Joseph Harry

Sampling gay men

In most studies of male homosexuals, there are sampling deficiencies that relate to subject age and sample sources. Data gathered in 1969 on 686 male homosexuals show that those who came out early differ on a number of important variables from those who came out later. Samples of young gays are thus likely to be unrepresentative of the total male homosexual population. Also, all extant samples of gay men appear to under‐represent those over 45 years of age. When respondents from a variety of sample sources were compared, it was found that those obtained through advertising in the general media differ considerably from those obtained through gay‐world sources in the degree of their social involvement in the gay world. Respondents acquired through the general media may constitute a broader representation of the homosexual population than those acquired from the social structures of the gay world.

Conceptualizing Anti-Gay Violence

Anti-gay violence is here viewed as being the result of immature males fulfilling sexual status needs. Through such violence they reaffirm their commitment to heterosexuality in a way visible to their peers. Anti-gay offenders are divided into activists, who seek out homosexual victims; opportunists, who victimize gays and lesbians as occasions arise; and a much larger number who abandon any helping-citizen role when faced with such violence by others. Activists resort to gay-defined places to find victims; opportunists use other cues to identify victims. Chief among the cues used by offenders are behaviors and deportments that depart from traditional gender roles. Visibility of the victim as homosexual plays a dominant role in distinguishing gays or lesbians who have been assaulted from those who have not.

Sports ideology, attitudes toward women, and anti-homosexual attitudes

The present work tests the associations of sports ideology with sexist and anti-homosexual attitudes in a sample of 304 college students. It was found that sports ideology is positively associated with sexist and anti-homosexual attitudes, but only among males. Among females only sexist attitudes were associated with negative attitudes toward gays and lesbians. Among males, the link of sports ideology to anti-homosexual attitudes was independent of sexist beliefs. Reciprocal causal influences between sexist attitudes and sports ideology are discussed.

Defeminization and Adult Psychological Well-Being Among Male Homosexuals

Whitams hypothesis that a majority of gay men exhibit a cross-gender role preference during childhood but that most defeminize by adulthood was tested and supported by data on 1556 gay men. Gay and heterosexual males were found to differ strongly in cross-gender characteristics during childhood but considerably less so during adulthood. By categorizing gay respondents simultaneously by both childhood and adult cross-gendering, sizable differences were found in measures of psychological well-being. No or minimal differences were found between homosexual and heterosexual males on these measures. It was suggested that these two groups may differ not at all or minimally on purely psychological measures but that major differences may be found in cultural variables and particularly in gender culture.

Parental physical abuse and sexual orientation in males

Because male homosexuals have usually been found to have poorer relationships with their fathers than male heterosexuals, and because children who are disappointments to their parents are more likely to be physically abused than other children, it was hypothesized that gays are more likely than heterosexual men to have been physically abused by parents. This hypothesis was tested comparing 17 gay male college students and 67 heterosexual male college students. Gay males were found to have been more abused during adolescence. Abuse was related to a history of childhood femininity, to having poor relationships with fathers, and to having engaged in gay sex during adolescence. A history of childhood femininity and engaging in gay sex may provoke parental abuse.

Who hates whom in the great outdoors: The impact of recreational specialization and technologies of play

Abstract We offer the hypotheses that social relationships in outdoor recreation settings are heavily influenced by the recreational technologies; that recreationists participate in clusters of technologically similar recreations; that users of more physically obtrusive technologies are resented by users of less obtrusive technologies, but that the latter are not resented by the former. To test these hypotheses data were presented from questionnaires completed by recreation visitors to Corps of Engineers reservoirs in Oregon. Relatively distinct technologically defined clusters of recreational activities were found. Resenting relationships between users of different technologies were found, but resentments were directed toward users of both highly and less obtrusive technologies. It also appeared, contrary to hypothesis, that users of more obtrusive technologies evaluated physical obtrusiveness positively. It was also found that resentments were directed between, rather than within, clusters, and that rec...

Gay marriages and communities of sexual orientation

This article focuses on gay male couples as they exist within friendship networks of other gay men. By comparing homosexual men who are part of a gay community with those who are less integrated into a gay community, we attempt to show that the sexual liaisons of the former are more “marriage-like.” Gays committed to a community of other homosexual men were found to live more often with their lovers, be more sexually faithful to their lovers, and to have more emotionally intimate relationships. Also, they were found more likely to associate with other gay couples. Commitment to a gay community was not found to be associated with length of a liaison, and it seemed that when respondents defined emotional intimacy in terms of sexual exclusiveness there may have been a tendency for disruption of relationships. The gay community validates the sexual liaisons of gay men in the same way that the heterosexual world validates the pairings of heterosexuals and transforms their subinstitutional sexual liaisons into the institution of marriage.

Defeminization and social class

The hypothesis that there might occur selective defeminization by social class between childhood and adulthood among homosexual men was explored. Interview data on 686 homosexual men were employed. It was found that there is a greater tendency for cross-gender propensities to persist into adulthood among respondents from blue-collar backgrounds. Effeminate respondents from such backgrounds were found to be disproportionately involved in same-sex sexual activities during adolescence. They were also sexually responsive to same-sex persons earlier. The interpretation is offered that early homosexual experiences reinforce crossgender propensities among blue-collar respondents because of the greater gender role dichotomization found in blue-collar culture. Such reinforcement may explain the tendency for there to be greater persistence of crossgendering among blue-collar men.