Anti-Homosexual Prejudice… as Opposed to What?

Abstract

This article uses Sedgwick's distinction between minoritizing and universalizing theories of sexuality to analyze variability in social psychologists' studies of anti-homosexual prejudice, focusing on studies of attitudes. Anti-homosexual prejudice was initially defined in conversation with gay liberationists and presumed, among other things, that fear of homoerotic potential was present in all persons. Later social psychologists theorized anti-homosexual prejudice in strict minoritizing terms: as prejudice towards a distinct out-group. In the first section of this paper we discuss corresponding shifts in the conceptualization of anti-homosexual attitudes. Next, using a universalizing framework, we re-interpret experiments on behavioral aspects of anti-homosexual attitudes which were originally conceptualized using a minoritizing framework, and suggest avenues for future research. Finally, we examine how queer theory might enrich this area of social psychological inquiry by challenging assumptions about the politics of doing scientific work and the utility of identity-based sexual politics.

The Social Determinants of Polymorphous Prejudice Against Lesbian and Gay Individuals: the Case of Portugal

“…But regarding more "subtle" subscales, we can see that sociodemographic predictors help us accounting most of the construct that underlies each of these sub-scales. Briefly, these results support the contemporary argumentation regarding the need of more complex and multidimensional measures of sexual prejudice (Hegarty and Massey 2006), namely instruments that help taping not only attitudes towards homosexuality, but also values and other belief systems (Martinez 2011).…”

“…Yet one important theoretical discussion started during the 80's (with practical and metric consequences) concerns the dimensionality of sexual prejudice. According to Hegarty and Massey (2006), this debate was triggered by Herek's (1984) position about the multidimensional scales used to measure homophobia or other related constructs. Herek (1984) concluded in a research using his "Attitudes Towards Gay men and Lesbian scale" (ATGL) that these attitudes were one-dimensional and therefore his scale is based on a tolerance-condemnation continuum.…”

“…However, as argued by Heggarty and Massey (2006), this constitutes a problem when dealing with modern versions of prejudice, on the one hand, and when doing research into the multiple functions and aspects of sexual prejudice. Indeed, while traditional sexual prejudice is commonly associated to moralistic and religious perceptions of LGBT individuals, modern sexual prejudice is subtler and presumably free from normative pressures (Teney and Subramanian 2010), since sexual prejudice has become normatively proscribed.…”

The SPSSI Task Force on Sexual Orientation, the Nature of Sex, and the Contours of Activist Science

“…Weinberg's influential formulation of the concept embedded it in a clinical framework that many psychologists found untenable. Moreover, this research reaffirmed homosexuals as a discrete, minority population rather than questioning the normality, naturalness, and stability of heterosexuality (Hegarty & Massey, 2007).…”

(Not) mincing words : a qualitative study of how gay and queer men make sense of "fag/got"

“…Into the early part of the 20th century, Freud's theories of psychosexual development encompassed the development of homosexuality, including his theory that humans are born bisexual (Hegarty & Massey, 2006). Despite having lived and worked in a period of Victorian ideals of sex and morality, Freud did not view homosexuality as abnormal (Freud, 1951).…”