Social Attitudes towards
the LGBT community
Lakshya Jha 17050
Tanish Mittal 17061
Yash Dhawan 17064
Introduction
2
◈ 7 September 2018 has become a historic day, India's Supreme Court ruled
to decriminalize gay sex, in a unanimous verdict handed down by a five-
judge panel that has had a profound impact both here in India and across
the world.
◈ Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, which criminalizes carnal
intercourse against the order of nature, was struck down. Through this
research project, we aim to understand, the extent of this bias in society
and the factors and variables that affect it.
◈ An understanding of whether the ruling decriminalizing homosexuality has been a
reflection of popular opinion or, whether it aims to change and shape popular
opinion, would allow us to distinguish between whether this is simply a legal
change on paper, or if it is social change.
Introduction
3
◈ This will impact the lives of the LGBT community in India by making
way for their treatment as more equal citizens and protecting them from
the years of struggle of blackmail, assault and all kinds of discrimination,
that they have had to go through due to social, political and legal reasons.
◈ It has also paved the way for the LGBT community in India to gain further
rights in terms of marriage, divorce, inheritance of partner’s property,
adoption, etc.
Brief Literature Review
4
◈ A survey explored the public’s opinion belonging to different age groups on
homosexuality. We analyzed that society as a whole has become more accepting
towards it. But now that homosexuals have been granted legal rights, will they be taken
more seriously and accepted by all?
◈ The purpose of many articles is to review the current literature based on how
respectable is the LGBT organization in India and whether it has become more
acceptable by the public since the last few years. With the recent verdict of Section 377
of the Penal Code of India that criminalized private consensual sex between adults
belonging to the same sex, it brought together a coalition of groups and individuals
including LGBT organizations who were previously criticized and weren’t given
enough autonomy. In India, the difficulty of proving that "carnal intercourse against
the order of nature" has taken place in private has meant that the law has only
infrequently been applied in court judgments.
Brief Literature Review
5
◈ Achieving a prosecution requires catching two people carrying out the sexual act,
which usually takes place in private. [1].Section 377 has had a huge contrary effect on
numerous individuals' lives.[2] The reform of Section 377 has brought a drastic change
in society’s perception towards LGBT rights. After several years of gay parades, pride
marches, worldwide media coverage and spreading awareness through LGBT
organizations all around the world, there is hope that the social acceptability towards
them will increase and this will change the public opinion
Brief Literature Review
6
◈ [1] "India's Supreme Court Rules Gay Sex Is No Longer A Crime". 2018. The
Independent. [Link]
[Link]
◈ [2] Mahapatra, Dhananjay. 2018. "Section 377 Verdict: A Wrong Is Righted, Now For
The Rights - Times Of India ". The Times Of India.
[Link]
for-therights/articleshow/[Link]
◈ [3] Misra, Geetanjali. "Decriminalising Homosexuality in India." Reproductive Health
Matters 17, no. 34 (2009): 20-28.[Link]
◈ [4] Ghosh, Apoorva. "LGBTQ Activist Organizations as ‘Respectably Queer’ in India:
Contesting a Western View." Gender,Work & Organization22, no. 1 (2014): 51-66.
doi:10.1111/gwao.12068.
Research Design and
Methodology:
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Research Problem
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◈ In lieu of Section 377 of the ◈ This research hopes to find a
Indian Penal Code being correlation between the legal status
struck down by the Supreme and social attitude of the general
public with regards to
Court this research is aimed
homosexuals. And determine
at finding the social attitude
whether a change in legal status
and awareness of the general necessarily leads to a positive
public on the LGBT change in the social attitudes of
community. people which so far has been
driven by a lack of awareness,
ignorance and conservative
tradition.
Research Objective
9
◈ While this ruling ◈ We want to gain a ◈ Thirdly, whether
does mean that deeper understanding this bias is still as
there has been a about why there has prevalent as is
change in the status been a bias among suggested by the
of the LGBT society against this secondary data
community legally, community. This looked at by us.
we want to find out includes the factors that
whether this contribute to this bias,
extends to social whether these may be
change. social, cultural, lack of
awareness, or religious.
Hypothesis:
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◈ Does granting legal rights to the
LGBT ensure acceptance for
them in conventional society or
do they still face discrimination
and hostility from the general
public due to a lack of
awareness and an ignorant
attitude towards
homosexuality?
◈ Are younger people more
accepting of homosexuality?
◈ Do attitudes on the LGBT differ
across males and females?
Research Objective
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• Type of Research Design
The research being conducted is a descriptive study aimed at finding a correlation
between the attitude of people on homosexuality and their age. It is also aimed at
finding if opinion on homosexuality differs across genders. For the purpose of this
research we sent surveys to 50 male and female participants aged between 13-50.
• Time Period
The survey and research was completed in a period of one week and were of
different genders and various ages
• Dependent and independent variables
The variables represented by x and y, here, are age (which is x) and acceptance of
homosexuality (which is y) and is represented by ranks 1, 2, 3; where 1 is most
supportive and 3 is least supportive
Research Objective
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• Data collection instruments and techniques
We designed an online survey with 16 questions which had multiple choice
responses. There were no right or wrong response but only individual opinions
The survey was then sent to around 50 participants and their responses were duly
noted for analysis
• Data processing and testing techniques
The testing techniques here are the Pearson coefficient method which analyses the
relationship between 2 independent variables, x and y.
Analysis:
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Descriptive Statistics: Using measures of central tendency (mean, median,
mode)
◈ Mean age of people who think same sex marriage should be legalized:
n=47
Mean = Σ(respondents who support same sex marriage)/n
Mean = 1001/47 = 21.297
◈ Range of age of people who are supporters of LGBT rights:
H= 50 years and L= 13 years
Range = H-L
Range= 50-13 = 37
◈ Mode age of people who think being gay is something one is born with:
19 years (highest frequency)
Findings of the Study:
14 ◈ Age - high responses from 19 year old respondents
◈ · Sex - females had more pro LGBT stances as compared to males
◈ · 94.1% are heterosexual, 1% is unsure and 2% are homosexual
◈ · 68% know people who are homosexual
◈ · According to 49%, being queer is something they are born with, 30% think
it’s something one chooses and 20% are unsure.
◈ · According to 92% homosexuality is something that cannot have a cure, 8%
think homosexuality needs a ‘cure’.
◈ Based on our research, we found that the younger generations are more likely
to be accepting of homosexuality. This indicates that the violence and
discrimination that the community faces is going to diminish over time. We
also found that females are more likely to have pro-LGBT stances as
compared to males.
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16
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18
Pearson Correlation
19 We took surveys on homosexuality across people from the age range 13-50. We
decided to take our X variable as age and our Y variable as acceptance of
homosexuality (which we decided to measure in the form of rank: 1 – highest
acceptance, 2 - average acceptance, 3 - least acceptance).
1= highest acceptance of homosexuality
2= average acceptance of homosexuality
3= least acceptance of homosexuality
n= 50
1 = highest; 2= average; 3= lowest r = 6752
r = n(ΣXY) - [(ΣX) (ΣY)] ---------------------------
20 --------------------------------- √(60264169) (254016)
√[nΣx² - (Σx)²] [nΣy² - (Σy)²]
r = 39800
r = 50(1732) – [(1109)(72)] -----------------------
----------------------------------------- √15308063152704
√[50(1109)2 – (1109)2] [50(72)2 – (72)2]
r = 39800
r = 86600 – 79848 ----------------------
----------------------------------- 3912552
√(61494050 – 1229881) (259200 – 5184) r = 0.01017238876 (weak,
positive, linear correlation)
Linear Correlation between x(Age) and Y
(Acceptance of Homosexuality)
21 3.5
y = 0.0441x + 0.4629
R² = 0.3247
3
2.5
1.5
0.5
0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Limitations of the Study and Future Research
Directions
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◈ The limitations of this study are mainly that it is limited in its scope. We
could only take a survey with a small sample size and a limited
geographical area. This leaves major scope for there being discrepancies
across regions that would have been overlooked by this research. We
could also incorporate a specific income group, as this being a sensitive
topic, data collection is difficult from low income groups without a
professional interviewer.
◈ Another limitation is that we did account for a person’s religion in our
research, but mostly, the interviews were taken from Hindus. This may be
a factor in people’s views on homosexuality since, Hinduism has
historically been more accepting of, and has represented transsexual and
homosexual people in its scriptures and engravings on temple walls;
which is not the case with Abrahamic religions, which have historically
looked down upon homosexuality.
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