But other things are rarely equal--educated people in general have more freedom than their less educated counterparts.)
___Considerations of personal choice are anathema to gay activists because of their political implications. There's a very hostile debate between those who argue that gays can learn to manifest heterosexual impulses with therapy, and those opposed to the idea. Both sides show a lack of moderation and open-mindedness on this issue.
___Human affairs are complex, and any absolutist positions on the causes of human behavior are most likely false.

Edit: Waswisgirl1: Not everyone who's abused is gay, but this doesn't justify the conclusion that abuse has NO effect on sexual orientation; the presence of other factors prohibits this conclusion.

Answer 8

The driving force and motivation behind a woman finding a female partner is Sexual Orientation.

I think sexual orientation is mostly genetic, and sexual and social behavior is complex.

Do you believe you are heterosexual? What made you "become" this way? What "drives" you towards the opposite gender?

Sexual orientation is not a pathology, a defect, a disease, a flaw. Humans have it, all of them. Some are hetero, some gay, some a bit more complicated.

Below are some references which discuss evidence of genetic cause(s) of lebsianism and homosexuality

Answer 9

I don't know for sure but I would have a crush on a couple of women here if i was!

Oh wth, I'll just go have a crush on them any way! :)

Answer 10

Usually it happens (in my experience, always) because some man hurt her and so she thinks, "hm. If I'm a lesbian, no man could ever hurt me again". I think it honestly comes from a severe feeling of worthlessness. She is afraid of men and what they can do to her so she decides to opt out of it altogether.

Again, this is my experience, but I've had quite a few female friends announce to me that they are suddenly now "gay" or "bisexual" RIGHT after a breakup or a heartbreak with a man.

Hmm... coincidence....?