"That's so gay": Language Use and Antigay Bias Among Heterosexual College Students

Jill M. Chonody, Scott Edward Rutledge, Scott Smith

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

19 Scopus citations

Abstract

Using the word "gay" to refer to something that is "boring" is part of American slang, and heterosexual males commonly call one another a "fag." The responses of 767 college students were analyzed to explore how this language relates to antigay bias. Results of multiple regression explained 14.8% of the variance for believing that "it's no big deal" to call someone a fag, and age, sex, major, and attitudes toward gay men were significant predictors. For the frequency of saying "that's so gay," 17.5% of the variance was explained by age, sex, major, and friends' attitudes toward sexual minorities. Implications for social work education and future research are discussed.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)241-259
Number of pages19
JournalJournal of Gay and Lesbian Social Services
Volume24
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 2012

Keywords

  • LGBT people
  • college students
  • heterosexism
  • homophobia
  • language use

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