The Invisible Rainbow in Diversity: Factors Influencing Sexual Prejudice Among College Students

Abstract

While colleges may reflect sexual prejudices of the societal culture at large, they also have the capacity to resist or even transform these troubling viewpoints. Based on longitudinal data collected from 13,881 students nationwide, this study investigates the impact of college experiences on sexually prejudicial attitudes. Results indicate that individuals are more accepting of lesbian, gay, and bisexual relationships after four years of college and that experiential components of racial diversity in the college environment are associated with a decrease in sexual prejudice. Interpretations of findings include the possibility that the observed trends are indicative of sexual prejudice becoming less socially acceptable, as more insidious forms of heterosexism maintain the dominance of the privileged group.

Portuguese Medical Students’ Knowledge and Attitudes Towards Homosexuality

“…4,6,23 We expected that students' in more advanced years in the medical course would be less homophobic and more prone to embrace patient's diversity. 28,31,41 Rather, our results show that medical students' scores in the negative attitudinal dimensions are not influenced by the year in medical course. Surprisingly, students seem to become less supportive of homosexuality, as shown by the lower scores in the positive attitudinal dimension.…”

Heterosexual Allies: A Descriptive Profile

“…The fact that the majority of the allies in our study were white, female, politically liberal, and religiously inactive, social science and humanities majors is not surprising in that this corresponds with known demographic correlates of low sexual prejudice (see, for example, Basow & Johnson, 2000;Cotton-Huston & Waite, 2000;Herek, 2002;Jayakumar, 2009). However, this finding indicates that considerable effort may be required to attract and recruit a diverse group of allies.…”

An Update and Reflections on Fear of and Discrimination Against Bisexuals, Homosexuals, and Individuals with AIDS

“…Because the data were longitudinal, change in attitudes was able to be measured from when the students entered college as freshmen to when they were seniors. Students were more accepting of lesbian, gay, and bisexual relationships after 4 years of college compared to when they began college (Jayakumar, 2009). Proposed reasons for this change in attitudes included coursework and experiences with racial diversity.…”