Perception of homosexuality: a study on relationship between homophobia and religiosity

Abstract

Homosexuality is a complex phenomenon, one of the most sensitive topics about which we like to put forward our views without any factual knowledge or valid information. No doubt India is one of the vast, oldest, and modern civilizations, but still conservative in some perspectives. It depicts its diversity in terms of religion and culture which always influences the lifestyle and the mindset of people living in this part of the world. Religion directs to have a sense of equality but the subjective understanding of religion became quite a challenge as it is related to morality in terms of how one must live and choose and this subjectivity interferes with the acceptance of natural phenomena like sexuality and homosexuality.  Homosexuality is the further variation in sexuality which determines one’s inclination to have sexual intimacy with the person of the same sex. Nowadays homosexuality is emerging as the problem of identification, rather than the normative practice and orientation. The present paper aims to study how religion/religiosity influences the attitude towards homophobia. The sample consisted of 51 adult participants, in the age range of 20-35. The standardized measures of religiosity and homophobia were administered on participants. The study revealed that there is no significant relationship between homophobia and religiosity. Homophobia is a negative perception, which needs to be changed. The way we perceive others needs to be proactive. One must be subtle and sensitive enough that he/she is not considering the life and sexual orientations of others as ‘act against the order of nature, violation of morality.’ Perceiving their choices as scandalous, indecent acts, and unnatural offense hinder the progress of collective consciousness, which definitely will not be the great resource of knowledge for generations to come.