U.S. Graduate Social Work Faculty's Attitudes Toward Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender People

ABSTRACT

Social workers are expected to promote social justice for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people, and social work programs and their faculty are expected to prepare students for competent and ethical practice with LGBT people and communities. Faculty's LGBT social attitudes can play a central role in developing students’ competencies. Minimal attention has been given to the nature of faculty's LGBT social attitudes. This article presents the results of a national survey conducted in the United States with a random sample of graduate teaching faculty concerning their LGBT social attitudes (n = 161). Bivariate and multivariate predictors of LGBT social attitudes were identified. Although a number of factors were significant in bivariate analyses and initial multivariate analysis (controlling only for sociodemographics), the final estimated model suggests race and social attitudes about women and critical consciousness are significant. The authors outline recommendations to enhance faculty's attitudes to strengthen efforts to realize accreditation standards and better prepare students for culturally competent and ethical practice. In addition to examining other predictors of faculty's attitudes, future studies should investigate perceptions of each separate population comprising the LGBT community.

KEYWORDS:

• Lesbian
• gay
• bisexual
• transgender
• faculty
• attitudes
• heteronormativity
• cultural competency

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors would like to recognize the important contributions that Katherine Luke made to this article. Dr. Luke died suddenly on September 12, 2009, one month after receiving her Ph.D. She assisted with various aspects of the original study, including developing measures and collecting data. We deeply miss Dr. Luke and her sudden death is a significant loss to our field and scholarship.