A General Overview on Research on Homophobia in Turkey

Abstract

Homosexuals encounter prejudice and discrimination in society. Accordingly, scholars have introduced the term ‘homophobia’ to define these negative attitudes and behaviors. Homophobia is an important topic related to all aspects of life and needs to be studied by different disciplines. Specifically, the number of studies on Turkish samples has shown an increase in the last few years. However, the research is carried out by different disciplines and there is a great diversity in terms of method, sample, instrument and type of analysis. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to incorporate empirical, theoretical and review studies into homophobia among Turkish samples and summarize their findings in a systematic way. To this end, 35 studies in national and international journals are included and main findings are summarized. The research can be grouped as the following: a) the studies investigating attitudes toward homosexuality and homosexuals as well as social psychological variables related to homophobia, b) the studies conducted either to develop a scale on homophobia or to adapt a scale into Turkish, c) the studies exploring how people perceive homosexuals/LGBT individuals and related stereotypes, d) the studies addressing the social and personal problems encountered by homosexuals/LGBT individuals and their consequences, and lastly e) the studies focusing on the interventions on changing homophobic attitudes. This review contributes to the literature in terms of identifying the missing points in the previous studies and enlightening new topics for future research.

Keywords

• Ayrımcılık
• Cinsel Yönelim
• Eşcinsel
• Eşcinsellik
• Eşcinsel-Karşıtı Tutumlar
• LGBT
• Homofobi