Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Notre Dame, 2006. / Thesis directed by Alexandra F. Corning for the Department of Psychology. "May 2006." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 61-67).

Thesis (M.S.)--Ohio University, 2004. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on May 6, 2006). Includes bibliographical references (p. 82-91).

Thesis (M.S.)--Oregon State University, 2006. / Printout. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 122-125). Also available on the World Wide Web.

Thesis (B.A.(Hons.)) - University of Queensland, 2006. / Includes bibliography.

This thesis is a multilevel analysis of relationships between religion, intolerance towards ethnic out-groups and homophobia across 47 European countries based on European Values Study data (EVS 2010, wave 4). The analysis accounts for associations between the religiosity of individuals and their likelihood of being disinclined to accept people of a different race, immigrants and homosexuals as neighbours, or to accept homosexual behaviour as justifiable. Secondly, relationships between religious and socio-economic national contexts on the two forms of intolerance are studied. Religion is conceptualised as a three-dimensional phenomenon, thus a distinction is made between believing, belonging and religious practice. The main research question motivating the individual-level analysis is: To what extent is religion in Europe associated with intolerance towards ethnic out-groups and homosexuals? The research question of the contextual analysis is: How do the national religious, socio-economic and political contexts citizens live in matter for their tolerance towards out-groups? The key results of the analyses can be summarised as follows: religion is significantly related to both ethnic intolerance and homophobia. Believing in a Higher Power was found to be strongly negatively and fundamentalism strongly positively related to ethnic intolerance in most countries. Religious devoutness and observance, on the other hand, are positively related to ethnic intolerance only in a minority of mostly South-Eastern European countries. All of them have legacies of ethno-religious conflict, poverty and political instability. High religiosity, alongside poverty, nationalism and right-wing authoritarianism are strong predictors of ethnic prejudice in these contexts. In most of Europe, however, neither religious belonging nor religious practice is statistically significantly related to ethnic intolerance. Regarding homophobia, strong positive relationships with all three dimensions of religiosity were found. Contrary to the author’s expectation, religion matters most for the citizens’ dislike of homosexuals in Western European countries where the overall levels of homophobia are comparatively low. In large parts of post-communist Eastern Europe homophobia appears to have a secular face. The finding surprises, given the frequent utilisations of Orthodox and Catholic Christian symbolism that could be observed at public protests against eastern European gay pride parades of the last couple of years. Plausible explanations are explored alongside modernisation- and identity theory: religion has less impact on homophobic attitudes in societies where homophobia is generally more socially acceptable, while in highly modernised Western societies, where liberal values and a general acceptance of homosexuality are prevalent, religious fundamentalism appears to be strongly associated with anti-modern and traditionalistic identities that are exclusive towards out-groups.

Thesis (M. A. (Clinical Psychology)) -- University of Limpopo, 2016 / A qualitative study was conducted to investigate challenges faced by gay and lesbian students at the University of Limpopo (Turfloop Campus). Semi-structured interviews were used for data collection. Purposive sampling (snowball sampling) was used to find participants for focus groups. Data were analysed using Thematic Content Analysis (TCA). The results of this study gave an insight into challenges faced by lesbian and gay students at the University of Limpopo (Turfloop Campus). It also indicated the impact of these challenges on their psychological, emotional and academic functioning. Results indicate that gay and lesbian students face a multitude of problems on campus environment which includes among other things bullying, discrimination, victimisation, abuse, academic disruption and derogatory remarks from their peers (heterosexual students) and staff members. KEYWORDS: Homophobia, LGBTI, Discrimination, Prejudice, sexuality.

Lesbians have historically lived in obscurity and isolation because living outwardly as a lesbian carried with it the almost certain loss of social standing, family, and friends (Blando, 2001). For lesbians who grew up in the Deep South, isolation and the pressure to conform was greater than anywhere in the United States (Barton, 2010). Most Deep Southerners were homophobic, especially in rural areas where people were deeply religious and had little exposure to sexual minorities. The researcher used a qualitative phenomenological approach to explore the meaning and significance of growing up lesbian in the rural Deep South. The sample included 12 Caucasian lesbians, ages 45 to 62. Four clusters of themes emerged from the interviews. Those clusters were: (1) emerging sexuality, (2) the mark of fatal difference, (3) denial of lesbian identity, and (4) conforming to Deep Southern social mores. Themes within those clusters described how delays in both lesbian identity development (Cass, 1984) and psychosocial development (Erikson, 1975) occurred in each of the participants because of the intensely religious and homophobic environments in which they were raised. Denunciation of participants' personal identities began with the first expressions of their sexual identities in elementary school. Ridiculed at a young age because of attractions to girls, participants cycled back through developmental crises involving shame, doubt, and inferiority. They entered adolescence disturbed about their developing sexualities, to discover that parents and faith-based communities were homophobic. Therefore, at the time when participants faced the most critical developmental crises of their lives (Erikson, 1975), they feared rejection by their parents, communities, and God. Participants sought to suppress or deny their lesbianism. Suppression of lesbian identity came with emotional and developmental costs, including substance abuse, unwanted marriages, and role confusion. Unable to find needed resources and role models, participants conformed to the social mores of the rural community for periods ranging from five to twenty years. Eventually, each participant in this study left her rural origins to begin claiming her lesbian identity. Retrospectively, each woman recognized that in the era in which they grew up, communities in the rural Deep South demanded conformity and resisted allowing members to individuate. Thus, participants in this study entered adulthood, and sometimes middle age, with a number of unresolved developmental crises, particularly as those crises related to sexual orientation.

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