Study of health care providers and attitudes against homosexual, bisexual individuals

Abstract

The present study was carried out in order to examine the attitudes of health care providers and of homosexual and bisexual individuals towards gays.

The study, which was contemplated as descriptive and a correlation research, was carried out with 294 individuals who applied to the Lambda and Kaos GL Associations, and 261 health care providers employed at the Bülent Ecevit Üniversitesi Uygulama ve Araştırma Hastanesi (Bülent Ecevit University Application and Research Hospital).

The study was carried out between October 2010 and February 2011. The data were collected through “Homosexuality Attitudes Scale”, “The Attitudes Towards Lesbians and Gay Men Scale” via “Socio-demographical Information Form Addressed Towards LGBTT Individuals” and “Socio-demographical Information Form Addressed Towards Health Providers Employed at the Hospital”. It was determined that married health providers; those thinking homosexuality/bisexuality is a disease or a disorder (p=0,002); and those who do not have a homosexual/bisexual member in their families (p=0.022) tend to be more homophobic; it was also observed that, married LGBTT individuals (p=0.036); LGBTT individuals working in the public sector, are self-employed or business owners (p=0.00); and LGBTT individuals who are “always” timid of being homosexual/bisexual (p=0.00), tend to be more homophobic.

We found that not knowing any homosexual individuals, being married and thinking that homosexuality is a disease were effective in the development of negative attitudes towards LGBTT individuals.