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Abstract
Drawing on original public opinion survey data collected in an urban setting during the spring of 2009, this article examines the factors that influence respondents' tolerance of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered (LGBT) individuals. Specifically, OLS regression models are employed to assess if, controlling for standard demographic categories, respondents' views on the fixity of sexual orientation has any bearing on tolerance for LGBT individuals. The findings indicate a significant relationship between the belief that sexual orientation is biologically determined and tolerance of LGBT individuals. The number of LGBT-identified people known to the respondent, sexual orientation, and age also yielded significant effects, as did political and religious beliefs. Gender, race, income, household size, employment status, and education were not found to have any significant impact. The strength of the relationship between biological determinism and tolerance of LGBT individuals indicates a biopolitical understanding of sexual orientation, wherein the discursive authority of science is linked to making claims on the state. These findings add to the empirical literature on the correlation between LGBT-tolerant attitudes and the belief that sexual orientation is biologically determined, while raising questions about the theoretical issues at stake in conceptions of tolerance that are based in biological determinism.
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Introduction
What factors influence public opinion on the question of how sexual orientation is determined, and why do such opinions matter? Igniting the politics of the nature-nurture debate, scientific research into the biological origins of sexual orientation experienced a dramatic increase in the late twentieth century. As many biologists found evidence to support the idea that sexual orientation is born and not bred, social science researchers did their part to assess the social and political consequences of such findings. This academic debate did not go unnoticed by mainstream media, and as such the issue of sexual orientation's determinants entered into the public discourse.
Yet relatively little research has been done to assess what social or political factors are associated with public opinion regarding the determinants of sexual orientation. Such questions are important to ask, given that public views about sexual orientation as biological fact or as lifestyle choice remains an understudied factor in the social acceptance of LGBT individuals (LGBT stands for individuals who identify as...