Advancing research into the social psychology of sexual orientations and gender identities: Current research and future directions

Abstract

Over the past decades, LGBTQ+ issues have been at the centre of politics, social movements, and human rights discussions across the world. Consistent with these developments, there is a growing interest in social psychological research into sexual orientation and gender identities. The emerging research not only taps recent societal developments and the effects of these on LGBTQ+ people; but also focuses on very old research questions of stereotypes and prejudice that are still relevant today. In this special issue, we bring together nine papers addressing several of these issues using qualitative, correlational, and experimental methods with sexual majority and minority samples across different cultural contexts. We discuss the current state of the field and how further research could enhance our understanding of LGBTQ+ issues. INTRODUCTIONOver the past decades, LGBTQ+ issues have been at the centre of politics, social movements, and human rights discussions, and the site of major transformation across the world. It is not surprising, therefore, that LGBTQ+ people, the social processes that surround them, and the contexts in which they live, are becoming more and more the focus of interest for psychological study (Hegarty & Rutherford; 2019; Nadal, 2019; Salvati et al., 2020). On the one hand, improvements to specific rights, such as same sex marriage legalization in the US, Taiwan, Australia, and Northern Ireland, have been linked to more positive LGBTQ+ attitudes in society and favourable outcomes for the well-being in LGBTQ+ communities. On the other hand, the same progressive trends have elicited backlashes in various contexts. For instance, many areas in Poland have been declared LGBTQ+-free zones; trans-people are no longer allowed to change their names or gender markers in official documents in Bulgaria; pride marches were banned in Georgia and Turkey; transgender people were banned from serving in the military in the US. Social change and resistance inevitably co-occur. The last report on State-Sponsored Homophobia, published by the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA) in 2020, pointed to the following worrying data: 36% of United Nations (UN) Member States criminalize or de facto criminalize consensual same-sex sexual acts (59% of African and 52% of Asian UN Member States); 22% of UN Member States have laws and regulations that restrict freedom of expression in relation to sexual orientation and gender identity, including criminalizing offences against morality and religion, limiting sex education curricula, prohibiting promotion or propaganda of homosexuality, censorship in media and movies, and so on (37% of African and 40% of Asian UN Member States); only 30% of UN Member States have broad legal protection against discrimination based on sexual orientation, but the high percentage is concentrated in Europe (68%); and finally, only 18% of UN Member States recognize legal equality of relationships for two people of the same gender and/or have extended the definiti...

Masculinity and Leadership Effectiveness (Self-)Perceptions: The Case of Lesbian Leaders

“…Last but not least, a further important direction of research focusing on sexual minority members’ leadership might be a better inclusion of all the people that characterize the LGBTQ+ acronym. Indeed, social psychological research which addresses LGBTQ+ issues often focuses on gay men, leaving out not only lesbian women, but especially bisexual and trans people [ 2 ]. This is often due to difficulty reach these very specific targets of population, leading them to be invisible and ignored.…”

“…It is well known that sexual minorities are often the targets of discrimination [ 1 , 2 ]. Indeed, as part of a minority group, gay and lesbian individuals are not uncommonly discriminated against and, despite recent fights for equal rights worldwide, they still face social barriers [ 3 ].…”

It gets better with age: Resilience, stigma, and mental health among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer persons from Poland

“…One of the strengths of this analysis is the inclusion of not only cisgender men and women of various sexual identities but also transgender and non-binary persons in the study. This is particularly important given the relative dominance of studies conducted in gay men within the field of LGBTQ health ( Salvati and Koc, 2022 ). We, also, managed to provide data from unique and little recognized in previous studies Central European context and presented effects that may inspire future studies.…”

A conditional embrace—Swedish LGBTQ+ spaces through the eyes of ethnic minority non-heterosexual individuals

“…In line with recent recommendations regarding LGBTQ+ social psychology literature (Salvati and Koc, 2022), the present study aimed to improve diversity in the fields of social psychology and sexuality by giving voice to an under-researched group of people. The present study attempted to broaden our collective understanding of intersecting minority positions in different societal contexts by exploring ethnic minority non-heterosexual individuals' lived experiences from an array of Swedish non-heterosexual settings, guided by the following broad research question:…”