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| A new study shows a direct link between unwanted sexual advances being the driving force of homophobia |
"What makes the race analogy complicated is that gays, as demographic composites, do indeed "have it better" than blacks—and yet in many ways contemporary homophobia is more virulent than contemporary racism. According to one monitoring group, one in four gay men has been physically assaulted as a result of his perceived sexual orientation; about fifty percent have been threatened with violence. (For lesbians, the incidence is lower but still disturbing.) A moral consensus now exists in this country that discriminating against blacks as teachers, priests, or tenants is simply wrong. (That doesn't mean it doesn't happen.) For much of the country, however, the moral legitimacy of homosexuals, remains very much in question."-Henry Louis Gates Jr.There are numerous forces that drive prejudices such as race, gender, disability, and homophobia. These prejudices are often based on limited information about a group of people, and when people are misinformed when it comes to groups that they do not belong; they began to create stereotypes--leading to discriminatory actions.
So far this year there have been 30 reported cases of hate-crimes against the LGBT community in New York City including the senseless murder of 32 year-old Marc Carson. In Washington DC six incidents of "gay bashing" occurred within a ten day period. In one of the crimes, two women attacked a drag performer, biting him in the thigh, dragging him throughout the streets by his hair, causing a scalp wound. What made things even worse was a random witness who recorded everything on film, encouraging the savage beating.
All of these incidents are included in the discriminatory element of homophobia. A new study suggest that there is a direct link between homophobia and unwanted sexual advances.
Psychologists Angela G. Pirlott and Steven L. Neuberg, whose new study appears in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science, write that their research shows how sexual prejudice among college students is tied to the belief that "certain sexual orientation groups direct unwanted sexual interest."
"Then we began exploring the idea of a 'sexual interest mismatch' -- that the sexual interests of the perceivers and their perceptions of the sexual interests of the different sexual orientation groups differed," Pirlott told HuffPost. "In particular, that some sexual orientation groups might be perceived as directing unwanted sexual interest toward them."
"The patterns of prejudices map on nearly perfectly with perceptions of unwanted sexual interest," Neuberg said.
"[O]ur article says that straight men perceive gay and bisexual men to direct unwanted sexual interest, but not lesbians or bisexual women; and straight women perceive lesbians, bisexual women and bisexual men to direct unwanted sexual interest, but not gay men; and that this perception strongly explained their sexual prejudices," Pirlott elaborated, adding, "I think people, in general, are uncomfortable by the notion of unwanted sexual interest."
Pirlott said the paper will hopefully shed light on a little-explored corner of sexual prejudice, and thinks it may surprise scientists who have been focusing all their efforts on perspectives such as the gender-role violation hypothesis, sexual identity threat or religious-values threat.
"I think the lay community, however, will find this explanation to make sense," she also said.