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In relation to sexuality a number of different positions on the social–biological continuum have been proffered. Explanations that favor biological determinants have been seen as both negative and positive by gay, lesbian, and trans activists. In 1991, LeVay claimed to have found evidence of a difference in the hypothalamus of homosexual and heterosexual men. This finding and the claim by Hamer et al. in 1993 to have identified the “gay gene” were embraced by some activists as evidence that homosexuality was innate and therefore should not be the target of discrimination any more than the color of a person's skin or hair. However, there have been difficulties in replicating both findings and they have been subject to numerous critiques, centering on their scientific standing and their harmful implications. For example, Hegarty (1997), in a feminist interrogation of Le Vay's work, points out that Le Vay's dichotomous view of sexuality excludes those with “bisexual or queer” sexual identities. A view that homosexuality is fixed in structures of the brain reinforces the view that it is a constitutional deficiency that is universal in all homosexual men, and ignores the variety and mutability in the expression of human sexuality. As Hegarty notes, lesbian and gay people “differentiate their sexualities in complex and different ways across the life span” (1997, p. 356). Hegarty sees LeVay's work as a typical example of biological essentialism, “part of a longer ongoing attempt to inscribe sexual desire within the discipline of biology” (1997, p. 355).

Many different biological and social explanations of sexual orientation have been put forward, ranging from genetic differences to atypical early attachments with parents, but the general consensus is that while biological factors, operating via the genes or postnatally, may have a role and social factors may also have a role, sexual orientation is multiply determined and may have very different causal origins across the population (APA 2008).

An essentialist position on sexual orientation sees it as a fixed and unchanging trait of the individual. In his historical review of sexuality studies, Plummer comments that the Kinsey Institute and others in the 1970s “moved sexuality from being seen as essentially biological and reproductive to the challenge of taking seriously its socially grounded multiple meanings” (2012, p. 245). Plummer continues, “sexualities are never fixed or stable, they do not harbour one grand truth and they do not reveal our essential nature” (p. 253). He notes that by the 1990s and the publication of books such as Simon's Postmodern Sexualities (1996) scholars increasingly adopted a social constructionist perspective on sexuality, As Plummer notes sexuality was “destabilized, decentered, and de‐essentialized” (2012, p. 247).

However studies show that although scholarly thinking on sexuality may reject an essentialist perspective, essentialist thinking may still be a part of how many lay people conceptualize their own sexual orientation. Fausto‐Sterling (2012b) gives the example of a study by Stork which showed that women who have entered lesbian relationships in middle age – after having been married and having had children – tend to conclude that they must always have been a lesbian but just didn’t know it (1998).

Diamond introduced the term “sexual fluidity,” which she claims is more common in women than in men (2009). One of her studies, which study tracked young women who identified as having a same‐sex orientation into middle age and older found considerable fluctuation in their sexual preferences and behavior over time, often prompted by changes in context and opportunity (Diamond 2009). Diamond argues for a de‐essentialized, social constructionist perspective on sexual orientation which is against both biological determination and the idea that a person's sexual preference is necessarily fixed across the life course. Despite the increased discussion of sexual fluidity in academia and in the media, accompanying the higher profile for gender fluidity, empirical research indicates that the majority of people retain the same sexual orientation/preference across the life course (Savin‐Williams et al. 2012).