Non-heterosexual

[8][9][10] Some view the term as being contentious and pejorative as it "labels people against the perceived norm of heterosexuality, thus reinforcing heteronormativity".

[11][12] Still, others say non-heterosexual is the only term useful to maintaining coherence in research[clarification needed] and suggest it "highlights a shortcoming in our language around sexual identity"; for instance, its use can enable bisexual erasure.

[14][15] Additionally the majority of heterosexuals still view non-heterosexual acts as taboo and non-conventional sexual desires are generally hidden entirely or masked in various ways.

[7][17][18] Non-heterosexual is considered a better general term than homosexual, lesbian and gay, LGBT or queer for being more neutral and without the baggage or gender discrimination that comes with many of the alternatives.

[19] Non-heterosexual is found predominantly in research and scholarly environments possibly as a means to avoid terms deemed politically incorrect like lesbian, dyke, gay, bisexual, etc.

[30] He states that heterosexuality, as a categorization and as a term, was not created until the late nineteenth century, that prior to this relations between the sexes were not believed to be overtly sexual, and that in the Victorian era sex was seen as an act between "manly men and womanly women, [as] procreators, not specifically as erotic beings or heterosexuals.

"[30] He further argues that the division between the heterosexual and the non-heterosexual came in the 1860s after the "growth of the consumer economy also fostered a new pleasure ethic,"[30] and the erotic became a commodity to be bought and sold; at the same time the "rise in power and prestige of medical doctors allowed those upwardly mobile professionals to prescribe a healthy new sexuality.

He states, "In its earliest version, the twentieth-century heterosexual imperative usually continued to associate heterosexuality with a supposed human 'need,' 'drive,' or 'instinct' for propagation, a procreant urge linked inexorably with carnal lust... giving praise to vent to heteroerotic emotions was thus praised as enhancing baby-making capacity, marital intimacy and family stability.

"[32] Although "non-heterosexuality" is considered a blanket term for all LGBTQ identities, it is often interpreted as another word for homosexual which contributes to the continuation of systematic bisexual erasure.

Bisexuality has a long history of being overshadowed and ignored in favour of the belief in monosexuality, it "[represents] a blind spot in sex research.

[36] Queer people "are often expected to account for [their] sexual identifications by either proving [their] normality (that is, [they] are inside the sphere of heteronormativity), or by accepting that [their] difference from the heterosexual norm constitutes some form of essence.