Diversity's closet: Student attitudes toward lesbians, gay men, and bisexual people on a multicultural campus.

Abstract

Many colleges and universities have expressed a commitment to increasing students' acceptance of racial/ethnic diversity. This study is the first to consider how higher education impacts students' acceptance of sexual diversity. Using Weidman's Model of Undergraduate Socialization, the study sought to identify aspects of a college environment that promote and maintain campus communities that are inclusive of lesbians, gay men, and bisexual people. Through a longitudinal research design incorporating survey and interview data, this study examined predictors of student attitudes toward sexual diversity in a cohort of 1,041 students attending the University of Michigan from 1990 to 1994. This single-institution study suggests five major conclusions about the impact of college on these attitudes. First, college provides new opportunities for students to understand and appreciate sexual diversity. Through these opportunities, the majority of students become significantly more accepting of sexual diversity by their fourth year of college. On average, women enter college with a higher degree of acceptance than men and increase their acceptance while at college to a greater extent than men. Second, contact with lesbian, gay, and bisexual people is a primary mechanism through which students' attitudes change. For students who enter college with negative attitudes toward sexual diversity, contact through casual acquaintances and classmates helps students reexamine prior stereotypes and assumptions. For students who enter college with ambivalent or positive attitudes toward sexual diversity, contact through close friendships helps bring meaning and conviction to students' acceptance of sexual diversity. Third, cognitive, moral, and social identity development indicators are associated with students' capacity for tolerance and openness to difference. Gender differences in these indicators explain higher levels of acceptance regarding sexual diversity among women. Fourth, curricular and co-curricular attention to sexual diversity establishes norms of respect and thoughtful consideration of this issue. These settings also promote students' acceptance of sexual diversity by providing accurate information regarding sexual diversity and encouraging visibility of lesbian, gay, and bisexual people. Fifth, fraternities discourage acceptance of sexual diversity and student religious groups reinforce negative attitudes toward sexual diversity, thus creating peer environments of intolerance despite more general trends toward tolerance among college students.