title: Correlates and accompaniments of promiscuous sex among male homosexuals.
abstract: Until the past decade or thereabouts the psychoanalytic perspective has dominated writings on homosexuality. This almost inevitably entailed a concentration on the search for its etiological origins (Weinberg and Williams, 1974, pp. 3--4). As a consequence, the issue of the nature of the various styles of homosexual expression has been relatively neglected. An exploration of the "disconcerting variability" (Tripp, 1975, p. 133) of homosexual lifestyles is an extremely recent topic among researchers. Too often in the past homosexuality has been conceived of as a uniform entity: its contrasts with heterosexuality were exaggerated and similarities within homosexuality were overemphasized. Variation in modes of homosexual expression cries out for empirical attention (Bell and Weinberg, 1978, pp. 21--25). It is our intention in this paper to undertake an empirical exploration of some accompaniments of one dimension of homosexual behavior--having sexual experiences with a large number of partners. Far from asserting that this is characteristic of many or most homosexual men, we seek to differentiate them and understand to what extent the lives of men at the upper end of this continuum are intertwined with other, typically negatively regarded aspects of sexual life.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D006716:Homosexuality; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012725:Sexual Behavior