Attitude of Italian Gay Men and Italian Lesbian Women Towards Gay and Lesbian Gender-Typed scenarios.

Objectives: This study examined the differences between gay men and lesbian women in their negative attitudes towards gay and lesbian people who either confirm or disconfirm stereotypical gender roles. The theoretical framework that inspired it was the role congruity theory by Eagly & Karau (2002). Method: One hundred thirty-eight gay and lesbian participants read 4 gender-typed scenarios: in two, a gay student and a lesbian student were portrayed a smore stereotypically masculine, and in the other two, two gay and lesbian students were described as more stereotypically feminine. Participants rated the targets on a scale assessing negative emotions. Results: Results showed that the feminine gay male target elicited more negative emotions than the other 3 targets, among both gay and lesbian participants. Moreover, gay and lesbian participants felt more negative emotions towards the masculine lesbian target than the feminine lesbian one. Conclusion: Findings suggest that also sexual minority people could be potential actor of discriminative behaviour. Prevention projects, both for heterosexual and sexual minority people, regarding gender stereotypes or negative attitudes towards non-heterosexual sexual orientations are more and more necessary, in order to promote a sense of integration and tolerance, especially in the Italian context, where traditional gender norms are still very widespread, in order to not create a condition of marginalization among the marginalized.