Attitudes Toward Homosexuality Among U.S. Residents of Mexican Descent‪.‬

Many authors have noted that homosexuality is stigmatized among U.S. residents of Mexican descent and, more generally, in Latino communities in the United States (Ayala & Dfaz, 2001; Diaz, 1998; Diaz, Ayala, Bein, Henne, & Marin, 2001; Flaskerud, Uman, Lara, Romero, & Otherset, 1996; Gonzalez & Espin, 1996; Marin, 2003; Morales, 1990). However, relatively little empirical research has directly examined attitudes toward homosexuality among Latinos or Hispanics. Of the research that has been published in this area, most studies have focused mainly on comparing the direction and intensity of those attitudes to other groups (e.g., Latinos' attitudes versus those of non-Hispanic Whites or African Americans). For example, Crawford and Robinson (1990) found that Latinos in an ethnically-diverse convenience sample of male high school students were significantly less antigay than their non-Hispanic White counterparts. Bonilla and Porter (1990), using data from the General Social Survey, found that Hispanics did not differ from Whites but were more tolerant than Blacks in their moral judgments about homosexual behavior (although a majority of all three groups judged homosexual behavior to be "always wrong"). Compared to the other groups, however, Hispanics were less supportive of free speech rights and civil liberties for homosexuals. Bonilla and Porter found no differences in attitudes between Mexican-Americans and other Hispanics.