The Role of Family Support in Gay and Lesbian Individuals’ Experiences of Sexual Identity-Based Discrimination, Harassment, and Violence: An Empirical Test of Norm-Centered Stigma Theory

ABSTRACT

Many gay and lesbian individuals struggle with family support throughout their life course. In addition, due to their differences in social power and violations of heteronormativity, gay men and lesbian women have unique experiences with family distress. Such difficulties can be related to an increased risk for sexual identity-based discrimination, harassment, and violence (DHV) among gay and lesbian individuals, yet few studies have examined these relationships. The current study utilizes data stratified by US Census categories (age, gender, race/ethnicity, and census region) collected from online panelists (N = 2159; n = 750 hetero cis men, n = 749 hetero cis women, gay cis men = 330, lesbian cis women = 330) to explore Norm-Centered Stigma Theory (NCST) and the relationships between gay/lesbian identity and sexual identity-based DHV. Specifically, social power axes (gender identities), family support, and interactions among these are investigated as they moderate the relationships between violations of heteronormativity (gay/lesbian identity) and stigmatizing experiences associated with such norm violations (sexual identity-based DHV). Results indicate that gay/lesbian identity increases the likelihood of experiencing sexual identity-based DHV; however, family support among lesbian women and gay men decreases the odds of experiencing sexual identity-based DHV. Overall, results lend support to the use of NCST in intersectional explorations to better understand gay and lesbian experiences.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

¹ Sexual identity-based DHV as experienced by gay men and lesbian women is conceptualized as “stigma” in the current study. This is in line with Worthen’s (2020) original conceptualization and testing of NCST.

² The stigmatizer lens examines how the stigmatizer’s (i.e., the individual who is potentially expressing negativity or passing judgment on another) own axes of social power impact their feelings about the target of stigma. Because the stigmatizer most commonly has more social power than the stigmatized (though not always) both lenses are organized by social power and thus, shape the ways NCST is investigated.

³ It is unknown how many of these e-mails were actually received and read by the potential respondents so an exact response rate is also unknown. For example, junk mail filters could have prevented potential respondents from seeing the e-mail invitation, some may have opened the e-mail but decided not to click the link to access the survey, and some may have been deemed ineligible due to identity quotas being met as requested by the author set by SSI (5 of the 8 identity quotas were met).

⁴ The survey was held open for 19 days in efforts to meet the quotas set for the LGBT groups. Five quotas were met as follows: gay men (5 days in), bisexual women (7 days in), lesbian women (8 days in), cis men and cis women (16 days in). The quotas for the remaining three groups (bisexual men, trans men, and trans women) were not met. The survey was closed because SSI believed it was not realistic to expect these quotas to fill in a reasonable amount of time.

Additional information

Funding

The data collection utilized in this project was funded by the University of Oklahoma Office of the Vice President for Research via the Faculty Investment Program.

Notes on contributors

Meredith G. F. Worthen

Meredith Gwynne Fair Worthen (she/her/hers) is as a Professor of Sociology and elected faculty member of the Women’s and Gender Studies Program at the University of Oklahoma. She is interested in the sociological constructions of deviance and stigma, LGBTQ identities, as well as feminist and queer criminology.

Melissa S. Jones

Melissa S Jones (she/her/hers) is as an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Brigham Young University. Dr. Jones’ research efforts center on exploring how exposure to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and other forms of trauma shape life outcomes across the life course and how these processes may vary by groups. To that end, her research focuses primarily on the associations between experiencing trauma and criminal behaviors.