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stereotypes about gay men

Opposn to gay rights is prevalent untri around the world. Recent rrelatnal rearch suggts that opposn to gay rights may be driven by an teractn between one’s own short-term matg orientatn (i.e. willgns to engage sual sex) and reprentatns of gay people as sexually promiscuo. Here, we experimentally manipulated reprentatns of gay men by randomly assigng participants to read one of two versns of a fict newspaper article, one of which ntaed fx scientific evince nfirmg the stereotype that gay men are promiscuo, and the other ntag fx scientific evince refutg the stereotype. We found that the manipulatn teracted wh short-term matg orientatn (STMO) to predict opposn to gay rights, such that low-STMO dividuals (i.e. more averse to sual sex) exhibed more support for gay rights when assigned to read the stereotype-refutg article pared to the stereotype-nfirmg article, whereas high-STMO dividuals (i.e. ls averse to sual sex) were not signifintly fluenced by the manipulatn. We discs the implitns of the fdgs for the study of antigay attus, as well as for recent societal chang acceptance of homosexualy.

Contents:

15 STEREOTYP THAT LIM OUR PERCEPTNS OF GAY MEN

Tyler Curry says beg a gay man is a lot more plex than our stereotyp might let on ... sort of. * stereotypes about gay men *

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.

GAY STEREOTYP: ARE THEY TE?

Rearch monstrat the bias faced by dividuals engaged occupatns that are perceived as nsistent wh their genr. The lack of f mol and role ngy theory expla how genr stereotyp give rise to the perceptn that an dividual lacks the attribut necsary to be succsful a genr-ngent job. Men employed jobs tradnally held by women are perceived as wimpy and unservg of rpect. The majory of studi this area have, however, failed to acunt for the sexual orientatn of the dividual beg rated. Therefore, we rried out an experiment where 128 adults wh experience recment and selectn, reced through Qualtrics, rated heterosexual and gay male applints applyg for a genr-typed job. The heterosexual male was rated ls effectual, ls rpect-worthy, and ls hirable the female-typed job ndn than the male-typed job ndn. The gay male applint, however, was rated siarly on all creria across job genr-typ, suggtg the gay male applint was viewed as androgyno rather than high femy and low masculy as ferred by implic versn theory. The implitns of the fdgs are discsed. * stereotypes about gay men *

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. 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.

10 ANTI-GAY MYTHS DEBUNKED

The male athlet who've e out recently rerce the obv: Gay men n be mascule. But people should also be acceptg of men, gay or straight, who don't nform to tradnal genr norms. * stereotypes about gay men *

The Amerin Amy of Child & Adolcent Psychiatry affirmed 2013 that “[c]urrent rearch shows that children wh gay and lbian parents do not differ om children wh heterosexual parents their emotnal velopment or their relatnships wh peers and adults” and they are “not more likely than children of heterosexual parents to velop emotnal or behavral problems. The Amerin Amy of Pediatrics (AAP) a 2002 policy statement clared: "A growg body of scientific lerature monstrat that children who grow up wh one or two gay and/or lbian parents fare as well emotnal, gnive, social, and sexual functng as do children whose parents are heterosexual.

The Amerin Psychiatric Associatn noted a 2000 fact sheet available on the Associatn of Gay and Lbian Psychiatrists, that alg wh gay, lbian and bisexual issu, that sexual abe do not appear to be any more prevalent among children who grow up and intify as gay, lbian or bisexual than children who grow up and intify as heterosexual. Siarly, the Natnal Organizatn on Male Sexual Victimizatn not on s webse that "experts the human sexualy field do not believe that premature sexual experienc play a signifint role late adolcent or adult sexual orientatn" and add that 's unlikely that anyone n make another person gay or heterosexual.

Anti-gay activists, who have long opposed addg LGBT people to those protected by hate crime legislatn, have repeatedly claimed that such laws would lead to the jailg of relig figur who preach agast homosexualy — part of a bid to ga the backg of the broar relig muny for their posn.

OP-ED: 6 GAY CLICHéS THAT ARE TOTALLY TE

The gay world is often reprented as some sort of monolhic whole that has the same culture. That is a lie. It is actually broken down to a handful of substrata to which each gay belongs. Here they are. * stereotypes about gay men *

Anti-gay groups have been adamantly opposed to allowg gay men and lbians to serve openly the armed forc, not only bee of their purported fear that bat reads will be unrmed, but bee the ary has long been nsired the purt merocracy Ameri (the armed forc were succsfully racially tegrated long before Amerin civil society, for example). At the same time, gays and lbians have served openly for years the armed forc of 25 untri (as of 2010), cludg Bra, Israel, South Ai, Canada and Atralia, acrdg to a report released by the Palm Center, a policy thk tank at the Universy of California at Santa Barbara.

STEREOTYP, EMOTNS, AND BEHAVRS TOWARD LBIANS, GAY MEN, BISEXUAL WOMEN, AND BISEXUAL MEN

Though is te that LGBT people tend to suffer higher rat of anxiety, prsn, and prsn-related illns and behavrs like alhol and dg abe than the general populatn, that is due to the historil social stigmatizatn of homosexualy and vlence directed at LGBT people, not bee of homosexualy self.

WHAT ABOUT THE GUYS WHO DO F THE 'GAY STEREOTYPE'?

A report prented by the Council on Scientific Affairs to the AMA Hoe of Delegat Interim Meetg wh regard to reparative (“ex-gay”) therapy noted that most of the emotnal disturbance gay men and lbians experience around their sexual inty is not based on physlogil , but rather on “a sense of alienatn an unacceptg environment. Mark Hatzenbuehler, a socmedil scienc profsor at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia Universy, said that the data gathered the study suggts that “sexual mori livg muni wh high levels of anti-gay prejudice have creased risk of mortaly, pared to low-prejudice muni.

A HANDY GUI TO ALL GAY MEN

Qazi Rahman, study -thor and a leadg scientist on human sexual orientatn, said: "This study puts ld water on any ncerns that we are lookg for a sgle 'gay gene' or a sgle environmental variable which uld be ed to 'select out' homosexualy — the factors which fluence sexual orientatn are plex. The Amerin Amy of Pediatrics stated 1993 (updated 2004) that “homosexualy has existed most societi for as long as rerd scriptns of sexual beliefs and practic have been available” and that even at that time, “most scholars the field state that one’s sexual orientatn is not a choice … dividuals do not choose to be homosexual or heterosexual.

Jt maybe not they way they are six gay clich that I thk we should nsir as totally 't Get Between A Gay Man and His DivaNo matter how elevated the dner guts or how sophistited the cktail party, we have all taken part a discsn about the new Beyonce vio, the latt Gaga album, or what Madonna is up to now. Maybe you are more Ta than Cher, or more Ja than Madonna, but most likely even the most die rock of gays has one female power ballad on their if you happen to be the one gay man the ee world who don't know at least one le to Madonna's "Vogue, " you do not get a Gay Men Sleep Wh Each Other"Ugh... Dpe the persistence of stereotyp that portray lbian, gay, and bisexual people as disturbed, several s of rearch and clil experience have led all mastream medil and mental health anizatns this untry to nclu that the orientatns reprent normal forms of human experience.

THE EFFECT OF THE PROMISCUY STEREOTYPE ON OPPOSN TO GAY RIGHTS

Helpful rpons of a therapist treatg an dividual who is troubled about her or his same sex attractns clu helpg that person actively pe wh social prejudic agast homosexualy, succsfully rolve issu associated wh and rultg om ternal nflicts, and actively lead a happy and satisfyg life.

The phrase “g out” is ed to refer to several aspects of lbian, gay, and bisexual persons’ experienc: self-awarens of same-sex attractns; the tellg of one or a few people about the attractns; wispread disclosure of same-sex attractns; and intifitn wh the lbian, gay, and bisexual muny. If they are a heterosexual relatnship, their experienc may be que siar to those of people who intify as heterosexual unls they choose to e out as bisexual; that se, they will likely face some of the same prejudice and discrimatn that lbian and gay dividuals enunter. The stereotype ntent for sexual mory groups has been found to be partly verted pared to the ntent of stereotyp about the general genr groups women and men, such that the stereotype ntent for lbian women is more siar to that of men general, while the stereotype ntent for gay men is more siar to that of women general1 (see for stance, Blashill and Powlishta, 2009).

*BEAR-MAGAZINE.COM* STEREOTYPES ABOUT GAY MEN

Op-ed: 6 Gay Clich That Are Totally Te .

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