Impact of College
on Student Attitudes Toward Gay and
Lesbian Issues
Discussion
By Diana Kardia
Copyright 1996, Diana Kardia
Reprinted with author's permission.
Many colleges and universities, including
the University of Michigan, have expressed
a strong commitment to multicultural
education and to recognizing and appreciating
the diversity in the student population.
However, the bulk of current attention
has been directed to racial/ethnic diversity
; sexual orientation remains "in the
closet" of most current institutional
efforts related to campus diversity.
While the closet door is open on some
campuses, and institutional recognition
of this issue is growing, much work
needs to be done to create campus communities
that are fully inclusive of sexual diversity.
In an effort toward building such communities,
recent research on higher education
has documented homophobia and anti-gay
harassment and violence on campuses
and explored related institutional changes
designed to recognize sexual diversity
and to protect lesbians, gay men, and
bisexual people from discrimination
(D'Augelli and Rose, 1990; DeVries and
LaSalle, 1993). While this emphasis
has provided important information needed
to respond to intolerance on campus,
it has not provided information about
the development of positive attitudes
toward sexual diversity. This study
is the first to consider the ways in
which colleges and universities may
impact students' acceptance of sexual
diversity.
This study addressed three overarching
questions: In what ways do students'
attitudes toward sexual diversity change
during college? What aspects of the
college experience contribute to students'
acceptance of sexual diversity? What
is the relationship between students'
attitudes toward sexual diversity and
student identity, particularly gender?
These questions were motivated by considering:
1) the continuing degree of invisibility,
discrimination, harassment, and violence
experienced by lesbians, gay men, and
bisexual people on college campuses
and in society at large, and 2) the
fact that higher education has been
shown to promote students' capacity
for complex, interdependent relationships
based on tolerance, inclusiveness, and
social responsibility. With these considerations
in mind, this study examined the possible
role of college in the development of
acceptance for sexual diversity in a
population of young adults attending
a single institution.
This final chapter summarizes the major
findings of this study and translates
these findings into specific implications
for institutional policy and practice.
This discussion situates these findings
in the specific institutional context
relevant to this study (i.e. The University
of Michigan) and suggests ways they
may apply to similar large research
universities. The chapter concludes
with recommendations for future research
endeavors that build on the results
of this study.
This piece has been excerpted from
"Diversity's Closet: Student Attitudes
Toward Lesbians, Gay Men, And Bisexual
People on a Multicultural Campus" by
Diana Kardia. If you would like more
information on this study you may email
the author at: dbk@umich.edu.
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