STUDENT ATTITUDES TOWARD THE RIGHTS OF HOMOSEXUAL PERSONS

Current public debates in Croatia brought the issues of gay and lesbian civil rights to the forefront of scientific interest. So far, Croatian researches were mostly interested in the determinants of general attitudes towards gays and lesbians, while research on attitudes toward their civil rights remained neglected. Our study aimed to investigate student attitudes toward gay and lesbian civil rights, which is especially interesting because the study was conducted in the moment when the Life Partnership Act for the Persons of the Same Sex, which is now in force, was being prepared. in the study also deals with gender differences in the support of gay and lesbian civil rights. The determinants of attitudes toward gay and lesbian civil rights - gender, religiosity, social contact with gays and lesbians, courses on the topic of homosexuality and modern prejudice toward homosexual persons were also analysed. A total of 1551 heterosexual students from the University of Zagreb, University of Rijeka, University of Split and University of Osijek participated in the study. We used Attitudes toward gay/lesbian civil rights scale, Modern prejudice toward homosexual persons scale and we asked participants about their contact with gays/lesbians, religiosity, courses on the topic of homosexuality at the university and their interest in gay and lesbian issues. Students held the most favourable attitudes toward gay and lesbian employment rights and the right to visit their partner in the hospital. They supported gay and lesbian marriage, adoption and in vitro fertilization to a lesser extent. Women supported all the gay and lesbian rights more than men. After controlling for their interest in gay and lesbian issues, women, particularly those with less prejudice toward homosexual persons, those who are less religious and who have more contact with gays and lesbians gave more support to gay and lesbian civil rights. Our findings are mostly expected, and they have clear practical implications.