For Straight Persons, Correlates of Biphobia Are Mostly the Same as for Homophobia

Abstract

Abstract In a previous study, for a sample of 187 female and 107 male straight U.S. college undergraduates randomly assigned to complete measures of homophobia and transphobia with either born-female or born-male targets, the authors reported on the similarities and differences between the correlates for homophobia versus those for transphobia, dependent on participant and/or target gender. Participants in this study also completed a widely used measure of biphobia. In the present brief report, the authors show not only that straight participants’ homophobia scores were highly correlated with their biphobia ones but that the correlations of homophobia with other predictors were highly similar to the corresponding ones for biphobia. In contrast to the previously demonstrated functional bases for differences in determinants of straight individuals’ attitudes about gay/lesbian versus transgender individuals, these new findings indicate that, for straight individuals, determinants of biphobia largely overlap with those for homophobia.