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Sexuality
Introduction
Sexuality is the term used to describe a person's sexual identity or self-identification. The typical ones are bisexual, straight, gay, lesbian, pansexual, and asexual, though there are various other types that are less explored upon.
On The Codex, sexuality for a character is given based off actions they do within a series or statements made by the author or characters themselves within the series. A common example will be a male in a series stating "I'm not into dudes" which if the statement is taken as 100% fact with no denial, at least implies they do not have an attraction towards males, this could lead to them being usually either heterosexual or even asexual if they show no attraction towards other genders in addition to guys.
The most important things to note is that everything is context dependent, one's intent can go against what they actually truly like but intent could also matter.
Take for example, if a guy kisses what they believe to be a girl but it is actually a well-done cross-dresser, while they could be enjoying it, if their reaction after learning is that they never want to do it again and never do it again, this would not be evidence toward being bi-sexual. However, if they deny it but keep doing it, this would be evidence towards it.
There are various methods that will be described here for how to gauge a character's sexuality.
For a list of multiple different ones, please check out the LGBTQIA Wiki (LGBTA stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and asexual/aromantic/agender. It's an adaptation of the initialism LGBT, which originated in the 1990s.), where they will even list the difference between sexual-based attractions and romantic-based attractions.
Misconceptions
Gender Roles ≠ Sexuality
A man who is Homosexual is not automatically more feminine or wants to bottom the same way a woman who is Homosexual is not automatically more masculine and wants to top. Gender expression is different. Thus there should never be an argument against a person's sexuality because they "don't act it".
Being gay or lesbian makes someone more promiscuous or hypersexual
This is incorrect, their are even studies that suggest lesbians have the lowest cheating rates with their significant others. One's sexual preference does not define how they act, only who they have an attraction towards.
Asexuality spectrum is actually different from the Heterosexuality spectrum
A person can be either Allosexual and gay, Demi-Sexual and straight, or Asexual and Bisexual as far as things go. It's all based on their preference.
What if a woman likes 99% of the men she's met and only 1% of the woman she's met? That would just make her Heterosexual wouldn't it? As she'd only be 1% Homosexual
Sexuality is not a percentage based thing, no matter how many of a men to woman ratio the woman has, the fact that she at all showed attraction to woman means she has an attraction to the same gender along with the opposite gender. In this case, the woman would be Bisexual with a preference to men.
They are not officially in a relationship thus you can't give them [insert sexuality here]
One does not need to be in a relationship to show an attraction. An attraction could lead to a relationship but it doesn't mean it will lead to a relationship. For example, Usagi Tsukino shows attraction to women, however she ends up with Mamoru Chiba, a man. Using this logic, Usagi would be Heterosexual despite her clearly having heart eyes for seeing a beautiful woman.
The author did not officially confirm it
Media is made to be interpreted, an author does not need to claim a character likes girls if they themself are shown liking girls. Thus them showing forms of attractions to other would in turn be able to be interpreted for their sexuality. If someone makes a character called Samantha who mostly likes men, but when she sees a woman she shows an attraction to her or blushes from her appearance, then she's showing an attraction to woman and would be Bisexual. The author did not need to say anything here as the media did it's job for them.
This is headcanon
While in technicality something could be headcanon as one is assuming the sexuality of a fictional character, in this case it's harmless. If there's evidence to showcase it, the only thing that can truly stop the statement is if the author themself did not mean to intend it in that regard.
There isn't enough information to give a definitive statement
While this is technically true, if one is shown in a series to be a female that likes other females and never shows any real attraction to males, it is perfectly safe to say they are a Lesbian.
Default Assumptions
If barely anything is shown or known about the character
Normally if there's barely any information regarding them, the simplest solution is just to list them as Heterosexual, as a large portion of the world is listed as hetersoexual.
Blushing
Blushing is normally an involuntary physical reaction triggered by emotional stress, normally romantic based. In cases where a character blushes at one of the same sex, this can be evidence towards them being either Homosexual or Bisexual if they also blush to women.
Teasing
Teasing can for the most part be simple jokes, however, a lot of teasing generally does mean there's some form of attraction, whether small or not, if a guy teases another guy a lot it would normally push towards them being Homosexual or Bisexual if they show an attraction towards women.
Common Questions
If a guy likes a transgender woman, would they be Heterosexual?
In most cases, yes. A transgender woman is fully considered a woman. However, if the transgender woman is pre-opt (pre-operation), meaning they still have a male body parts and the person shows attraction with the body parts included, they would fall into Gynosexual, as they do not care about the gender and show an attraction to feminity itself.
Then would a transgender woman liking another woman be Heterosexual if pre-opt?
No, that would be Homosexual, as it is two woman liking each other. The operation itself doesn't matter for the individual.
What about the cisgender woman liking the transgender woman back if they're pre-opt?
This would be the same application of being Homosexual or Gynosexual depending on context.
Wouldn't the better default assumption be Bisexual or Pansexual?
In truth, both of these would technically be the better default assumptions. Though due to most of the world currently classifying as heterosexual, the safer assumption without any other evidence would be to just list them as such. In most cases an author will show through visuals, text, or statements if a character is not heterosexual.
Conclusion
It is very important to understand and respect the different gender identities and sexualities of people in order to correctly index one's sexuality onto a page.
