2018 Volume 16 Pages 20-35
The purpose of this study is to examine the relationships between the knowledge about sexual minorities and gender views, homophobia, transphobia and the sense of value for sport. The participants were 2,763 college students who were in the departments related to physical education or sports in Japan at the time of study (male students: 1,493, female students: 1,270). The questions regarding sexual minorities were created by authors. The four scales used in this study include: gender views (the Short-form of the Scale of Egalitarian Sex Role Attitudes: Suzuki, 1994); homophobia (the Index of Homophobia: Hudson & Ricketts, 1980); transphobia (the Transphobia Scale: Bornstein, 1998); and the sense of value for sport (the Psychosocial Functions of Sport Scale: Spreitzer & Snyder, 1975). The result shows that those who gave more correct answers to the questions concerning the knowledge about sexual minorities tend to hold more egalitarian beliefs on gender equality. They also tend to be less homophobic and transphobic. Those students, both female and male, who had more correct knowledge about sexual orientation and biological sex tend to be significantly less homophobic and transphobic. Therefore, the result suggests that having the knowledge about the diversity of sexual orientation and biological sex is a crucial factor for the better understanding of LGBT. On the other hand, those who gave more wrong answers to the questions concerning the knowledge about sexual orientation and biological sex tend to have stronger sense of value for sport. This tendency of prejudice was more salient among male participants. The correlation between a support of sexual binary system and a stronger sense of value for sport showed in this study requires further examination.
