Themes in Heterosexuals’ Responses When Challenging LGBT Prejudice

Abstract

The purposes of this study were (a) to examine themes in heterosexuals’ responses when responding to LGBT prejudice, and (b) to explore the potential influence of educational information about LGBT topics on these themes of responses. Heterosexual undergraduate students (N = 225) were randomly assigned to one of two conditions: participants received information about LGBT topics, or they did not. Then participants were asked to speak out in a written format against LGBT prejudicial statements they read in a blog taken directly from the Internet. Using content analysis, 16 codes were generated from the literature on the confrontation of prejudice and from participants’ responses. The 16 codes were then grouped conceptually into four themes with the following percent representations in participants’ responses: values (38.9 %), knowledge promotion (36.2 %), attack (16.7 %), and personal participation (8.4 %). No differences between conditions emerged in the prevalence of these themes. Implications for ally interventions, multicultural education, and future research are discussed.