A Comparative Analysis of Attitudes Toward Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Minority People

B. J. Rye () and Rebecca Goldszmidt
Additional contact information
B. J. Rye: Department of Psychology, St. Jerome’s University, 290 Westmount Road North, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G3, Canada
Rebecca Goldszmidt: Occupational Therapy, Temerity Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S 1W7, Canada

Social Sciences, 2025, vol. 14, issue 3, 1-29

Abstract: Attitudes toward sexual and gender minority people is a generative field of study leading to theoretical and practical advances. Adding to this body of literature, we sought to investigate relationships between attitudes toward different sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) minority groups. University student participants ( N = 495) were asked to rate 11 targets using a 101-point feeling thermometer scale. The targets included trans, bisexual, asexual, and polyamorous men and women, along with lesbians, gay men, and gender non-conforming persons. Heterosexual men and women targets were included for comparison. Analyses addressed two main question areas: (1) Were the various SOGI minority targets rated similarly/differently? (2) Do ratings of the targets differ as a function of target and participant demographic characteristics? Generally, SOGI ratings were favourable (78–85%) except for polyamorous targets (66%). While there were some statistically significant rating differences between some SOGI targets (e.g., lesbians were rated more favourably than asexual women; 85% versus 83%, respectively), data reduction analyses (i.e., Principal Components Analysis) with the 11 SOGI target ratings supported the possibility of aggregating attitudes into a single SOGI target group variable. The second research goal involved exploring whether ratings differed as a function of participant characteristics, including sexual orientation, gender, and religiosity. The analysis revealed that attitudes significantly differed based on all three participant factors. In general, those who rated the targets most favourably were those who were queer, women, or not-at-all religious. However, the SOGI target gender did not result in differences in target ratings (e.g., asexual women and asexual men were equal). The findings further the literature on attitudes toward various SOGI minorities, providing support for the theory that there is a latent factor underlying perceiver attitudes toward SOGI minorities and indicating a need to consider demographic characteristics of social perceivers.

Keywords: attitudes; LGBTQ; gay; lesbian; transgender; gender non-conforming; polyamorous; asexual (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A B N P Y80 Z00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/14/3/145/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/14/3/145/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:14:y:2025:i:3:p:145-:d:1601395

Access Statistics for this article

Social Sciences is currently edited by Ms. Yvonne Chu

More articles in Social Sciences from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().