Essay On Attitudes Towards Diverse Populations: A Literature Review" (70 Characters)

Find three to four articles related to people's attitudes toward individuals with membership in diverse populations such as biracial, LBGTQ, etc. Write a literature review over these papers.

Institutionalized Homophobia

While the stereotypical notions regarding people with different gender and sexual identity persists among a considerable section of the heteronormative crowd, the widespread awakening of the LGBTQ community has been instrumental in changing the perspectives of the majority (Dentanto et al., 2016). People develop positive attitude towards things that reward them or come to their aid; while anything that does not correspond with their conditioned set of beliefs is not easily accepted. The essay locates four articles concerned with people’s attitude towards individuals belonging from the LTBTQ community. The discussion of the paper is based on a literature review of the articles and concludes with the consequences the behavioral difference of the heteronormative crowd has on the people with queer identities.

The authors of the article  A Research Paper Presented to the Faculty of the Senior High School Department Iligan City National High School. Arts And Social Sciences Journal, conducted a research for determining the attitude of people towards the LGBTQ community. The survey included 86 high school students and 12 teachers who were interviewed for assessing the behavior of the majority crowd towards a minor community (Woods, 2014). The reason why homosexuals are segregated so redundantly  is because they possess characteristics and temperaments extremely distinctive in nature  although the changing scenarios all over the world is opening up the opportunities for better interaction between heterosexuals and homosexuals.

The responses suggest that people have mixed feelings towards the LGBTQ community; the expressed emotions are that of tolerance, pity, acceptance and even repulsion. It was also observed that men respond to the LGBTQ community more negatively than the women. Institutionalized homophobia is still widely prevalent among elderly people while the youth is moving towards acceptance and compassion, owing to social awareness and activism of human rights. Christians are more averted to homosexuality than people following other religions, as some followers believe it to be a violation in God’s way. The research follows the quantitative approach for estimating the ratio of acceptability and resentment of homosexuals among the heterosexual crowd. The study reveals that the majority of the surveyed crowd are open and accepting of the LTBTQ community and the tolerance percentage have been going up since the vindication of gay rights. The data suggest that admiration and acknowledgement are among the top attitudes demonstrated the heterosexuals towards the community of LTBTQ people.

While there is hardly a shade of doubt concerning the rapid progress towards equality in the United States, the article “How the world feels about LGBT people”, suggests that the progress has not operated globally. Ever since Uganda passed a law making it harshly punishable for anyone who offended people belonging from the sexual minorities, the country have been witnessing attacks that are more frequent. Two gay right activists were killed in Bangladesh last year and Russia criminalized the gay propaganda as an attempt to defend the country’s culture. On the brighter side, maximum percentage of the respondents in the study agreed that human rights should be applicable to everyone, irrespective of their race, gender and sexual orientation.

Criminalizing the community

The article points out that movements in gay rights are operating around the world in vastly different cultural paradigms and political climates. Many of these movements have achieved commendable success and visibility (Rosenberg, 2017). Although the awareness and activism of LGBTQ rights is relatively mild as compared to other issues of sociological interest such as bullying, rape and depression. Activists of gay rights made marriage equality a successful battleground in the United States because it afforded a valid argument about LTBTQ couples in America being treated differently than the straights ones. Since it is now legal for LGBTQ couples to get married in the United States, several respondents in North America spoke for the legalization of same-sex marriages. The stories displaying the commitment of LGBTQ couple might change the behavior of people towards the community. People exhibiting social awareness are most likely to respond positively in the legal changes, especially when it comes to employment discrimination among the straight and LTBTQ community.

A fair ratio of worldwide respondents argued that employers cannot take the liberty of firing employees solely on the basis of their gender expression and sexuality. The article particularly mentions that attraction among same sexes is essentially a Western, colonized idea and might impinge the cultural sentiments of certain regions. A massive percentage of African respondents are of the opinion that homosexuality is a phenomenon of the western world; many Asian respondents share the same views. The article concludes with the suggestion that awareness is the only tool for fighting the ignorance that has become so perennially linked to homophobia.

Author Suzanne M. Marks in her article Global recognition of human rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people,  previews the global recognition of human rights for the LTBTQ people. The discrimination encountered by members of the community is not an unknown fact, the kind of behavior levelled at the queer community is nothing short of violation of human rights. Islamic countries like Iran and Saudi Arabia have laws that justifies the execution of homosexuals for no reasonable crime (Mallory et al,.2015) . Even in western states, the LTBTQ community is abused by the police and other state authorities.

Many countries even condone and legalize discrimination in employment and housing. The government in most countries do not provide equal marital benefits to LTBTQ couples as it does to hetero couples. The author refers to instances of human rights abuse encountered by the queer community. Fanny Ann Eddy, the famous lesbian activist was murdered brutally following her impassioned speech at the UN commission of Human Rights. Some of the atrocities are a concrete representation of people’s prejudice against the LGBTQ community.

People make the government and the government conditions people to behave the way most suitable for the ruling authorities. The author concludes with the suggestion that the principles of human rights must be codified into polices for eradicating prejudices and battling violations against minor communities.

The authors of the journal Adolescents' and young adults' perception of homosexuality and related factors in three Asian cities, aims to analyze with the help of research, the perceptions of young adults and adolescents regarding homosexuality in Asian countries. The marginalization of gay people and the stigmas associated with them is largely concerned with how adolescents and young adults perceive of them. The research method was a conducted survey of young adults and adolescents in rural and urban areas of Asian cities.

The interview process included asking sensitive questions and logistic regression and Chi-square tests were carried out for identifying the predictors in order to examine their perception of homosexuality. The Eastern countries predominant with the values of Confucianism holds a more derogatory view of homosexuality than the western states. As a result of this negative views of the homosexuals, they are largely subjected to social and political discriminations. The discussion makes it clear that homosexuals in Asian countries has to deal with extensive challenges from the heteronormative population and people’s perceptions regarding the community are responsible for that. The health of the homosexuals on account of the stigmatization is central topic of discussion in the journal. The author believes that most people belonging from the LGBTQ community are susceptible

Conclusion:

Improving the perception of people, especially the adolescents and the young adults requires a thorough understanding of the same. The results indicate that only one among 10 adolescents hold a positive view of homosexuality. The common predictor for their perception of homosexuality were their knowledge of reproductive or sexual health. The articles indicate that the education system must pay greater attention to educating adolescents on sexuality and mental health. Only then can there be any hope for the DE stigmatization of homosexuals and the community they belong from.  Homosexuality is as natural as existence itself and it is about time people stop the ruling authorities from brainwashing them with fabricated facts.

Dentato, M. P., Craig, S. L., Lloyd, M. R., Kelly, B. L., Wright, C., & Austin, A. (2016). Homophobia within schools of social work: The critical need for affirming classroom settings and effective preparation for service with the LGBTQ community. Social Work Education, 35(6), 672-692.

Duhaylungsod, S., Grace Y Madrid, C., Leamor M Lapiz, M., Pongasi, C., & Tan, L. (2018). Attitudes Toward the LGBT: A Research Paper Presented to the Faculty of the Senior High School Department Iligan City National High School. Arts And Social Sciences Journal, 09(03). doi: 10.4172/2151-6200.1000356

Feng, Y., Lou, C., Gao, E., Tu, X., Cheng, Y., Emerson, M. R., & Zabin, L. S. (2012). Adolescents' and young adults' perception of homosexuality and related factors in three Asian cities. Journal of Adolescent Health, 50(3), S52-S60.

Mallory, C., Hasenbush, A., & Sears, B. (2015). Discrimination and harassment by law enforcement officers in the LGBT community.

Marks, S. M. (2006). Global recognition of human rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people. Health and human rights, 9(1), 33.

Rosenberg, Alyssa. (2016). How the world feels about LGBT peopleRetrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/act-four/wp/2016/05/17/how-the-world-feels-about-lgbt-people/?utm_term=.d41bfa864f30

Rosenberg, R. (2017). The whiteness of gay urban belonging: criminalizing LGBTQ youth of color in queer spaces of care. Urban Geography, 38(1), 137-148.