Intersecting gender with race and religiosity: Do unique social categories explain attitudes toward homosexuality?

Abstract

Although attitudes toward homosexuality have been widely studied over the past 30 years, few studies have scrutinized the interaction effects between gender and race, and gender and religiosity, on attitudes toward homosexuality. This article analyzes US data from the fifth wave of the World Values Survey, collected in 2006 – a nationally representative sample of individuals residing in the United States. Contrary to previous research, no significant interaction is found between gender and race on attitudes toward homosexuality. This finding challenges conventional thinking on essentialized differences regarding racial groups and their attitudes toward homosexuality. The interaction between gender and religiosity, though, suggests that religiosity has a greater effect on women’s attitudes than men’s. Finally, the article shows that most of the difference in attitudes toward homosexuality between men and women is explained by differences in gender role beliefs.