Exploring Human Behavior and LGBTQ Rights Through Research

This essay delves into the intricate relationship between human behavior and LGBTQ rights, examining societal attitudes, discrimination, and the impact of these factors on the LGBTQ community. The paper conducts a literature review of several articles, including studies on institutionalized homophobia, the criminalization of LGBTQ individuals in various countries, legal discrimination, and the perceptions of young people towards homosexuality. The analysis highlights the mixed feelings of tolerance, pity, acceptance, and repulsion, as well as the influence of cultural and religious beliefs on these attitudes. The essay underscores the need for education and awareness to combat prejudice and promote understanding, ultimately advocating for the codification of human rights principles to protect and support the LGBTQ community. The review also highlights the global variations in LGBTQ rights movements and the challenges faced in different cultural and political contexts.

Running Head: HUMAN BEHAVIOR AND LGBTQ RIGHTS
Human Behavior and LGBTQ Rights
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Introduction
While the stereotypical notions regarding people with different gender and sexual identity
persists among a considerable section of the heteronormative crowd, the widespread awakening
of the LGBTQ community has been instrumental in changing the perspectives of the majority
(Dentanto et al., 2016). People develop positive attitude towards things that reward them or come
to their aid; while anything that does not correspond with their conditioned set of beliefs is not
easily accepted. The essay locates four articles concerned with people’s attitude towards
individuals belonging from the LTBTQ community. The discussion of the paper is based on a
literature review of the articles and concludes with the consequences the behavioral difference of
the heteronormative crowd has on the people with queer identities.
Literature review
Institutionalized Homophobia
The authors of the article A Research Paper Presented to the Faculty of the Senior
High School Department Iligan City National High School. Arts And Social Sciences
Journal, conducted a research for determining the attitude of people towards the LGBTQ
community. The survey included 86 high school students and 12 teachers who were interviewed
for assessing the behavior of the majority crowd towards a minor community (Woods, 2014).
The reason why homosexuals are segregated so redundantly is because they possess
characteristics and temperaments extremely distinctive in nature although the changing
scenarios all over the world is opening up the opportunities for better interaction between
heterosexuals and homosexuals. The responses suggest that people have mixed feelings towards
the LGBTQ community; the expressed emotions are that of tolerance, pity, acceptance and even
repulsion. It was also observed that men respond to the LGBTQ community more negatively

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than the women. Institutionalized homophobia is still widely prevalent among elderly people
while the youth is moving towards acceptance and compassion, owing to social awareness and
activism of human rights. Christians are more averted to homosexuality than people following
other religions, as some followers believe it to be a violation in God’s way. The research follows
the quantitative approach for estimating the ratio of acceptability and resentment of homosexuals
among the heterosexual crowd. The study reveals that the majority of the surveyed crowd are
open and accepting of the LTBTQ community and the tolerance percentage have been going up
since the vindication of gay rights. The data suggest that admiration and acknowledgement are
among the top attitudes demonstrated the heterosexuals towards the community of LTBTQ
people.
Criminalizing the community
While there is hardly a shade of doubt concerning the rapid progress towards equality in
the United States, the article “How the world feels about LGBT people”, suggests that the
progress has not operated globally. Ever since Uganda passed a law making it harshly punishable
for anyone who offended people belonging from the sexual minorities, the country have been
witnessing attacks that are more frequent. Two gay right activists were killed in Bangladesh last
year and Russia criminalized the gay propaganda as an attempt to defend the country’s culture.
On the brighter side, maximum percentage of the respondents in the study agreed that human
rights should be applicable to everyone, irrespective of their race, gender and sexual orientation.
The article points out that movements in gay rights are operating around the world in vastly
different cultural paradigms and political climates. Many of these movements have achieved
commendable success and visibility (Rosenberg, 2017). Although the awareness and activism of
LGBTQ rights is relatively mild as compared to other issues of sociological interest such as

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bullying, rape and depression. Activists of gay rights made marriage equality a successful
battleground in the United States because it afforded a valid argument about LTBTQ couples in
America being treated differently than the straights ones. Since it is now legal for LGBTQ
couples to get married in the United States, several respondents in North America spoke for the
legalization of same-sex marriages. The stories displaying the commitment of LGBTQ couple
might change the behavior of people towards the community. People exhibiting social awareness
are most likely to respond positively in the legal changes, especially when it comes to
employment discrimination among the straight and LTBTQ community.
A fair ratio of worldwide respondents argued that employers cannot take the liberty of
firing employees solely on the basis of their gender expression and sexuality. The article
particularly mentions that attraction among same sexes is essentially a Western, colonized idea
and might impinge the cultural sentiments of certain regions. A massive percentage of African
respondents are of the opinion that homosexuality is a phenomenon of the western world; many
Asian respondents share the same views. The article concludes with the suggestion that
awareness is the only tool for fighting the ignorance that has become so perennially linked to
homophobia.
Legal discrimination
Author Suzanne M. Marks in her article Global recognition of human rights for
lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people, previews the global recognition of human
rights for the LTBTQ people. The discrimination encountered by members of the community is
not an unknown fact, the kind of behavior levelled at the queer community is nothing short of
violation of human rights. Islamic countries like Iran and Saudi Arabia have laws that justifies
the execution of homosexuals for no reasonable crime (Mallory et al,.2015) . Even in western

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states, the LTBTQ community is abused by the police and other state authorities. Many countries
even condone and legalize discrimination in employment and housing. The government in most
countries do not provide equal marital benefits to LTBTQ couples as it does to hetero couples.
The author refers to instances of human rights abuse encountered by the queer community.
Fanny Ann Eddy, the famous lesbian activist was murdered brutally following her impassioned
speech at the UN commission of Human Rights. Some of the atrocities are a concrete
representation of people’s prejudice against the LGBTQ community.
People make the government and the government conditions people to behave the way
most suitable for the ruling authorities. The author concludes with the suggestion that the
principles of human rights must be codified into polices for eradicating prejudices and battling
violations against minor communities.
The youth’ perception of homosexuals
The authors of the journal Adolescents' and young adults' perception of
homosexuality and related factors in three Asian cities, aims to analyze with the help of
research, the perceptions of young adults and adolescents regarding homosexuality in Asian
countries. The marginalization of gay people and the stigmas associated with them is largely
concerned with how adolescents and young adults perceive of them. The research method was a
conducted survey of young adults and adolescents in rural and urban areas of Asian cities. The
interview process included asking sensitive questions and logistic regression and Chi-square tests
were carried out for identifying the predictors in order to examine their perception of
homosexuality. The Eastern countries predominant with the values of Confucianism holds a
more derogatory view of homosexuality than the western states. As a result of this negative
views of the homosexuals, they are largely subjected to social and political discriminations. The

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discussion makes it clear that homosexuals in Asian countries has to deal with extensive
challenges from the heteronormative population and people’s perceptions regarding the
community are responsible for that. The health of the homosexuals on account of the
stigmatization is central topic of discussion in the journal. The author believes that most people
belonging from the LGBTQ community are susceptible
Conclusion
Improving the perception of people, especially the adolescents and the young adults
requires a thorough understanding of the same. The results indicate that only one among 10
adolescents hold a positive view of homosexuality. The common predictor for their perception of
homosexuality were their knowledge of reproductive or sexual health. The articles indicate that
the education system must pay greater attention to educating adolescents on sexuality and mental
health. Only then can there be any hope for the DE stigmatization of homosexuals and the
community they belong from. Homosexuality is as natural as existence itself and it is about time
people stop the ruling authorities from brainwashing them with fabricated facts.

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Bibliography:
Dentato, M. P., Craig, S. L., Lloyd, M. R., Kelly, B. L., Wright, C., & Austin, A. (2016).
Homophobia within schools of social work: The critical need for affirming classroom settings
and effective preparation for service with the LGBTQ community. Social Work
Education, 35(6), 672-692.
Duhaylungsod, S., Grace Y Madrid, C., Leamor M Lapiz, M., Pongasi, C., & Tan, L. (2018).
Attitudes Toward the LGBT: A Research Paper Presented to the Faculty of the Senior
High School Department Iligan City National High School. Arts And Social Sciences
Journal, 09(03). doi: 10.4172/2151-6200.1000356
Feng, Y., Lou, C., Gao, E., Tu, X., Cheng, Y., Emerson, M. R., & Zabin, L. S. (2012).
Adolescents' and young adults' perception of homosexuality and related factors in three
Asian cities. Journal of Adolescent Health, 50(3), S52-S60.
Mallory, C., Hasenbush, A., & Sears, B. (2015). Discrimination and harassment by law
enforcement officers in the LGBT community.
Marks, S. M. (2006). Global recognition of human rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and
transgender people. Health and human rights, 9(1), 33.
Rosenberg, Alyssa. (2016). How the world feels about LGBT peopleRetrieved from
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/act-four/wp/2016/05/17/how-the-world-feels-
about-lgbt-people/?utm_term=.d41bfa864f30
Rosenberg, R. (2017). The whiteness of gay urban belonging: criminalizing LGBTQ youth of
color in queer spaces of care. Urban Geography, 38(1), 137-148.