Love and Sex Final Paper: Equal Access to Love Merriam-Webster defines love as attraction based on sexual desire: affection and tenderness felt by lovers (Merriam). Although this seems to be a basic human right, there are certain factors that make obtaining love, sex, or both more difficult for certain groups of people than others. Two specific factors include ones race and their sexuality. According to authors like Katz, Sullivan, and Bedi, sexuality and race can affect someone’s experiences with sex and romance. Individuals who fall outside of heterosexual and white may have these different experiences due to the challenges of being outside of systematic and social “norms”. Heterosexuality was not always considered the “normal” way of life. In fact “in 1923 Webster 's defined ‘heterosexuality’ as a ‘Med.’ term meaning ‘morbid sexual passion for one of the opposite sex’", while homosexuality was defined “in 1909… as a medical term meaning ‘morbid sexual passion for one of the same sex’” (Katz). Not only was heterosexuality not considered a normal act; it was not even the first kind of sexuality to be defined in the dictionary. It was not until 1934 that heterosexuality obtained its status as normal when its definition was revised to “ a manifestation of sexual passion for one of the opposite sex; normal sexuality." Even though heterosexuality has not always been considered the standard way of life, it has affected individuals who fall outside of that “standard”. In
