Irish University Students’ Support for the Human Rights of Lesbian Women and Gay Men

Abstract

Irish university students attending a second year social psychology module (N = 353) were randomly allocated either a gay or lesbian version of a 25-item scale measuring support for the human rights of sexual minorities. Results indicated that, in comparison to female participants, males evidenced significantly lower levels of support. Further, this difference remained irrespective of whether the target was a gay man or a lesbian woman. Exploratory analyses also revealed that participants' support for the human rights of sexual minorities was inversely associated with their levels of political conservatism and religiousness (as determined by self-identification and church attendance measures), and was positively associated with having “out” gay and lesbian friends. Limitations of this study and avenues for further inquiry are articulated.

KEYWORDS:

• homonegativity
• homophobia
• homosexuality
• lesbian women
• gay men
• human rights
• Ireland

The authors would like to thank Aoife Harrington who played an integral role in collecting the data.

Notes

1. Due to participants leaving items blank, percentages may not total 100.

2. The numbers of male and female participants in this study were very disparate. Thus, all univariate and multivariate analyses were repeated using a random sample of female participants (n = 59) so as to ensure subsample comparability (i.e., the n for males was 57). The same pattern of findings emerged. For example, the 2 (male/female) × 2 (gay/lesbian version) ANOVA revealed a statistically significant main effect for sex, F (1, 108) = 4.07, p < .05, with males evidencing less support for gay and lesbian human rights than did females. Neither a main effect for version, F (1, 108) = 2.83, p = ns, nor a sex × version interaction, F (1, 108) = 1.17, p = ns, were noted.