Bisexuals, By Meredith G. F. Worthon Essay

Some of the ideas surrounding the LGBT community can leave negative impacts on the members. The fact that there is a term, homophobia, that expresses the negative attitude towards individuals who are members of the LGBT community, proves that there are multiple people who feel this way for reasons that are hard to understand for the members themselves. The academic journal, “An Argument for Separate Analyses of Attitudes Toward Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual Men, Bisexual Women, MtF and FtM Transgender Individuals,” by Meredith G. F. Worthen provides the six ways different heterosexual individuals feel towards different homosexual individuals. Worthen then continues to list the reasons for those feelings. Worthen states, “Indeed, Eliason’s (1997) study of 229 undergraduates found that heterosexual men felt threatened by gays and bisexual men

This results in homosexuals feeling reluctant to be open about how they truly feel, because how they truly identify themselves can cause them to be outcasted by those who feel threatened. Worthen even states that “Research shows that heterosexual women may distance themselves from lesbian women in order to attract desirable heterosexual men.” The research Worthen writes about proves that homosexuals are discriminated against so that heterosexuals can protect their own identities. Although, the negative stigma towards the LGBT community does not only create discrimination because heterosexuals try to avoid being around homosexuals. Worthen also states that, “There is also evidence that gender nonconformity can impair the likelihood of job attainment.” Gender nonconformity prejudice is the idea of having negative attitudes towards an individual or a group, because their identity does not conform to what society deems as