Intolerance, ignorance, and insensitivity: An examination of anti-gay attitudes and behaviours within a university population.

Negative attitudes towards lesbians and gay men are a fundamental part of mainstream Western society. Although attitudes have modified over the last decade, there is still a considerable number of people who dislike or have negative perceptions of homosexuals or homosexuality. The methodology of this study involved interviewing individuals with negative attitudes towards lesbians and gay men. The purpose of the interview was to understand the world view of these individuals. This thesis had two main objectives: First, an examination of a homophobe\u27s socialization process, attitudes and beliefs and second, an analysis of the varying degrees of anti-gay behaviour that were reported among the subjects. Initially the research involved surveying 569 university students. Twenty students with the most negative attitudes were contacted for an in-depth interview. The findings of this research suggest that homophobia is constructed around five major attitudes which include: Repulsion, Fear-Discomfort, Moral/Religious Righteousness, Abnormality and Conditional Acceptance. The study further found that these attitudes are influenced by several factors which include language, stereotypes, parents, peers, education, emergence of political correctness, heterosexual hegemony, media, religion and contact with lesbians and gay men. In addition, the study found that there are numerous types of anti-gay behaviour which include: Derision, Avoidance, Written Harassment, Vehicular Harassment, Verbal Harassment and Physical Harassment.Dept. of Sociology and Anthropology. Paper copy at Leddy Library: Theses & Major Papers - Basement, West Bldg. / Call Number: Thesis1998 .D69. Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 39-02, page: 0340. Adviser: Barry Adam. Thesis (M.A.)--University of Windsor (Canada), 1999