Attitudes Towards Homosexuality: A Literature Review

A great deal of research has been conducted into attitudes towards homosexuality, primarily in the United States. The most recent research shows that a majority of the American population still harbour negative attitudes towards homosexuals and homosexuality, although the size of the majority has diminished markedly over the past decade (American Enterprise Institute 2004). The Canadian, British and Australian populations tend to be more accepting of homosexuality than Americans, but their attitudes are generally predicted by the same demographic characteristics and values. From the evidence, it is possible to conclude that those with negative attitudes towards homosexuality are more likely to be religious, politically conservative, and less well educated, and to have authoritarian personalities and traditional gender role beliefs. They are more likely to live outside metropolitan areas and in the South or Midwest of the United States. They are also more likely to believe that homosexuality is a choice and less likely to have had contact with gay men or lesbians. Evidence regarding the influence of age, gender and race on attitudes towards homosexuality is less conclusive, but it can be stated with some degree of confidence that women are more tolerant than men and younger people more tolerant than older people. African Americans tend to be less accepting of homosexual behaviour than White Americans, but more supportive of gay and lesbian civil rights (Lewis 2003). The variables with the most significant impact on attitudes towards homosexuality are generally age, education, religiosity, gender role beliefs and political ideology, as well as contact with homosexual persons. The nature of these variables suggests that, in addition to personal experience, personal beliefs and values may be more influential than demographic characteristics (see Agnew et al 1993). Indeed, research has shown that gender differences in attitudes may be attributed to differences in gender role beliefs (Kerns and Fine 1994; Kite and Whitley 1996) and racial differences may be accounted for by the influence of religion and education (Schulte and Battle 2004).