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Traditional orientation. Types of sexual orientation and its formation

It turns out that in addition to the well-known “hetero”, “gay” and “bi” popularized in world pop culture, there are a dozen different sexual orientations in the world that reflect the intimate preferences of some modern people. Many of these orientations are very specific.

1. Asexuality.

Asexuals are people who do not experience sexual desire. At all. Asexuality is not the same as conscious abstinence from sexual activity. Asexuals may have sex under the influence of social prejudices or in an effort to satisfy a partner's desire, or for procreation. However, they do not experience any emotions. Asexuals may notice the physical attractiveness of others without feeling sexual attraction.

2. Aromantic.

Aromantics are in some ways the opposite of asexuals. While asexuals can love and experience romantic feelings without sexual desire, aromentics, on the contrary, do not feel any emotional connection with their partners. For them, sex is just a physiological process without any romance.

3. Greysexuality.

Greysexuals are people who fall somewhere in between “straight” and asexual. They are more susceptible to the influence of mood: they may experience sexual attraction only in certain circumstances or to a certain type of personality. At the same time, graysexuals can be of both heterosexual and homosexual orientation.

4. Demisexuality.

Demisexuals are people who do not experience sexual attraction until they have formed a strong emotional attachment to another person. Moreover, this attachment does not necessarily have to be romantic.

5. Demiromanticism.

A demiromantic, by analogy with a demisexual, is a person who is able to experience romantic feelings only after establishing a close emotional connection with another person.

6. Pansexuality.

Pansexuals are people who can be attracted to absolutely all individuals, regardless of biological sex and their own gender identity. Unlike bisexuals, who are attracted to both men and women, pansexuals are completely “gender blind” to their partner and to their own gender identity. They may be attracted to men, women, transgender people, intersex people (people who have not decided on their gender).

7. Polysexuality.

Unlike pansexuals, who are completely indifferent to the gender of their partner, polysexuals are more selective. For example, a polysexual may not be able to be attracted to men, but reciprocate the feelings of a transgender person.

8. Panromanticism.

Panromantics are people who are attracted to men, women, as well as intersex and transgender people, but only in a romantic way, without sexual connotations.

The world is becoming more complex and multifaceted. Almost every day new words appear for things that we had never even thought of before. For example, it turns out that the types of human sexuality are not limited to only “hetero,” “gay,” or “bi” options, there are many more of them. There are a dozen more different sexual orientations in the world that reflect the intimate preferences of some modern people. Many of these orientations are very specific.

Asexuality

Aromanticism

Aromantics are in some ways the opposite of asexuals. While asexuals can love and experience romantic feelings without sexual desire, aromantics, on the contrary, do not feel any emotional connection with their partners. For them, sex is just a physiological process without any romance.

Greysexuality

Demisexuality

Demiromanticism

A demiromantic, similar to a demisexual, is a person who is able to experience romantic feelings only after establishing a close emotional connection with another person.

Pansexuality

Polysexuality

Panromanticism

Panromantics are people who are attracted to men, women, as well as intersex and transgender people, but only in a romantic way, without sexual connotations.

Lythromanticism

Lithromantics are people who are capable of feeling romantic love for someone, but do not want the feelings reciprocated.

1Scoliosexuality

Scoliosexuals are people who are exclusively attracted to transgender people.

Antisexuality

Antisexuals may experience sexual attraction, but ideologically they consciously oppose sex.

A person is a complex system that is influenced by a combination of external and internal factors. Therefore, any of its characteristics must be considered taking into account all possible influences, both biological and social. An interesting object from this point of view is sexual orientation. What factors determine it and can it be influenced?

What is sexual orientation?

Sexual orientation is kind of simple. We know that it is determined depending on the gender of people we are attracted to. Accordingly, there are three types of sexual orientations: homosexuality (attraction to people of the same sex), heterosexuality (attraction to people of the other sex) and bisexuality (attraction to people of both sexes). But is everything so easy with the word “attraction”? How would you define it yourself?

Attraction must be considered in terms of two aspects. It can be emotional and physical. Then the question of determining sexual orientation becomes a little more complicated. If once in your life you have experienced the desire to have sex with a person of the same sex, does this mean that you are homosexual?

In an attempt to answer this question, the famous American biologist and sexologist Alfred Kinsey created a scale that you have probably heard about. It was used by the scientist in his monographs entitled “Sexual Behavior of the Human Male” (published in 1948) and “Sexual Behavior of the Human Female” (published in 1953). The Kinsey scale is divided into 7 points (0-6): options from exclusive heterosexuality to exclusive homosexuality. In the middle is bisexuality. A little later, option 8 was included in this scale - asexuality, that is, the absence of sexual attraction to anyone. Based on the descriptions of each option, you can try to estimate where you are on the scale. Let's say if you are a woman and you have had mostly heterosexual contacts, but once in your life you had sex with a girl, then most likely you are a “one” on the Kinsey scale. What does this explain? Yes, in general, nothing. The nature of attraction still remains unclear. Kinsey himself believed that sexuality can change throughout a person’s life and that sexual behavior can be considered both as physical contact and as a mental phenomenon.

Staff at the Indiana University Institute for Sex Research, 1953. Alfred Kinsey in the center

If we take the dictionary definition of the concept of “drive,” we will find that it is a desire that prompts a person to take actions to satisfy some need. What needs are we talking about in this case?

The simplest answer that comes to mind is to satisfy the need to reproduce. But this contradicts our empirical findings: we all know that sexual intercourse is not always performed for reproductive purposes.

Sex can be a way to establish emotional intimacy and even position in the social hierarchy. If you catch some Freudian, he will tell you that attraction is an “irritation” for the psyche, by analogy with irritation from external influences and the subsequent reflex reaction. In addition, attraction is characterized by the fact that it comes “from within” the body and is a constant force, therefore it is impossible to get rid of its action by flight. This means sex is a tool to get rid of an irritant.

Taking into account the ambiguity of the reasons that cause attraction, which excludes the primacy of the reproductive function, we can say with confidence that all variants of sexuality are varieties of the norm. To study the factors influencing its formation, it is necessary to present it as a phenotypic trait of a person. In this discourse, one of the authors came up with a heavy definition for sexual orientation. It sounds like this:

Sexual orientation is the resulting behavioral response to the analysis and subsequent synthesis by the human brain of all information received from outside about the primary, secondary and tertiary sexual characteristics of the people around them.

The uniqueness of each person’s sexual orientation, according to the same author, is determined by the biological and gender characteristics of the state of his body and psyche at each moment in time.

Genetics

Biological causes are determined by genetics. The process of formation of sexual orientation depends on which chromosome is part of a person’s DNA and how these genes subsequently influence the structure of organs.

A person has 22 paired chromosomes and two unpaired ones - X and Y, which are responsible for his gender. The combination of two X chromosomes determines the development of the embryo according to the female type, and the combination of the X chromosome with the Y makes the organism male. How does “tuning” happen? Around the second month of pregnancy, the fetus begins to form endocrine glands, that is, organs capable of secreting hormones. Based on what genes the glands code for, they can secrete either male or female sex hormones. The reproductive organs of the embryo are initially represented by the basic gonads, which by default are of the female type. By the third month of pregnancy, hormones secreted by the glands begin to affect the structure of the genital organs. In particular, testosterone - the male hormone - turns the universal genital organs into male ones. For example, hypertrophy of the clitoris occurs, that is, it increases in size so much that it eventually becomes the penis. In later stages of pregnancy, around the fifth month, testosterone begins to affect the fetal brain.

The fact is that the phenotype depends on the allelic composition of the parental autosomal haplotypes, and if a child has mutant alleles, this can lead to the fact that his body with the XX chromosome begins to develop according to the male type. Or, conversely, the XY organism acquires feminine phenotypic characteristics. This phenomenon explains the existence of intersex people - people who cannot be clearly assigned to any gender. They can live and not suspect that something is wrong with them until they do, for example, a genetic analysis. Although “something is wrong” is also not entirely appropriate to use here. After all, a person with an XY chromosome can look like a woman and even identify themselves gender in the same way, and not experience problems. At least until you try to conceive. Reproductive function can be significantly affected here.

A complex set of gene interactions results in a variety of intersex variants. Therefore, many of these people may be homosexual or bisexual. However, this does not mean that these variants of sexual orientation cannot appear in people with typical male or female phenotypes corresponding to the set of sex chromosomes. What exactly is the catch? Where is something hidden in the body that is responsible for our sexual orientation?

There are no specific genes that would tell the body “You will demonstrate homosexual behavior.” Studies were conducted in which they tried to find something. One, for example, says that if you are gay, there is a 7.3% chance that your maternal uncle is also gay. But these numbers and correlations are very small.

Biology

If we talk about differences in the structure of the brain between the sexes, then you need to understand that they are mainly concentrated in the hypothalamus. This is primarily due to the fact that women constantly experience sharp changes in hormonal levels in order to maintain a regular menstrual cycle. This naturally causes structural changes in the hypothalamus. In addition, there is evidence that this part of the brain controls human sexual behavior.

There is another interesting phenomenon that scientists once discovered. During pregnancy, the mental state and health of the mother greatly influences the development of the fetus. Due to the fact that the human body is dependent on environmental conditions and adapts to their changes, a woman’s poor lifestyle causes irreversible consequences for the development of her child. If she finds herself in conditions where there is little food, cold, and a lot of stress, this is a signal to her body that reproducing now is actually not a good idea and it would be better to survive on her own first. He devotes all his efforts to ensuring the survival of the mistress. At the same time, the stress hormone cortisol, which is actively produced in an unfavorable environment, penetrates the placenta into the child’s body and begins to affect his sex glands. In a boy embryo, for example, this causes a decrease in testosterone production and, as a consequence, its further development according to the feminine type.

This hypothesis is partly supported by Dr. Doerner's research, during which he noticed that during various wars more gays were born than in peacetime. However, new data shows that these were more likely statistical fluctuations. Therefore, there is no exact confirmation of the hypothesis in relation to people.

However, the influence of the environment on the rate of population growth cannot be denied. Homosexuality and asexuality may be evolutionary mechanisms that kick in when a group of animals finds themselves in unfavorable conditions and it becomes illogical to reproduce very much.

Yes, different types of sexual orientations are found not only in humans, but also in animals. Gray geese, domestic sheep, orangutans, in short, another 450 species. This is additional confirmation that sexual orientation is formed due to a set of reasons that continuously influence the body, and not due to “propaganda.”

Society

In Russia, the pseudoscientific fact that homosexual behavior can supposedly be induced through propaganda is legislated. How much influence can society really have on an individual's sexual orientation?

As we have already discussed, one single factor cannot have a serious influence on the formation of sexuality. He definitely contributes his piece to the overall picture, but he never becomes decisive. The opinion that education and “propaganda” can turn a heterosexual into a homosexual was refuted by studies on identical twins. You need to understand that in such children the genetic material is completely identical, which means they can be tested for the ratio of acquired and congenital characteristics. By studying homosexual and heterosexual twins in this way, scientists found that if one of the brothers and sisters is gay, then the second with a probability of more than 50% will also be gay. It is likely that congenital genetic characteristics strongly influence this phenotypic trait.

The influence of society, the behavioral patterns of close friends and acquaintances, and certain trends is expressed in the likelihood of single homosexual or heterosexual contacts. Moreover, most likely, this works specifically with gays. Under fear of condemnation and pressure from society, they try to enter into relationships with people of the opposite sex, while experiencing a craving for same-sex relationships. Heterosexuals, who are far from a “zero” on the above Kinsey scale, can also try to have sex with people of the same sex, but, without receiving pleasure, they stop at a single experience.

Sexual orientation is a phenotypic trait that is formed under the influence of a complex set of various reasons, both biological and social. It has not been fully studied, and science still has a lot to do to fully understand the mechanisms that regulate the process of its formation.

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Homosexual -
a fact of human life that has existed at all times along with the traditional orientation (as historical documents from different places and eras clearly prove).

Attraction to people of the opposite sex existed among people as if “by default”; it was obvious that this was the dominant type of sexual attraction. However, it turned out that not everyone is capable of experiencing attraction only to the opposite sex.

In different periods of history and in different cultures, different attitudes towards those whose sexual orientation was non-traditional were formed - from open persecution to the acceptance of this kind of contact as ritual practices, from disgust to the affirmation of equality before the law.

On the one hand, these people really found themselves and find themselves in the minority, while the majority continues to experience attraction to members of the opposite sex. On the other hand, this minority is quite stable. According to various estimates, it amounts to 3-7% of the total number of people.

Naturally, statistics are difficult to collect from past historical eras, but researchers tend to believe that this percentage remains almost constant at all times.

Sexual orientation in nature was not completely unambiguous: among animals, non-traditional sexual behavior occurs in many species, from worms to mammals, and in approximately the same percentage as in humans. And therefore, it is difficult to say that non-traditional orientation is something “unnatural”.

So what is sexual orientation?
Where does gayness come from?
And what types of sexual orientation exist?

We will talk about this in the first part of the series about various forms of sexual preferences.

Sexual orientation: hypotheses about its origin

The modern scientific community has not developed a single hypothesis about how sexual orientation is formed. They looked everywhere - in genes, studied various parts of the brain, hormonal factors, and, of course, the cultural, social context, early childhood experience and upbringing in general.

You can read about all this in any modern encyclopedia. But there is something on which most scientists clearly agree: sexual orientation and sexuality in general are something that is formed at least from early childhood, and the deep foundations of human sexuality are laid in the intrauterine environment.

If we look at the development of the fetus, it turns out that any person in the womb goes through the stage of hermaphroditism: the embryo has the rudiments of both male and female genital organs.

Under the influence of various biochemical factors (including hormones), the embryo eventually acquires the characteristics of one sex or the other. However, this does not happen to everyone - there are also those who, even at birth, do not have a completely definable anatomical sex. Existence hermaphrodites has been known at all times - just look at some ancient Greek statues.

This phenomenon of intrauterine development allowed some researchers (in particular, Freud, Kinsey, Weiniger) to conclude that a person is basically bisexual, even if his anatomical sex is formed without deviations at the time of birth.

However, later, with the development of sexual consciousness, one of the vectors - attraction to the opposite sex or to one’s own, a specific sexual orientation - begins to dominate, and bisexuality becomes latent, that is, hidden, not realized, and remains in potential.

The formation of the fetus and the set of internal inclinations with which the person himself will come into this world are influenced by too many things: the biochemistry of the mother’s body, hereditary (genetic) factors, even the emotional background of the environment in which the pregnancy takes place can influence formation of the child's future sexuality.

But we are not yet able to accurately trace the entire chain of formation of such a complex set of reactions as sexual orientation: after all, an infant cannot talk about how he is aware of himself, his gender, and his awakening desires. And he still realizes very little.

And much earlier than gender and sexual orientation are generally realized, the child begins to be influenced social factors: expectations of parents, norms of sexual behavior accepted in a given culture, ideas about the acceptability of manifestations of sexuality in a particular family.

By the time a person completes the period of sexual development and becomes, moreover, a full-fledged member of society (and adulthood, 18 years old, is considered to be the statistically average age for the completion of sexual development), he, in fact, has already been formed, and so is his sexual orientation. .

But it's not that simple. Only if sexual orientation is traditional does it not raise questions. The teenager is supported in his awakening desires, or at least they do not attach importance to this.

But in the case when a non-traditional orientation manifests itself in one way or another or a teenager cannot decide to whom he is more attracted, development occurs with a large component of neurotic factors - emerging questions to oneself, fears, anxiety, self-rejection or open protest.

This is due to the fact that in societies of different cultures, non-traditional orientation is something negative, unacceptable, and pathological. And the child learns about this quite early, as a rule.

Despite the long history of attempts by scientists to prove that non-traditional orientation is a variant of the sexual norm, the philistine consciousness is afraid of such manifestations.

It would take a long time to delve into explanations of why non-traditional orientation was rejected by representatives of different cultures at different times. I'll just say that something different from the majority somehow scares many, creates a feeling of insecurity, and then people think little about whether there is a reason for fear. For many it is easier to prohibit than to understand, and this is already a matter of limited intellectual resources.

In our modern society, most parents think that if a child lives his life according to patterns that are understandable and familiar to parents, he will live it more safely.

And by the time such a teenager comes of age, he can no longer fully distinguish what in his awakening sexuality is truly true, and what is the fruit of his own belief in “what is right,” formed under the great influence of the opinions of parents and society.

By the time a person begins to understand this topic within himself, he is already fully formed, but much of himself is repressed into the unconscious, and therefore the search for what his true sexual orientation is can continue into adulthood.

But let's talk about what generally happens to a person in this sense.

Types of sexual orientation

Main types of sexual orientation:

heterosexual (attractions to people of the opposite sex),
homosexual (attraction to people of the same sex),
bisexual (attraction to both sexes, but not necessarily to the same extent and at the same period of life).
In other words, a bisexual may experience attraction to women at one period of his life, and to men at another; it may be that the choice of a sexual object depends not so much on his gender as on human qualities, or it may be that in one period His life is fascinated by women and men equally.

However, the types of sexual orientation are not limited to this. Asexuality is also considered one of the varieties of sexual orientation, when a person, in principle, does not experience sexual desire or experiences it to a very weak degree.

What causes this and whether this is considered a variant of the norm is a topic for a separate article. However, people who identify themselves as asexual insist that not being interested in sex is completely normal. At the same time, in all other areas of life, these people can be fully realized, and in such cases, research confirms the absence of any mental deviations or personality pathologies.

Types of sexual orientation can have and more complex structure. For example, in my practice there were clients who were attracted not to a person’s anatomy itself, but more to his psychological gender.

For example, a man was attracted to young people, both anatomical men and anatomical transgender women, who were planning sex reassignment surgery or had partially transitioned.

What was important was not what anatomical features characterized this person, but that psychologically it was a man - this was the most important thing in the emergence and development of desire in my client.

This man considered himself homosexual, and in the case of contact with a woman who identified herself as a man and sought to take an appropriate social role, looked the part and was preparing for sex reassignment surgery, he believed that anatomy simply “did not prevent him” from receiving satisfaction from the relationship and sexual contact.

I also remember a woman who identified herself as heterosexual, and she had two episodes of relationships with masculine women in which she felt like the same woman being courted by a man. Psychology was also more important to her than anatomical features.

Or, for example, a man who considered himself bisexual, but clearly preferred either straight women or transsexual men who looked like women, wore women's clothing, and did not necessarily seek to change their gender.

All this, theoretically, can be attributed to bisexuality, however, types of sexual orientation include the term “ pansexuality”, which emphasizes attraction to people with a certain set of qualities, regardless of their anatomy.

Scientists continue to argue about terminology, but I gave these examples for only one purpose: to show that sexual orientation includes not only an anatomical factor. Just like gender does not consist only of the configuration of the genital organs, but also includes psychology, social role, and identification.

It is also worth mentioning the variant of the sexual norm. In sexological practice the following definition is accepted:

Sexual norm- sexual actions of capable subjects who have reached sexual and social maturity, carried out by mutual consent and not involving harm to health and also not violating the boundaries of third parties.

Simply put, if these adults are responsible for their actions, are aware of them, do not commit violence, do not resort to sexual acts with a person who is not fully aware of themselves (a child, a mentally ill person), do not involve in the process those who did not give their consent to participation, and do not seriously injure each other - they have the right to everything that they can accomplish within these limits.

But in every society there are additional restrictions, which, as a rule, stem from many factors, mainly value-based, moral and sometimes, as a consequence, legislative, which can limit the right of people to have sex as they want.

Considering all types of sexual actions from the perspective of “norm/pathology” is not the purpose of this article, but if we return to the topic of sexual orientation, then sexual contact between two adults of the same sex, carried out by mutual consent and without causing harm to health, is a variant of the sexual norm.

Gay or traditional?
Developmental Facets and the Kinsey Scale

It would be simple and easy if the world was organized unambiguously. White or black, bad or good, up or down, right or left. “Pure” homosexuals and the same “pure” heterosexuals. But in reality, it is not possible to divide the world into such simple and understandable categories.

Zoologist and sexologist Alfred Kinsey, studying the sexual behavior of people and animals, came to the conclusion that “pure” unambiguity in this matter is rare. Look at this scale and you will understand everything yourself:

The most interesting thing is that it is also not possible to evaluate a person on a scale once and for the rest of his life, because Different age periods may have different manifestations.

For example, in adolescence, when sexuality is just awakening, it is quite easy to confuse situational manifestations of homosexuality with true homosexuality. During those periods of life, girls and boys exist in their own, mostly same-sex, companies or pairs of friends.

Friendships at this age can be very important, they are truly intimate during this period, and many of my clients have admitted to feeling attracted to, for example, a girlfriend or boyfriend of the same sex.

Sometimes this even led to some kind of situational sexual contacts; curiosity about sexuality was strong, but it was still difficult and scary to decide on contacts with the opposite sex.

But then such impulses faded away, and with further growing up and with the emergence of wider access to the opposite sex, the development of communication skills, making acquaintances and maintaining relationships, those “random adventures” began to be perceived as a game and were even forgotten for a long time.

Often, when working with teenagers, I was faced with the fact that enthusiastic adoration, for example, of an older teacher was mistaken for falling in love and the teenager began to ask himself the question: am I gay?

But, as a rule, for the majority, such falling in love or even casual same-sex contacts do not carry any information about what the real sexual orientation of an adult will be in the future.

They serve a completely different purpose: to reveal to the teenager himself the power of his emotions, they allow him to show sexual curiosity, to study himself and his reactions. Mature feelings and real strong attractions come, as a rule, later.

It also happens exactly the opposite.
A person who, in adolescence, was “unconscious” in relation to peers of the same sex, lives an ordinary heterosexual life, and suddenly, in adulthood, begins to experience a strong attraction to the same sex.

How is this possible?
As a rule, this is a consequence of harsh upbringing. If a child is actively instilled with horror of homosexuality from an early age, emphasizing that gayness is a shame, horror and a nightmare, then even the latent manifestations of his own bisexuality (which - remember! - is inherent in everyone by nature) the child will try with all his might to suppress and repress.

As a result, his attraction will begin to form not as his nature requires, but as society requires. Moreover, this happens differently for girls and boys. For some time, boys, under the influence of strong youthful hormones, think that girls completely satisfy their desires.

In fact, it is the general indiscriminateness of male youthful desires that affects us, especially among those who have a strong sexual constitution. At the moment of peak sexuality, instinct so powerfully demands an outlet that it gives rise to the ability to be satisfied with almost any more or less suitable object.

And taking into account the fact that the girl is awarded the label “the right object” by everyone around her, the general approval of this step of the young man fuels his ardor. And only when the topic of self-affirmation in society recedes into the background can a person’s true sexual orientation emerge.

In my practice, there have been male clients
who managed to get married and even have children on a wave of self-affirmation. But later, when other, deeper factors were needed for attraction, the attraction to his wife disappeared completely, and unconventional orientation manifested itself as an unexpected, but passionate and irresistible love.

With women it often happened somewhat differently:
many of them started relationships with men, not at all guided by sexual impulses, if only by curiosity. For many, something else was important - spiritual friendship, security, support in a woman’s desire to become a mother.

“I thought that sex was not the most important thing,” one of my clients said about that period of life, “we got along great, we had a child. And only later did I realize that I really wanted to have fun in bed, I sincerely wanted sex, but at the same time I realized that I really wanted this sex not with my husband or even with a man in general ... "

There have also been examples where a person is aware of his orientation, lives an ordinary married life, but at the same time suddenly experiences an impulse to “try something new” with a partner of the same sex. In general, there are a lot of development options.

I gave all these examples just to show: sexual orientation itself is formed early, but it manifests itself differently in different periods of life, with different intensities, and most importantly, it may not be realized for a certain time, especially if it is homosexual.

Not many people fall on the extreme end of the scale as soon as they become aware of their sexuality at all. And there is nothing wrong with that: human nature is plastic for a reason, it is a certain resource that is given to man by nature.

For what?
Well, at least so that in a situation where there are no sexual partners of the opposite sex, you can at least switch to your own partners for a while. Sex is a function that exists not only for procreation, and non-productive (not leading to conception) sex occurs among animals.

Sex helps the species survive in general because, among other things, it serves as a form of consolidation of the union between people, a source of creativity, and a way of self-expression. It has many important functions besides procreation.

As one interesting example:
some fish change sex during life. This is how nature controls the balance of females and males in the population. And with regard to people, some scientists are inclined to assume that non-traditional orientation is a way of regulating population numbers.

At least before the advent of assisted reproductive technologies, these people were those who, in essence, refused to actively reproduce, while maintaining the ability to conceive, and could still take part in the reproductive process if necessary.

And in the next part of the article we will talk about
is it possible to change sexual orientation,
what things can interfere with this,
and why might this be needed?.

Two thirds of Russian families today are raising only one child, and this is not enough even for simple reproduction. Therefore, the state’s family policy in the coming years will be aimed at supporting large families, said Chairman of the Federation Council Valentina Matvienko at a meeting of the Coordination Council under the President of the Russian Federation for the implementation of the National Strategy for Action in the Interests of Children.

The birth rate in our country continues to grow: last year, a record number of babies were born in the last twenty years - 1.9 million, and the natural population decline has practically stopped. But it is too early to talk about improving the demographic situation. “We have moved away from the demographic abyss, but have not emerged from the demographic crisis,” said Valentina Matvienko. That is why the Concept of state family policy in Russia for the period until 2025, which was prepared by council experts, is primarily aimed at stimulating the birth of second, third and subsequent children, as well as supporting large families.

Something in this direction is already being done. “The payment of a monthly benefit for the third and each subsequent child has been introduced in the constituent entities of the Russian Federation, where the birth rate is below the Russian average,” Matvienko recalled. “The improvement of the living conditions of large families has moved forward. The government has prepared a bill providing for an increase in the total period for payment of insurance premiums for women with small children from three to four and a half years old."

It is planned to support the desire of mothers with many children to obtain higher education. “We must give them the right to enroll in preparatory departments without competition,” says Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Olga Golodets. And so that women have enough time for education and a career, Golodets promised to finally solve the problem with kindergartens - in the next three years there will be 1.2 million additional places for preschoolers. For these purposes, the regions will receive 1.5 billion rubles in June.

Restoring the authority of the traditional family, where there is a mother and father who are officially married, will also play an important role, says Elena Mizulina, chairman of the State Duma Committee on Family, Women and Children. “Married women have a total fertility rate that is 17 percent higher than unmarried women,” she said. “So we consider one of the main goals of the family concept to be a significant reduction in civil marriages and an increase in traditional families.” This is especially relevant in light of recent events, for example, in France, where the law on same-sex marriage recently came into force, noted head of the presidential administration Sergei Ivanov. “In many countries, heated political and social discussions are unfolding around the institution of the family, sometimes turning into direct physical clashes. Far from clear-cut decisions are being made,” he said. “We in Russia must rely on our own values and on our own traditions.”

A separate chapter of the family concept must be devoted to the safety of children, says the head of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, Alexander Bastrykin. Last year alone, according to his data, more than 2 thousand serious crimes were committed against children in Russia, including 1.2 thousand cases of sexual violence: as a result, 160 children died, more than 450 were seriously injured. More than 1.5 thousand children committed suicide.

By 2025, it is planned to increase the number of large families several times and reduce divorces. To achieve this, they will increase child benefits and payments and provide social assistance to families in difficult life situations. If everything goes according to plan, by 2050 154 million people will live in Russia. Valentina Matvienko proposed to submit the concept for public discussion. “This should not be a behind-the-scenes document, but discussed by the widest possible circle of the public,” she said.

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