The Influence of Social Demographics Toward Homosexuality From Seven Countries in Southeast Asia

ABSTRACT

Despite sexual orientation not being classified as a mental disorder, homosexual behavior remains the object of discrimination by society. Many people in the world consider it deviant behavior. Even though homosexuality is legal in several Southeast Asian countries, community discrimination toward homosexuals has grown. This study investigates how socio-demographic conditions can explain the rejection of homosexual behavior in seven countries in Southeast Asia. In this study, we use cross-sectional World Value Survey wave 7 data. Using a multivariate logit regression model, we found that most people in Southeast Asia reject homosexual behavior. Also, they believe homosexuals will not become a good parent. Most of the society refuses to socialize and live side by side with a homosexual in their home environment as neighbors. Furthermore, we also found that people are more likely to accept homosexual behavior when they get older. People with a higher level of religiosity, male and married people, have a negative correlation with homosexual behavior, which means they tend to reject the existence of homosexuality. Meanwhile, those who live in urban areas, have daily internet access, and are happier tend to accept homosexual behavior.

KEYWORDS:

• Social
• homosexuality
• Southeast Asia
• homonegativity
• World Value Survey
• parents
• socialize

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

1. LGBT not limited to “Questioning,” “Queer” and “intersect” (Petrow, 2014).

2. Homonegativity firstly introduced by Morrison, McLeod, Morrison, Anderson, and O’Connor (1997) refers to any prejudicial attitude or discriminatory behavior directed toward an individual because of his or her homosexual orientation.

3. According to United Nation Human Rights (2019) Vietnam accepted to enact a law to fight against discrimination which guarantees the equality of all citizens, regardless of their sexual orientation and gender identity.

4. In 2002, the Minister of Health of Thai announced that homosexuality would no longer be considered as a mental illness or disorder (Katikireddi, 2003). In 2020, the Thai government revived Civil Partnership Bill that intended to guarantee registered same-sex couples the same safeguards over inheritance, medical decision-making, insurance benefits, pensions, tax status, and other rights as married couples. (Bangkok Post, 2022; Capaldi, 2020).

5. The United States has legalized the practices of LGBT in 2003 through Lawrence v. Texas, 539 U.S 558.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.