Gay, Not Gay, Straight, Not Straight | Psychology Today

Contents:

• GAY, NOT GAY, STRAIGHT, NOT STRAIGHT
• NOTGAYS
• JT ONE GAY ACQUATANCE N CHANGE HEARTS AND MDS ON LGBTQ RIGHTS, STUDY FDS
• 10 ANTI-GAY MYTHS DEBUNKED
• ?️‍? GAY EMOJIS COLLECTN

GAY, NOT GAY, STRAIGHT, NOT STRAIGHT

Regrettably, social and blogil scientists have been plic by parg straights vers gays/lbians their rearch signs, while fettg everyone else who don’t intify as one of the.

Yet the mands for new rearch are real: Right now, we thk people are eher straight or gay, as if one drop of gayns mak you gay, even if this means distortg the sexual and romantic experienc of lns of teenagers and young adults who are neher gay nor straight.

Often ed movi or TV shows where male protagonists might be nsired gay if there wasn't a scene explicly showg his heterosexualy, thereby providg him wh a se of the notgays to ease viewers and let them know that they are not watchg a show wh a homosexual popularized by Harry Plkett of RedLetterMedia his review of Star Trek (2009). A new study nfirms what many have already known anecdotally: Havg at least one gay or lbian acquatance not only mak straight people more likely to support gay rights, but also mak them more acceptg of gay people phenomenon is known as "ntact theory, " acrdg to Daniel DellaPosta, the study's thor and an assistant soclogy profsor at Pennsylvania State Universy.

NOTGAYS

DellaPosta, who is gay, said he has both a "personal and amic tert" the topic and was spired to rearch after fdg data that showed acceptance of homosexualy grew five-fold between 1973 and 2016. DellaPosta said his study, tled “Gay Acquatanchip and Attus Toward Homosexualy: A Conservative Tt, " is the first to provi an empiril examatn of how straight people are affected by tangential relatnships wh gay and lbian people.

In orr to do this, he pared data om the 2006, 2008 and 2010 General Social Survey (GSS), which sce 1972 has been gatherg thoands of Amerins' opns on a range of social analysis, which has sce been published the peer-reviewed journal Soci, found that “rponnts who were acquated wh at least one gay or lbian person 2006 exhibed greater shifts toward creased acceptance of homosexualy and gay marriage 2008 and 2010.

”In 2006, about 45 percent of people wh a gay or lbian acquatance supported same-sex marriage, but by 2010 the figure had creased to 61 percent. He said his analysis showed that straight people wh no gay iends who enunter a gay or lbian dividual superficially, like a grocery store or on the subway, uld have their prejudic "rerced. "DellaPosta also found that while “olr, polilly nservative” straight people were the on most likely to be agast same-sex marriage 2006, they were also the on most likely to change their views on homosexualy and gay rights upon gag a gay or lbian acquatance subsequent Owen, a spokperson for PFLAG, the first and largt anizatn for LGBTQ people, their fay and alli, said “the data bears out what we’ve known anecdotally.

JT ONE GAY ACQUATANCE N CHANGE HEARTS AND MDS ON LGBTQ RIGHTS, STUDY FDS

” This philosophy dat back to at least the begng of the gay rights movement of the '60s and '70s and one of s pneerg lears, Harvey Milk, whom DellaPosta said spired his, who was assassated San Francis 40 years ago, famoly enuraged gay people to e out a letter that was only ma public after his ath. Ever sce born-aga sger and orange juice pchwoman Ana Bryant helped kick off the ntemporary anti-gay movement some 40 years ago, hard-le elements of the relig right have been searchg for ways to monize gay people — or, at a mimum, to fd arguments that will prevent their normalizatn society. For the former Florida bety queen and her Save Our Children group, was the alleged plans of gay men and lbians to "rec" schools that provid the fodr for their csa.

But addn to hawkg that myth, the legns of anti-gay activists who followed have add a panoply of others, rangg om the extremely doubtful claim that sexual orientatn is a choice, to unalloyed li like the claims that gay men molt children far more than heterosexuals or that hate crime laws will lead to the legalizatn of btialy and necrophilia. The fairy tal are important to the anti-gay right bee they form the basis of s claim that homosexualy is a social evil that mt be supprsed — an opn rejected by virtually all relevant medil and scientific thori.

Depictg gay men as a threat to children may be the sgle most potent weapon for stokg public fears about homosexualy — and for wng electns and referenda, as Ana Bryant found out durg her succsful 1977 mpaign to overturn a Da County, Fla., ordance barrg discrimatn agast gay people. Dpe havg been bunked repeatedly and very publicly, Cameron's work is still wily relied upon by anti-gay anizatns, although many no longer quote him by name.

10 ANTI-GAY MYTHS DEBUNKED

Others have ced a group lled the Amerin College of Pediatricians (ACPeds) to claim, as Tony Perks of the Fay Rearch Council did November 2010, that "the rearch is overwhelmg that homosexualy pos a [moltatn] danger to children.

Gregory Herek, a profsor at the Universy of California, Davis, who is one of the natn's leadg rearchers on prejudice agast sexual mori, reviewed a seri of studi and found no evince that gay men molt children at higher rat than heterosexual men. The fixated child molter — the stereotypil pedophile — nnot be nsired homosexual or heterosexual bee "he often fds adults of eher sex repulsive" and often molts children of both sex. Most child molters, therefore, are not gay people lgerg outsi schools wag to snatch children om the playground, as much relig-right rhetoric suggts.

?️‍? GAY EMOJIS COLLECTN

In spe of all this, the anti-LGBT right ntu to peddle this harmful and basels myth, which is probably the leadg famatory charge leveled agast gay people. Most hard-le anti-gay anizatns are heavily vted, om both a relig and a polil standpot, promotg the tradnal nuclear fay as the sole amework for the healthy upbrgg of children.