Politics and Religion: Influence on Social Work Students' Attitudes about LGBT Policy

Purpose:

LGBT people are gaining ground in human rights but still experience discrimination in social policy. Discriminatory policies against LGBT people in housing, employment, education, adoption services, mental and physical health care, and the military may influence social work education and practice. We hypothesized that gender, race, religious attendance, political views, beliefs about sexual orientation and gender identity choice, and beliefs about conflict may influence social work students’ support for LGBT people and policies, and that taking a cultural competence course that included intergroup dialogue would increase student support for LGBT rights policies.

 

Methods:

This study analyzed pre and post survey data from 134 MSW students enrolled in a cultural competence course to examine if religious attendance, political views, beliefs about being lesbian, gay, or transgender as a choice, and beliefs about conflict predicted student attitudes about LGBTQ policies, if taking an intergroup dialogue (IGD) cultural competence course influenced LGBTQ policy attitudes, and what variables may contribute to changed attitudes about LGBTQ policies.

Participants were primarily Christian, female, and White. Independent variables included gender, race, religious attendance, political views, beliefs about being gay, lesbian, or transgender as a choice, and beliefs about conflict. The dependent variable was attitudes about LGBTQ policies. Correlations, paired t-tests, and regression analyses were conducted.

 

Results:

Political views, belief about choice, and conflict beliefs were significant predictors of attitudes about LGBTQ policy coming into the course, while gender, race, and church attendance were not significant predictors. More liberal beliefs, believing being lesbian, gay or transgender is not a choice, and more comfort with conflict indicated higher endorsement of policies that support LGBTQ equality. Students’ views about policies that support LGBTQ equality changed significantly from pre to post test in a positive direction. We then examined which variables contributed to the difference score in LGBTQ policy attitudes. Conflict beliefs were significant; students who were less comfortable with conflict had a greater positive change in their sexual orientation policy attitudes. Beliefs about choice was significant, such that the more students believed that being lesbian, gay, or transgender is a choice, the greater their positive change in their LGBTQ policy attitudes. Political views and religious attendance were not significant in this model. Students who had less comfort with conflict, and believed being lesbian, gay or transgender is a choice, all changed more significantly than those who had more comfort with conflict and believed being LGT is not a choice.

 

 

Implications:

First, students’ political beliefs, beliefs about sexual orientation and gender identity choice, and beliefs about conflict may affect their ability to provide culturally competent service to LGBTQ people from micro to macro levels. This area requires further research. Second, pedagogies that encourage reflective exploration and critical thinking on how students’ political beliefs affect their cultural competence are needed, with empirical research on specific teaching methods. Third, IGD may provide such a pedagogy and more experimentation on this particular pedagogy is encouraged. Finally, social work education standards are encouraged to address political affiliation, conflict skills, LGBTQ issues, and cultural competence.