The Young and the Prejudiced? Millennial Men, “Dude Bro” Disposition, and LGBTQ Negativity in a US National Sample

Abstract

The young are often considered to be among the most open-minded age group, especially as compared to older adults. Millennials have been regarded as particularly interested in commitment to social justice and diversity issues, including LGBTQ acceptance. Yet recent political and socio-cultural shifts along with the emergence of “dude bros” (typically young (millennial), straight, White cisgender males of privilege who express masculinity in entitled, obnoxious, and toxic ways) may be related to a trend in decreasing LGBTQ support among millennial men that drastically contradicts previous research that suggests that being “young” and being “woke” are one in the same. Data collected via online panelists in November 2018 are utilized to investigate how being a millennial cisgender man relates to attitudes toward LGBTQ people (lesbian women, gay men, bisexual women, bisexual men, trans women, trans men, non-binary people, queer women, queer men) among a nationally representative sample of US adults aged 18–64 stratified by US Census categories of age, gender, race/ethnicity, and census region (N = 3104). Findings show that being a millennial cis man is robustly related to the stigmatization of LGBTQ people and that overlapping layers of patriarchy, aversion to being “hit on” by other men, and the use of anti-LGBTQ slurs (“fag,” “faggot,” “queer,” “dyke,” “tranny,” “no homo,” and “that is so gay!”) relate to these patterns in diverse ways.