ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the stigmatization of lesbian women. First, the Lesbian Women Stigma Scale is examined. Second, Norm-Centered Stigma Theory (NCST) is utilized to explore the relationships among the Lesbian Women Stigma Scale, the Hetero-cis-normativity Scale (HCN Scale), gender, sexuality, additional gender/sexuality, race/ethnicity, and basic needs. Third, lesbian women’s experiences with gender- and sexuality-based discrimination, harassment, and violence (DHV) are investigated. In line with the three tenets and hypotheses derived from NCST, there are six patterns found in this chapter: (1) discomfort with lesbian women’s sex acts are a driving force in the stigmatization of lesbian women for both hetero-cis and LGBTQ people; (2) for both hetero-cis and LGBTQ people there is also strong overlap among the top most stigmatizing beliefs about lesbian women, which include, lesbian women are not feminine enough, lesbian women’s identity permanency, and sex-act related perspectives (hypersexuality, unfaithfulness, and discomfort with lesbian women having sex with men and women); (3) hetero-cis-normativity is positively related to lesbian women stigma for both subsamples—however, the interaction effects between the HCN Scale and social power axes that moderate this relationship differ for the hetero-cis and LGBTQ subsamples; (4) individual social power axes are significantly related to lesbian women stigma for both subsamples—however, the interaction effects between the social power axes that moderate these relationships differ for the hetero-cis and LGBTQ subsamples. In addition, there are more significant interaction effects between the social power axes for the LGBTQ subsample than there are for the hetero-cis subsample; (5) lesbian women experience high levels of both gender- and sexuality-based DHV in comparison to both the LGBTQ and all women subsamples with few exceptions; and (6) the individual effect of being a lesbian woman increases the likelihood of gender-based DHV while butch lesbian women have a decreased likelihood of sexuality-based DHV.
