Danish and American students ’ attitudes towards gay and lesbian

This study examined student attitudes towards same-sex parenting in two studies. The first study was a cross-cultural study comparing students in Copenhagen, Denmark to students in La Crosse, USA. Two hundred and seventeen respondents were surveyed, 30 from Copenhagen and 187 from La Crosse. They completed a three part survey: morality, attitudes towards homosexuals, and attitudes towards homosexual parenting. In order to measure attitudes toward homosexual parenting, participants responded to a vignette with two fathers and a male child. In the second study, USA participants were randomly assigned to receive one of four vignettes. One quarter of the participants received the male parents/male child vignette. The other vignettes manipulated the gender of the parents (two males or two females) and the gender of the child (male or female). The hypothesis for the cross-cultural study that students in Copenhagen would have more positive attitudes towards same-sex parenting was not supported. The hypothesis for the second study that students would have more positive attitudes towards same-sex parents with a child of the same sex, with lesbian parents receiving the most positive attitudes was also not supported. In line with previous research findings, our data did indicate that males have more negative attitudes toward homosexuality than females. Given that young people tend to be less homophobic, similar research in the future would be best served by assessing older populations