SEXUAL PREJUDICE AND STIGMA OF LGBT PEOPLE

Sexual prejudice is internalized sexual stigma that results in the negative evaluation of sexual minorities. Sexual prejudice is conceptualized here as an attitude, that is, a category-based evaluative tendency to respond to individuals or groups according to their perceived sexual orientation (Albarracin, Zanna, Johnson, & Kumkale, 2005; Eagly & Chaiken, 1993). Some heterosexuals who perpetrate antigay hate crimes nevertheless express favorable attitudes toward gay people as a group (Franklin, 1998), and most heterosexuals who hold negative attitudes toward sexual minorities never commit acts of antigay violence. As in other domains (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980), patterns of antigay behavior are likely to be correlated with sexual prejudice, but only moderately so. Similarly, beliefs about sexual minorities are correlated with sexual prejudice but are distinct from it. Discussions of beliefs as the cognitive sources of attitudes usually focus on stereotypes. Stereotypes result from normal processes of cognitive categorization and can be relatively benign. Malevolent stereotypes, however, such as the previously mentioned stereotype of gay men as child molesters, figure prominently in sexual prejudice (Simon, 1998). Belief in such stereotypes fuels sexual prejudice in some individuals while providing others with a means for justifying their preexisting antipathy toward sexual minorities. This article aims to give an overview of stigma, sexual prejudice and social exclusion as terms linked strongly to each-other, and the impact they have on society, especially to a traditional society as Albanian one is