Outed
Women Interact More Comfortably and Intimately With Gay Men — But Not Straight Men — After Learning Their Sexual Orientation
Eric Russell, William Ickes & Vivian Ta
Psychological Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
Research suggests that the development of close, opposite-sex friendships is frequently impeded by men’s often one-sided sexual attraction to women. But what if this element were removed? The current research tested the hypothesis that women engage in more comfortable and intimate interactions with a gay (but not a straight) man immediately after discovering his sexual orientation. In two studies, female participants engaged in imagined or actual initial interactions with either a straight man or a gay man. After the man’s sexual orientation was revealed, women (particularly attractive ones) who were paired with a gay man reported greater anticipated comfort, which was mediated by their reduced worry about his sexual intentions (Study 1). Further, once women discovered that they were interacting with a gay man, they displayed more intimate engagement behaviors with him (Study 2). These findings reveal how, and why, close relationships often form quickly between women and gay men.
Denial of service to same-sex and interracial couples: Evidence from a national survey experiment
Brian Powell, Landon Schnabel & Lauren Apgar
Science Advances, December 2017
Abstract:
Legislatures and courts are debating whether businesses can deny services to same-sex couples for religious reasons. Yet, little is known about public views on this issue. In a national survey experiment, Americans (n = 2035) responded to an experimental vignette describing a gay or interracial couple refused service. Vignettes varied the reason for refusal (religion/nonreligious) and by business type (individual/corporation). Results confirm greater support of service refusal by the self-employed than by corporations and to gay couples than to interracial couples. However, religious reasons for refusal to gay couples elicit no more support than do nonreligious reasons. In the first national study to experimentally analyze views on service refusal to sexual minorities, we demonstrate that views vary by several factors but not by whether the refusal was for religious reasons.
Gay Fathers on the Margins: Race, Class, Marital Status, and Pathway to Parenthood
Megan Carroll
Family Relations, forthcoming
Method: Participant observation of gay fathers groups was conducted in California, Texas, and Utah over a period of 61 months. Using theoretical sampling of group members, 56 gay fathers also participated in semistructured interviews. Themes were identified and refined through a 3-stage iterative coding process, consistent with a grounded theory approach.
Results: Findings suggest that single gay fathers, gay fathers of color, and gay fathers who had children in heterosexual contexts occupy marginalized statuses within the gay fatherhood community. Gay fathers develop distinct mechanisms of resilience to respond to the challenges associated with their marginalization.
Extending Rights to Marginalized Minorities: Same-Sex Relationship Recognition in Mexico and the United States
Caroline Beer & Victor Cruz-Aceves
State Politics & Policy Quarterly, forthcoming
Abstract:
What explains the extension of greater rights to traditionally marginalized minorities? This article compares the extension of legal equality to lebian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in Mexico and the United States with a focus on the legal recognition of same-sex relationships. A national-level comparison of gay rights in Mexico and the United States presents a theoretical puzzle: most theories predict that the United States would have more egalitarian policies than Mexico, but in fact, Mexico has provided greater legal equality for LGBT people for a longer time than the United States. A subnational analysis of equal relationship rights in the United States and Mexico provides evidence to support social movement and partisan theories of minority rights. We find that religion plays a different role in Mexico than in the United States. The different findings at the national and subnational levels suggest the importance of subnational comparative analysis in heterogeneous federal systems.
Manipulating entitativity affects implicit behavioral and neural attentional biases toward gay couples
Cheryl Dickter et al.
Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, forthcoming
Abstract:
This study investigated whether attentional bias toward homosexual couples differs as a function of the manipulation of perceived entitativity, the degree to which group members are perceived to share common values and pursue common goals. Across two experiments, heterosexual college students were randomly assigned to read statements that suggested that homosexual and heterosexual couples were either high or low in entitativity. Following this task, 199 participants completed a dot probe task in Experiment 1 and electroencephalogram (EEG) activity was recorded for 74 participants in Experiment 2 to measure the implicit attentional processing that resulted from viewing pictures of gay, lesbian, and straight couples. Results indicated that participants exposed to low entitativity statements directed less behavioral and neural attention toward gay relative to straight couples compared to those exposed to high entitativity statements. Given the apparent malleability of attentional biases, future research should strive to better understand the factors involved in reducing attentional bias, and by extension, discriminatory behaviors toward minority groups.
Gender Nonconformity of Identical Twins With Discordant Sexual Orientations: Evidence From Childhood Photographs
Tuesday Watts et al.
Developmental Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Childhood gender nonconformity (femininity in males, masculinity in females) predicts a nonstraight (gay, lesbian, or bisexual) sexual orientation in adulthood. In previous work, nonstraight twins reported more childhood gender nonconformity than their genetically identical, but straight, cotwins. However, self-reports could be biased. We therefore assessed gender nonconformity via ratings of photographs from childhood and adulthood. These ratings came from independent observers naïve to study hypotheses. Identical twins with discordant sexual orientations (24 male pairs, 32 female pairs) visibly differed in their gender nonconformity from mid-childhood, with higher levels of gender nonconformity observed in the nonstraight twins. This difference was smaller than the analogous difference between identical twins who were concordant straight (4 male pairs, 11 female pairs) and identical twins unrelated to them who were concordant nonstraight (19 male pairs, 8 female pairs). Further, twins in discordant pairs correlated in their observer-rated gender nonconformity. Nongenetic factors likely differentiated the discordant twins’ gender-related characteristics in childhood, but shared influences made them similar in some respects. We further tested how recall of past rejection from others related to gender nonconformity. Rejection generally increased with gender nonconformity, but this effect varied by the twins’ sexual orientation.
Is there a penalty for registered women? Is there a premium for registered men? Evidence from a sample of transsexual workers
Lydia Geijtenbeek & Erik Plug
European Economic Review, forthcoming
Abstract:
In this paper we study the earnings of transsexual workers using a large administrative sample drawn from the Dutch labor force. In particular, we make two comparisons. First, we compare transsexual workers to other women and men, and find that they earn more than women and less than men. Second, we compare transsexual workers before and after their administrative gender transition, and find that male-to-female transsexual workers earn less as registered women and female-to-male transsexual workers earn as much (if not marginally more) as registered men. These patterns hold for annual and hourly earnings, and do not change when we account for individual fixed effects. Together, our results are consistent with a labor market model in which transsexual workers are discriminated against as a registered female as well as a LGBT worker.