Antigay Bias in Role-Model Occupations by E. Gary SpitkoCall Number: KF3467.5 .S67 2017
ISBN: 9780812248708
Published/Created: 2016-11-07
In Antigay Bias in Role-Model Occupations, E. Gary Spitko argues that in the case of athletes, and others in role-model occupations, a record of widespread and frequently systematic employment discrimination has been excluding gay people from the public social spaces that identify and teach whom society respects and whom members of society should seek to emulate. Creating a typology of role models--lawyers/judges, soldiers, teachers, politicians, athletes, and clergy--and the positive values and character traits associated with them, Spitko demonstrates how employment discrimination has been used for the purpose of perpetuating the generally accepted notion that gay people are inferior because they do not possess the requisite qualities--integrity, masculinity, morality, representativeness, all-American-ness, and blessedness--associated with employment in these occupations. Combining the inspirational stories of LGBT trailblazers with analysis of historical data, anecdotal evidence, research, and literature, Antigay Bias in Role-Model Occupations is the first book to explore in a comprehensive fashion the broad effects of sexual orientation discrimination in role-model occupations well beyond its individual victims.