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Abstract
The study reported in this paper applied a version of Hill and Willoughby's (2005) Genderism and Transphobia Scale revised for an Australian population (GTS-RA) to a sample of undergraduate psychology students. Factor analysis identified three factors within the scale. Findings suggest that the sample reported overall more positive attitudes towards trans people than have been found in previous research. Specifically, it was found that females and those who had prior contact with a trans person held more positive attitudes towards trans people than did males or those who had not previously met a trans person. Additionally, higher levels of homophobia and more normative beliefs about gender predicted less positive attitudes towards trans people. Gender differences were found on a measure of homophobia, though not on the measure of beliefs about gender. Overall, the results of this study suggest that the GTS-RA is a useful research tool in the assessment of attitudes towards trans people, and that it has the potential to contribute to educational curricula aimed at addressing negative attitudes towards trans people.
Keywords: attitudes, trans people, transphobia, Australia, Genderism and Transphobia Scale
Introduction
The study of attitudes towards nonheterosexuals has a long history within psychology, so much so that there now exist many valid and reliable scales for measuring attitudes towards non-heterosexual people, and specifically lesbians and gay men. These measures have consistently found differences across a range of variables amongst heterosexual populations in regard to their attitudes toward lesbians and gay men. What these measures cannot tell us, however, is anything about attitudes towards other groups who experience marginalisation on the basis of their gender or sexual orientation, such as is the case with trans people. The term 'trans people' is used here, following Tee and Hegarty (2006), to refer to transgender and transsexual people who both live and identify as a gender other than that associated with their natal sex, regardless of whether or not they have elected to alter their physical characteristics through surgery. When it comes to attitudes, it certainly could be suggested that trans people are subject to the same normative beliefs about gender as are homosexual people (and certainly some trans people identify as homosexual). However, trans people are also likely affected by more specific...