Understanding College Student Attitudes toward LGBT Individuals

Abstract

While past research has certainly investigated a variety of correlates of attitudes toward LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) individuals, the current study is one of the first that examines attitudes toward each of these groups separately. This is especially important because efforts to understand prejudices are likely to be most successful if they are based in research that explores how correlates of attitudes are both similar and different across specified targets of prejudice. In the current study, I investigated attitudes toward LGBT individuals using a college sample from the southern United States (n = 775) and a diverse set of predictors to better understand the correlates of these attitudes. Results indicated that sexual orientation, measures of LGBT affiliations, and beliefs about sexuality were nearly universal predictors of attitudes toward each of these groups. In addition, being female was positively related to attitudes toward gay men and transgender individuals but negatively related to attitudes toward lesbians. Results suggest that future sociological studies should incorporate measures that explore specific targets of prejudice when investigating stereotypes in order to better understand attitudes toward marginalized groups.

Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank the faculty and students who helped with data collection for this project as well as the anonymous reviewers who commented on earlier versions of this manuscript.

Notes

¹Cisgender: A label for individuals who have a match between the sex they were assigned at birth, their bodies, and their personal gender identity (Schilt and Westbrook 2009).

²Cisnormativity: The assumption that it is “normal” to be cisgender (Schilt and Westbrook 2009)

³At the university involved in this study, all single (non-married) freshmen students under 20 years of age are required to live in the campus dormitories (although there are a few exceptions). Even so, it is important to note that not all students “move away from home.” Although the current study did not collect data regarding the characteristics of student dwellings, a 2011 study using data (n = 867) collected from the same university showed that 11 percent of college students lived with their parents, while the majority of students lived in “college-type” environments (without their parents) where they are likely to be around other college students: dormitories (26 percent), Greek housing, (5 percent), apartments (37 percent) (Bones 2011).