Heterosexual Undergraduates' Attitudes Toward Gay Fathers and Their Children

Abstract

Heterosexual college students' attitudes toward gay male couples and their adopted children were assessed. Participants evaluated vignettes depicting either a gay male couple or heterosexual couple and their adopted son along the dimensions of parenting ability, degree to which the child's problems were attributable to the parental relationship, distress of the child (including gender and sexual identity confusion), and the extent to which custody reassignment was perceived to be beneficial. Differences in participants' ratings indicated that a boy raised by gay fathers was perceived to be experiencing greater confusion regarding his sexual orientation and gender identity. Custody reassignment was also rated as more beneficial for the son raised by gay fathers. Multiple Regression Analyses indicated that these assumptions were significantly predicted by the participants' stereotype of gay men as effeminate, above and beyond the participants' political conservatism and religious attendance. Results are discussed in accordance with Herek's (1984) functional approach to attitudes toward homosexuality.

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