Situational sexual behavior is sexual behavior of a kind that is different from what is usual for that person or from what this person eventually prefers, due to an social environment which permits or encourages those acts.

For example, people who practice sex tourism may not have sex with prostitutes in their home countries, but do so when they visit other countries, where such activities are legal or ignored by authorities. The same holds true for those visiting foreign countries where sex with minors is also ignored.

Another example is people in prison, the military or other sex-segregated communities who pair up (willingly or not) for gay sex but identify as "heterosexual" outside those communities.

It should be noted that many people change their sexual behaviour in different situations. For example, men and women in college may practice bisexuality only in that environment, known as "Bi until graduation" or BUG. Experimentation of this sort is even more common among adolescents, both male and female. There's also the common belief that adultery is allowed away from the home community.

The pressure to prove one's heterosexuality leads to increased sexual behaviour in adolescents. Gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered teens have twice the rate of pregnancy or impregnation as straight teens (Massachusetts 1997 Youth Risk Behavior Survey).

See also: situational offender, prison sexuality

Source

• Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual Young People and Teenage Pregnancy by Jan Bridget, .rtf format