With grounding in the Integrated Threat Theory of Prejudice, we explore individual difference predictors of attitudes toward transgender people. In particular, we measure general and gender conservatism, as well as the previously unexplored predictors of erotophobia–erotophilia (comfort with sexuality) and quality of previous contact with sexual minorities. In this North American student sample (N = 218), attitudes toward lesbians and gay men (ATLG) correlated strongly with the Transgender Belief Scale (r = 0.82), suggesting a lack of differentiation between sexual minority groups. Multiple regression models indicated that participant gender and conservatism (as measured through homophobia, benevolent sexism and authoritarianism) contributed uniquely to transgender attitude prediction. After excluding the ATLG as a predictor, contact quality with sexual minorities, erotophobia–erotophilia, religious fundamentalism, benevolent sexism, and participant gender emerged as predictors of transgender beliefs. Separate gender analyses suggest that benevolent and hostile sexism might function differently in the prediction of transgender attitudes for women and men, respectively. Findings also suggest that secondary transfer via contact with sexual minorities may influence feelings about transgender people. Implications for sex educators are discussed.

Introduction

Transphobia or transnegativity describes discomfort with or negative attitudes toward those who identify as trans. Trans is a collective term for those whose gender identity, behaviour, and/or expression does not match the sex they were assigned at birth, including those who identify as transgender and gender non-conforming. In contrast, cisgender individuals are those who do identify with the gender they were assigned at birth (Glotfelter & Anderson, 2017). Relative to gay, lesbian, or bisexual (LGB) attitudinal research, scholarly work is sparse regarding attitudes toward trans people (Warriner, Nagoshi, & Nagoshi, 2013). A recent study concluded that trans prejudice was more prominent than prejudice held against LGB people (Cunningham & Pickett, 2018). Attitudes, when transformed into action, can result in stigma and discrimination, a factor that may contribute to the overrepresentation of mental health challenges in trans individuals (Haas et al., 2010). As such, more research is needed to explore the attitudes held toward trans individuals, and what might underpin those attitudes. Integrated threat theory (Stephan & Stephan, 2000) supposes that a group will express prejudice toward those outgroup members who threaten the groups’ values, identity (symbolic threats), or power (realistic threat). Intergroup anxiety and stereotyping also lead to prejudice. Based on this theory, socially conservative individuals would express negative attitudes toward an outgroup who threaten their traditional value systems; applied to the particular situation of trans people, the base belief in the gender binary and consequent desire for gender conformity is threatened (e.g., Broussard & Warner, 2019). Trans individuals – like LGB individuals – challenge gender norms that have historically been characterized as “natural” or are treated as axioms by many conventional individuals (Norton & Herek, 2013). Thus, traditionalists are likely to perceive this violation of norms as threatening and respond with negative attitudes toward trans individuals.