• DOI:10.1111/SOIN.12004
• Corpus ID: 35541235

Region, Social Identities, and Disclosure Practices as Predictors of Heterosexist Discrimination Against Sexual Minorities in the United States

@article{Swank2013RegionSI,
  title={Region, Social Identities, and Disclosure Practices as Predictors of Heterosexist Discrimination Against Sexual Minorities in the United States},
  author={Eric Swank and Breanne Fahs and David M. Frost},
  journal={Sociological Inquiry},
  year={2013},
  volume={83},
  pages={238-258}
}

• E. Swank, Breanne Fahs, D. Frost
• Published 1 May 2013
• Psychology
• Sociological Inquiry

Exposure to heterosexist discrimination may vary by a person’s place of residency. Utilizing a minority stress perspective, an online survey of self-identified lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals (n = 285) examined whether rural and small town inhabitants experienced greater exposure to six types of enacted stigma. After comparing the frequency of enacted stigma by community type, findings demonstrated that rural LGBs reported experiencing more homophobic statements, property damage, and employment discrimination than urban LGBs. Small town LGBs also encountered additional amounts of housing discrimination and were more often chased by strangers compared with urban sexual minorities. Finally, disclosure practices and hierarchies based on race and social class also influenced exposure to discrimination. The importance of spatial factors often intensified when respondents disclosed their sexual identity more publicly. When exploring racial and class differences, affluent sexual minorities experienced less employment discrimination and white sexual minorities were less likely to experience several forms of heterosexist events (especially being punched and kicked). Discrimination against lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals is common and multidimensional. In its most explicit forms, heterosexist behavior manifests itself through physical violence and language that chastises and demeans homosexuality and non-normative gender behavior. In slightly subtler forms, heterosexism and heteronormativity inform many insidious practices that privilege heterosexuality while denigrating sexual minorities. Through these practices, LGBs often endure hostile environments that monitor and penalize homosexual behavior in the United States. LGB individuals’ experiences of stigma, prejudice, and discrimination, which result from heteronormativity and heterosexism, 1 have been usefully conceptualized as constituting minority stress (Meyer 2003). Minority stress theory is based in social stress theory, which posits that stressors constitute any factors or conditions that require individuals to adapt to changes intrapersonally, interpersonally, or in their environments. Meyer (2003) posited that minority stressors can be usefully conceptualized along a continuum of proximity to the