Daily encounters with heterosexism: a week in the life of lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals

Abstract

Descriptive information is provided about lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals' everyday experiences with heterosexism. Comparisons are made with participants' experiences with nonheterosexist hassles and with previous research on other types of everyday discrimination. Heterosexist hassles were most likely to be in the form of verbal comments whereas nonheterosexist hassles in the form of behaviors. Compared with nonheterosexist hassles and previous research on other forms of discriminatory hassles, heterosexist hassles were more likely to involve fear of heterosexism. The degree to which LGB members were "out" and whether participants were bisexual were associated with reporting fear of heterosexism and the total amount of heterosexism experienced, respectively.