Attitude of Italian Gay Men and Italian Lesbian Women Towards Gay and Lesbian Gender-Typed Scenarios

This study examined the differences between gay men and lesbian women in their negative attitudes towards gay men and lesbians who either confirm or disconfirm stereotypical gender roles. One hundred thirty-eight gay and lesbian participants read four gender-typed scenarios: in two, a gay student and a lesbian student were portrayed as more stereotypically masculine, and in the other two, two gay and lesbian students were described as more stereotypically feminine. Participants rated the targets on a scale assessing negative emotions. The results showed that the feminine gay male target provoked more negative emotions than the other three targets, among both gay and lesbian participants. Moreover, gay and lesbian participants felt more negative emotions towards the masculine lesbian target than the feminine lesbian one. In the end, while the feminine gay man target elicited more negative emotions than the feminine lesbian target, the masculine gay man target did not elicit more negative emotions than the masculine lesbian one. Implications of the results are discussed.