Educating about homosexuality: what do American Catholics think?

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine American Catholics' attitudes regarding education about homosexuality. Participants were 1000 self‐identified Catholic adults who were interviewed via telephone. The majority of respondents agreed that Catholic colleges should offer courses on human sexuality, although religious and political conservatives were more likely to disagree that these courses should include education about justice and equality for gays and lesbians. Conservative and older respondents disagreed significantly more often that homosexuality should be included in tolerance teaching for children. Religious conservatives and males were less likely to agree that gays and lesbians should be hired as schoolteachers. The results indicate that the variables of Catholic ideology, political ideology, sex, age, and education are important in understanding the diversity of Catholics' views about these issues.

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank the Le Moyne College/Zogby International CCT program for their collaboration in data collection for this research. Portions of the data reported in this paper were previously presented at ‘Out There: The First National Conference of Scholars and Student Affairs Personnel Involved in LGBTQ Issues on Catholic Campuses’, Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, CA, 28–29 October 2005; at the ‘Sansone Center for Catholic Studies and Theological Reflection Seminar’, Le Moyne College, 21 March 2006; and at the ‘18th Annual Convention of the Association of Psychological Science’, New York, 25–28 May 2006. The first author received support for the writing of this paper from the Le Moyne College Research and Development Committee.

Notes

1. Percentages that do not add to 100% reflect missing data.

2. All reported differences are statistically significant using Bonferroni correction for multiple comparisons. Unless otherwise noted, the scale is: 1, ‘strongly agree’; 2, ‘somewhat agree’; 3, ‘somewhat disagree’; and 4, ‘strongly disagree’.