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
- GAY STEREOTYP: ARE THEY TE?
- 10 ANTI-GAY MYTHS DEBUNKED
- OP-ED: 6 GAY CLICHéS THAT ARE TOTALLY TE
- STEREOTYP, EMOTNS, AND BEHAVRS TOWARD LBIANS, GAY MEN, BISEXUAL WOMEN, AND BISEXUAL MEN
- WHAT ABOUT THE GUYS WHO DO F THE 'GAY STEREOTYPE'?
- A HANDY GUI TO ALL GAY MEN
- THE EFFECT OF THE PROMISCUY STEREOTYPE ON OPPOSN TO GAY RIGHTS
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.
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. 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.
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 *
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.
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 *
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. 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.
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. 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.
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 *
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.
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.
STEREOTYP, EMOTNS, AND BEHAVRS TOWARD LBIANS, GAY MEN, BISEXUAL WOMEN, AND BISEXUAL MEN
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).
WHAT ABOUT THE GUYS WHO DO F THE 'GAY STEREOTYPE'?
Rearch on beliefs regardg genr versn of characteristics associated wh sexual mori have found that homosexual women and men are seen as more siar to other-genr heterosexual groups than to their rpective same genr group (Ke and Dex, 1987; Blashill and Powlishta, 2009), and that heterosexual groups are seen are more genr typil than homosexual or bisexual groups (Ghavami and Pepl, 2018).
A HANDY GUI TO ALL GAY MEN
Studi of stereotype ntent for sexual mory groups nducted different cultur show different gre of agency and munn clud cultural stereotyp regardg homosexual women and men, rangg om high on both dimensns (homosexual men Norway; Bye et al., 2014) to low on both dimensns (homosexual men Mexi; Durante et al., 2013). Fdgs om Atralia (Durante et al., 2013), Germany (Eck, 2002; Asbrock, 2010), Italy (Brambilla et al., 2011), and the Uned Stat (Fiske et al., 2002) show eher medium levels of agency and munn clud the stereotyp about homosexual women and men, or partial genr versn of stereotype ntent. Comparisons between homosexual and bisexual women and men dite eher that bisexual groups form a clter relatively low on both munn and agency (Mize and Manago, 2018), or that ratgs of munn follow a genred (but verted) pattern, while ratgs of agency is lower for bisexual men than for remag groups (Vghn et al., 2017).
While implic attus toward homosexual and bisexual women and men have begun to bee an object of study (for exampl, see for stance, Steffens and Wagner, 2004; Morrison et al., 2010; Breen and Karpski, 2013), there are to our knowledge no studi on implic stereotype ntent terms of munn and agency for sexual mori g the SC-IAT.
This differs somewhat om prev studi that have found that stereotype ntent for homosexual women and men are more siar to genr ngent heterosexual groups, while stereotype ntent for bisexual women and men clter together to a greater gree (Vghn et al., 2017; Mize and Manago, 2018). As n be seen Table 4 om the 95% CIs for the group mean D-sr, all groups except “men” and homosexual men showed a stronger associatn to warmth pared to ld, while all groups except homosexual men and bisexual men showed a stronger associatn to petence pared to petence. This lack of ambivalent stereotype ntent nnected to homosexual groups was suggted to be a rult of ntrastg stereotype ntent for salient subgroups of homosexual women and men leadg to stereotype ntent ratgs of medium agency and munn (Clsell and Fiske, 2005; Brambilla et al., 2011).
THE EFFECT OF THE PROMISCUY STEREOTYPE ON OPPOSN TO GAY RIGHTS
Degree of genr nformy or genr non-nformy seems to be an anizg feature perceptns of subgroups of lbian women and gay men (Geiger et al., 2006; McCutcheon and Morrison, 2021), which uld be one reason as why to subgroups of sexual mori n be associated wh ntrastg stereotype ntent.
However, the current rearch tells a different story wh homosexual men beg rated signifintly lower regardg munn that heterosexual women Study 1 but not Study 2, while ratgs of homosexual women did not differ om ratgs of heterosexual men terms of munn of agency eher study. The ntent of stereotyp for bisexual groups was more siar to the stereotype ntent for their rpective genr ngent homosexual unterparts than to heterosexual or general groups, ditg that there may be a higher gree of genr atypily stereotype ntent for non-heterosexual groups general and not exclively for homosexual groups. There is a mon prejudice relatn to bisexualy that bisexualy is not a valid sexual orientatn unto self, but rather an exprsn of nfn om people who are “actually” homosexual or heterosexual (Israel and Mohr, 2004; Hubbard and Visser, 2015; Burke and LaFrance, 2016b; Menroth et al., 2021).
Whether or not a bisexual person is seen as latently homosexual or heterosexual pends on their genr, such that bisexual women are seen as latently heterosexual and bisexual men are seen as latently homosexual (Flanrs and Hatfield, 2013; Mize and Manago, 2018; Menroth et al., 2021). Bee the stereotype ntent reported the current study for bisexual groups was closer to that of genr ngent homosexual groups for both bisexual women and men, there is some ditn that bisexual men were viewed as latently homosexual, but no ditn that bisexual women were viewed are latently heterosexual. Prev rearch to stereotyp about bisexual people have found a lack of knowledge among heterosexual dividuals about tras associated wh bisexual women and men (Zivony and Lobel, 2014), while homosexual and bisexual dividuals report stereotyp closer to those about homosexual groups (Burke and LaFrance, 2016a, b).