A heterosexual is attracted to members of the opposite sex.
	A homosexual is attracted to members of the same sex.
	A bisexual is attracted to both men and women.

Sexual orientation thus defines a person's feelings; it is considered part of their personal makeup. It is something that a person discovers; it is not chosen.

Some mental health professionals have more precise definitions which include the sex that an individual focuses their amorous thoughts, their erotic desires, their sexual fantasies and their feelings.

Sometimes asexuality is added as a fourth orientation; this covers individuals who have no feelings of sexual attraction.

Everyone has a sexual orientation. It exists whether a person is sexually active or celibate.
 

	The sex, and/or
	The age, and/or
	The species, and/or
	The state

of the individual that a person finds sexually, emotionally, and spiritually attractive. They define sexual orientation as including one or more of the following terms:

	A heterosexual is attracted to members of the opposite sex.
	A homosexual is attracted to members of the same sex.
	A bisexual is attracted to both males and females.
	A pedophile is attracted to pre-pubescent children.
	A hebephile is attracted to young people about the age of puberty. 6
	A ephebophile is attracted to post-pubertal adolescents (14 to 17 years of age).
	A necrophile is attracted to dead bodies.
	A zoophile (a.k.a. "zoo") is an individual, almost always male, who in involved in bestiality or zoophilia: sexual activities or fantasies involving non-humans.
	Etc.

Various religiously conservative groups have created unique definitions for the term "sexual orientation." Some include about 30 behaviors. More info. They included a variety of paraphilias. "Paraphilia" means "beyond love" in Greek. The category includes dozen sexual desires and activities that lie outside the cultural norm and only involve a minority of adults. Examples are sadomasochism, exhibitionism, voyeurism, emetophilia, klismaphilia, etc. See Jahsonic.com for definitions of these paraphilias. ₁

Some quotations from religious an social conservatives who have apparently taken this broad interpretation of sexual orientation:
 

	Judith Reisman, writing in the Fundamentalist Christian news service WorldNetDaily in the year 2000 referred to "...federal 'sexual orientation' legislation protects all 'orientations' which would include 'affectional' pedophiles, pederasts, sadists, zoophiles, coprophiles, necrophiles, and the like." 2
	In their essay "Sexual Orientation: Fixed or Changeable?, The Traditional Values Coalition writes: "There are literally dozens of groups of individuals who engage in bizarre sexual behaviors and who have mental conditions known as paraphilias or behaviors known as fetishes. These include Coprophagia.... Klismaphilia... Pederasty... Sadomasochism... Diaper fetishes... Necrophilia... All of these behaviors could be considered to be 'sexual orientations' -- and many of the individuals who engage in these behaviors are working to have their peculiar sexual behaviors declared to be normal in psychiatry and in the culture at large....Pedophilia and Sadomasochism are just two of many sexual orientations that may eventually be normalized in our society." 3
	The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported that: "Cheryl Surber stood before the City Council and passionately urged members to kill an effort to have sexual orientation covered by the city's anti- discrimination ordinances. Such an ordinance, Surber said, would force Fort Worth employers to ask all employees, 'Are you a homosexual, heterosexual, bisexual, asexual, transsexual, transvestite, pedophile, rapist or celibate'?" 4
	Scott Lively of NewsWithViews wrote: " 'Sexual orientation' is a highly ambiguous term loaded with hidden false assumptions. An 'orientation' describes the perspective of a subject toward an object. A sexual orientation therefore describes a person (subject) by the object toward which they are sexually attracted: a homosexual is someone oriented toward someone of the same sex, a bisexual toward both sexes, a pedophile toward children, a sado-masochist toward giving or receiving pain, etc.. By definition, there are an unlimited number of potential sexual orientations."5

There is no indication that persons outside of fundamentalist and other evangelical faith groups accept these very broad definitions of "sexual orientation."