Sexual Stigma and Sexual Prejudice in the United States: A Conceptual Framework

Abstract

In 1972, psychologist George Weinberg's book, Society and the Healthy Homosexual, introduced readers to a new term, homophobia, and to the then-novel idea that hostility to homosexuality, rather than homosexuality itself, posed a threat to mental health. The following year, the American Psychiatric Association's Board of Directors declared that homosexuality is not inherently associated with mental illness and voted to remove it from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM. The American Psychological Association quickly endorsed the psychiatrists' action and further urged mental health professionals "to take the lead in removing the stigma of mental illness that has long been associated with homosexual orientations." Thus, a major cultural institution renounced its longstanding role in legitimating society's stigmatization of homosexuality just when the psychological manifestations of such stigma were beginning to be redefined as a social problem. In the present chapter, I elaborate on these points and provide a detailed for conceptualizing both societal and individual reactions to homosexuality and sexual minorities in the United States. A central aim of this discussion is to integrate insights relevant to sexual orientation from the sociological literature on stigma with findings from psychological research on prejudice. I begin by briefly introducing the construct of stigma and discussing its structural manifestations in the institutions of society. Then, I focus mainly on manifestations of stigma among individuals. After discussing three such manifestations, I consider how individuals' attitudes can affect structural stigma and how cultural events can create conditions that are conducive to the diminution of individual prejudice. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)