Differences in Christian Attitudes Towards Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Trans-individuals: Their Covariates and Interaction Effects

Recently, studies have found majority status, gender and age are related to prejudice towards sexual minorities, yet very few studies have provided separate analysis of the individuals within the monolithic LGBT acronym. To date, studies have shown religiosity, political orientation, belief about the origin of homosexuality and attitudes towards science are correlated to biases towards LGBT identities, but less have examined interaction effects between those covariates. Here, we conduct a study to investigate differences in Christian attitudes towards the separate individuals within the LGBT acronym by gender and age as well as the underlying schemas that are attributed to that prejudice. Christian participants provided demographic information and measures of political orientation, religiosity, attitudes towards science and belief about the etiology of homosexuality then gave their attitudes towards LGBT individuals. Average total prejudice was significantly greater (p < 0.001) for heterosexual male participant’s (N=123, Mage = 34) than heterosexual female participants (N=41, Mage = 24). Generation Z participants (N=71, Mage = 20.83) displayed significantly lower (p <0.004) prejudice than Generation Y participants (N=80, Mage = 32.11). Additionally, OLS regressions support previous research that Christian attitudes towards LGBT individuals significantly relate to conservative political beliefs (p < 0.001, R = 0.34), high religiosity (p < 0.001, R = 0.26), belief about the origin of homosexuality (p < 0.01, R = 0.43) and negative attitudes towards science (p < 0.001, R = 0.5). Further, the interaction effects of these covariates show differences and similarities for attitudes towards homosexual, bisexual, and trans-individuals. This study demonstrates that attitudes towards LGBT identities are more nuanced than previously reported and that a separate analysis should be performed for the individuals within the subgroups of LGBT when investigating attitudes towards the LGBT community.