Search

Trans people are targeted with widespread prejudice and discrimination in the United States. In order to better understand this hostility, we examined how different gender beliefs (gender traditionalism, gender self-esteem, feminist attitudes, and feminist identity) are associated with cisgender heterosexual individuals' trans prejudice. We found that cisgender heterosexual men reported more trans prejudice, more gender traditionalism, less feminist attitudes, and a weaker feminist identity than cisgender heterosexual women. Participants who reported less traditional gender beliefs and more feminist attitudes reported less trans prejudice. Although feminist identity was not associated with trans prejudice for cisgender heterosexual women, cisgender heterosexual men who more strongly identified as feminists reported less trans prejudice. These findings underline the complexity and multiplicity of gender beliefs and their distinct associations with trans prejudice. Our results also have implications for clinicians and feminist activists, calling on them to critically examine their own gender beliefs and to advocate for the inclusion of trans people within their respective contexts, as well as trans rights more broadly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer-identified) employees commonly experience sexual harassment at work. The perceptions of lay observers of this harassment, such as their coworkers and managers, likely influence beliefs about appropriate individual and organizational responses to harassment. Thus, we conducted an experiment (n = 279 U.S. college students) to examine (a) whether four motivations (power, prejudice, gender policing, and sexual attraction) were perceived to underlie harassment toward LGT individuals; (b) how these motivations were related to perceived acceptability of the harassment; and (c) and how acceptability was related to recommended responses to the harassment. We found that compared to lesbian, gay, or cisgender heterosexual targets, participants perceived harassment toward transgender targets as less acceptable when they viewed it as more motivated by power and prejudice and less by attraction. Compared to male targets, participants perceived sexual harassment toward female targets as less acceptable when they viewed it as more motivated by prejudice. Finally, perceiving the harassment as less acceptable was associated with recommending that the target report the harassment. These results suggest that harassment targeting men and gay and lesbian employees may be minimized, underlining the need for organizations to protect against employees' mistreatment and challenge beliefs about sexual harassment motivations and acceptability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]