Religious Orientation and Prejudice: Predictors of Homoprejudice

Abstract

A convenience sample of 477 students from a public university in the southeast United States was used to examine the relationship between religious orientation and attitudes towards gay and lesbian individuals. The author predicted that the religious factors, such as religious fundamentalism, religious motivation, religious upbringing, and religious affiliation, would correlate with homoprejudice. The results of this study contradicted some of the findings in previous studies. In a multiple regression that explained 48% of the variance, religious fundamentalism was found to predict homoprejudice; however, religious motivation, upbringing, and religious affiliation were not found to be significant predictors of homoprejudice. This study discusses possible explanations as well as the implications this has to the counseling profession.