Interesting interview with psychologist Karen Franklin about gay bashing

[theHandpuppet]

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/assault/interviews/franklin.html

[cate94]

1. Interesting

and frightening.

[theHandpuppet]

2. I guess I shouldn't be shocked...

... but I found this portion particularly -- and can't quite find the right word -- distressing.

When you conducted your studies around the Bay area, did you find the sense that gays made socially acceptable targets?

I did. That was interesting, because the Bay area is a very progressive, liberal area, and I found strong endorsement for gay civil rights among my survey respondents. But I still found an overwhelming amount of anti-gay behaviors. Name-calling is especially very ubiquitous. About 70 percent of respondents said that their male friends had done name-calling. So, everybody knew people who targeted gays for at least name-calling, if not more physical acts. And again, it's not so much that the individuals harbor hatred and resentment. It's more that there's a cultural backdrop in which it's really permissible, if not very cool, to assault or harass gays. . . . One out of ten of the college students--and this is a non-criminal young adult population--said that they had either threatened or actually physically assaulted somebody they thought was a gay man or a lesbian.

One out of ten?

One out of ten. And another 24 percent reported name-calling. So more than a third reported some type of anti-gay behavior. I had no idea that was going to be that high. Among male respondents, it was even higher, about 50 percent. So, about half.

[cate94]

3. Yeah.

"...really permissible, if not very cool, to assault or harass gays.."

Honestly, it sickens me.

[William769]

4. Agreed.

[joeybee12]

5. Actually, the high percentage of males engaged in name-calling isn't shocking to me...

I tend to think the majority are very unsure of sexuality in general, and theirs in particular, and the defense mechansim is to name call, but claim it's only joking around.