ABSTRACT
Recent years have witnessed signifi cant advances towards equality of sexuality in western societies. Besides the gradual normalization of homosexuality in mass media, lesbian, gay and bisexual (hereinafter LGB) people are also increasingly protected from discrimination in areas such as employment and partnership. Since Denmark legalized ‘civil partnership’ in 1989, many countries, including the United Kingdom in December 2005, have followed suit, to offer some form of protection for same-sex couples. In 2001, the Netherlands became the fi rst country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage, which offers even the hitherto elusive rights of child adoption. In spite of resistance to such progressive change in certain quarters of western societies, there are incontrovertible signs that sexual orientation discrimination is gradually being minimized, at least on the legal level. Positive changes in social attitudes, however, may lag behind legal reform (e.g. Merin, 2002; Hunter et al., 2004).
