Numerous myths and stereotypes about GLBT people operate to perpetuate misinformation and negative social attitudes about them. Consider, for example, the following:

1. Homosexuality is a lifestyle choice rather than an innate orientation. Many people perceive gay, lesbian, and bisexual (GLB) people as having made a choice to go “against the grain” of society. They view GLB people as deliberately undermining society by selecting a renegade “lifestyle” that runs counter to moral tradition and the general well-being of society. In reality, research strongly suggests that biological genetic influences contribute significantly to a person’s sexual orientation—whether gay, lesbian, bisexual, or heterosexual (Bailey & Benishay, 1993; Bailey & Pillard, 1991; Bailey, Pillard, Neale, & Agyei, 1993; Hamer, Hu, Magnuson, Hu, & Pattatuci, 1993; LeVay, 1991). Thus, the term sexual orientation is more appropriate than the term sexual preference. Preference implies ease and simplicity of choice or selection, while orientation more accurately connotes the innate essence of a person’s intimate and affectional nature. Perhaps the best way to understand the role of choice in relation to sexual orientation is that people must choose whether to embrace or reject whatever is their essential orientation.

2. Homosexuality is not a normal aspect of human diversity. Human diversity is encompassing and can be represented by differences among people in areas such as race, ethnicity, sex, gender expression, culture, age, sex, and sexual orientation. Homosexuality is a naturally occurring phenomenon that has existed throughout history (Boswell, 1980). It is more socially accepted—and not nearly so controversial—in many countries (e.g., Canada, Denmark, Sweden, The Netherlands) other than the United States. Additionally, research has established that gay and lesbian people are physically, mentally, and emotionally as normal as heterosexual people (Friedman & Downey, 1994; Gonsiorek, 1991; Hooker, 1957). In recognizing that homosexuality in itself is not pathological, the American Psychiatric Association declared in 1973 that homosexuality would no longer be included as a psychiatric disorder in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

3. GLBT people are immoral. A person’s sexual orientation and gender expression are, in themselves, morally neutral. It is by individuals’ actions toward others—not by virtue of their sexual orientation—that judgments are to be made about their moral character. There are those who claim the Bible as their basis for judging GLBT people as immoral. Yet the Bible was written by humans in a cultural, social, and historical period when scientific knowledge of sexual orientation and gender expression was nonexistent:

The Gospel writers and the missionary Paul did not possess the psychological, sociological, and sexological knowledge which now inform[s] our theological reflections about human sexuality. They knew nothing of sexual orientation or of the natural heterosexual-bisexual-homosexual continuum that exists in human life. They did not postulate that people engaging in same-sex sex acts could have been expressing their natural sexuality. (JOHNSON, 1992, PP. 145–146) The biblical writers never addressed the concept of committed, loving, same-sex relationships. The biblical passages often cited as condemning samesex relationships addressed, instead, exploitative behaviors that did not involve loving relationships (Gomes, 1996; McNeill, 1993; Spong, 1988, 1991, 1998). Furthermore, nowhere in the Bible did Jesus address homosexuality or gender expression variances as inappropriate or immoral.

4. Gay and lesbian people are more likely to abuse children and/or convert them from heterosexuality to homosexuality. Gay and lesbian people are no more likely to abuse children than are heterosexual people (Berger & Kelly, 1995; McCammon, Knox, & Schact, 1998). In fact, the vast majority of child sex abuse cases involve men molesting female children (Berger & Kelly, 1995). There is no evidence that exposure of heterosexual children to gay and lesbian people changes their orientation to gay or lesbian any more than exposure of gay and lesbian children to heterosexual people changes their orientation to heterosexual (Patterson, 1994). Indeed, most people who are gay or lesbian were themselves reared by heterosexual parents. Research indicates that children growing up in gay and lesbian parent households are as well adjusted and as psychologically healthy as children who are reared in heterosexual parent households (Patterson, 1995; Strickland, 1995; Tasker & Golombok, 1997). The quality of parenting—rather than the sexual orientation of the parents—is what most significantly influences the well-being of children.

5. Two people of the same sex in a relationship play out masculine and feminine roles. This myth is based on the stereotype that one person has to adopt “the male role” and the other “the female role” whenever two people are in a relationship together and on the heterosexist assumption that only a man and a woman can form an intimate relationship. Same-sex couples tend to be far less likely than heterosexual couples to adopt specialized gender-defined roles within their relationships (Hyde, 1994; McCammon, Knox, & Schact, 1998). They tend to place high value on equality and the sharing of power in their relationships.

6. Transgender people are gay or lesbian in sexual orientation. It is an error to assume that all transgender people are gay or lesbian in sexual orientation. Thea sexual identity of a transgender person could be gay, lesbian, bisexual, or heterosexual. Gender identity does not dictate sexual orientation. Transgender people are often included with GLB people in the literature because, like GLB people, they constitute a sexual minority group and encounter discrimination because of their sexual minority status.

7. Same-sex couples do not develop long-term, committed relationships. There are those who maintain long-term committed relationships and those who have a series of relationships without significant long-term commitments among heterosexual as well as among GLBT people. Same-sex relationships in the United States are not afforded the same legal and social supports offered to other-sex relationships. The lack of legal recognition of same-sex relationships is an example of unequal rights under the law. There are more than one thousand legal rights and benefits accorded to legally married people that are unavailable to same-sex couples—no matter how many years they have been a committed couple (Human Rights Campaign, 2003).

8. The “gay agenda” is a plan for undermining family values and for affording “special rights” to GLBT people. In response to the movement toward equality for GLBT citizens, conservative political pundits coined the term gay agenda, which became a code phrase for stereotyping GLBT people as seeking to dismantle the structure of American values and seeking to garner special privileges not afforded to other groups in society. This so-called agenda is, to the contrary, an effort by GLBT people and their allies to secure the same civil rights and responsibilities (for example, legal sanction of their relationships, legal sanction of their parenthood, freedom from job discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender expression, spousal inheritance rights) already afforded to all non-GLBT Americans. Thus, there is no “special rights” agenda for GLBT people; rather, there is a strong political movement on behalf of equal rights for them.