Attitudes Toward Lesbians and Gay Men Scale (Herek, 1984)

• Populations: young adults
• Age ranges: m = 18.7
• Languages: English, Spanish
• Countries: United States

Items

Subscales

Attitudes toward Lesbians, 5 Items

Attitudes toward Gay Men, 5 Items

Items by subscale

Attitudes toward Lesbians

• Sex between two women is just plain wrong 
• I think female homosexuals (lesbians) are disgusting 
• Female homosexuality is a natural expression of sexuality in women
• Female homosexuality is a perversion 
• Female homosexuality is merely a different kind of lifestyle that should not be condemned

Attitudes toward Gay Men

• Sex between two men is just plain wrong 
• I think male homosexuals are disgusting 
• Male homosexuality is a natural expression of sexuality in men
• Male homosexuality is a perversion 
• Male homosexuality is merely a different kind of lifestyle that should not be condemned

Responses

All items used a 5 point Likert-type scale, 1 = Strongly Disagree, 2 = Somewhat Disagree, 3 = Neither Disagree nor Agree, 4 = Somewhat Agree, 5 = Strongly Agree

Scoring

“The ATL and ATG are scored by assigning numerical values to the verbal response options, for example, 1 = strongly disagree, and summing across items for each sub-scale. For ease of interpretation, these sums can be divided by the total number of subscale items to yield a score that matches the response scale metric. The possible range of scores depends on the response scale used. Items 1 through 5 comprise the ATG subscale; and Items 6 through 10 comprise the ATL subscale. Items 3, 5, 8, and 10 are reverse scored. The 3-item ATG is composed of Items 1, 2, and 3. The 3-item ATL scale is composed of Items 6, 7, and 8.” (Herek & McLemore, 2020)

Citations

• Herek, G. M., McLemore, K. A. (2020). Attitudes Toward Lesbians and Gay Men Scale. In R. R. Milhausen, J. K. Sakaluk, T. D. Fischer, C. M. Davis, W. L. Yarber (Eds.), Handbook of sexuality-related measures, 4th edition (637-639). Routledge.
• Herek, G. M. (1984). Attitudes toward lesbians and gay men: A fac-tor analytic study. Journal of Homosexuality, 10, 39–51. https://doi.org/10.1300/J082v10n01_03
• Herek, G. M. (1988). Heterosexuals’ attitudes toward lesbians and gay men: Correlates and gender differences. The Journal of Sex Research, 25, 451–477. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224498809551476
• Herek, G. M. (1994). Assessing heterosexuals’ attitudes toward lesbians and gay men: A review of empirical research with the ATLG scale. In B. Greene & G. M. Herek (Eds.), Lesbian and gay psychology: Theory, research, and clinical applications (pp. 206–228). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
• Stiekema, E., Warrens, M. J., van Bergen, D. D., & Parlevliet, S. (2024). Assessing attitudes toward LGB people in young adolescents. PloS One, 19(10), e0305057. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0305057

Spanish Translation

• Herek, G. M., & Gonzalez-Rivera, M. (2006). Attitudes toward homosexuality among U.S. residents of Mexican descent. Journal of Sex Research, 43, 122–135. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224490609552307