The Relationship Between Gender and Heterosexual Attitudes: Toward Homosexuality at a Conservative Christian University

This research looked at the relationships and differences between sex and race as it relates to religious fundamentalism, attitudes, and comfortability toward homosexuality. Patterns in previous research have shown that men and women do differ in their attitudes toward homosexuals. This study proposed that heterosexual men will show a significantly more negative attitude toward homosexuality than women. A strong relationship was found between religious fundamentalism and negative attitudes toward homosexuality (r = .67). Both heterosexual men and women were more comfortable with heterosexual situations than homosexual situations. However, men were more comfortable with lesbian situations and women were more comfortable with gay situations. Concerning race, Black men versus Black women had more significant differences in various proposed situations than White men versus White women.