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The heterosexual–homosexual continuum or the sexual orientation continuum is a model of human sexuality that treats sexual orientation as a continuous spectrum between exclusive heterosexuality and exclusive homosexuality.

Early Models

An early example of such a characterisation is Ulrichs' 1864 Taxonomy of Uranismus, although Ulrichs' taxonomy talked primarily about male sexuality and addressed gender identity and gender variance as much as sexual orientation. Magnus Hirschfeld subsequently proposed a more quantified scheme in 1896.

Other models include the Kinsey scale and Klein grid. Kinsey in particular found various shades of bisexuality to be more common than expected. Klein expanded Kinsey's one dimensional scale to a multi-dimensional grid.

Relation to Gender Identity

Gender binary Postgenderism

Yoruba were agender in pre-colonial period according to somebody whose name I can't remember right now. Lots of non-Europeanised cultures used Third gender instead of distinct labels for sexual orientation.

Difficulties

It is unclear, particularly in ealier models such as the Kinsey scale, precisely what is being measured and how. There is a distinction between sexual orientation, behaviour, and identity. Klein sought to address this with his grid, and R. L. Sell developed another broad profiling technique in the 1990s. Savin Williams noted in "Who's Gay? Does it Matter?" that researchers drawing the definitions of sexuality too narrowly around any one aspect usually prevents accurate identification of the target group, and Laumann et al found a lot of inconsistency between different aspects.

Bisexual erasure