African Americans were much more likely to oppose statements such as "Homosexuals should have equal employment opportunity" (p 59). Wills and Crawford's 2000 study found that "African Americans were more likely to attribute the cause of homosexuality to a moral choice while other ethnic groups tended to say a combination of biology and environment" (p 101).

      In general, it is found that condemnation against homosexuals is greatest in African American communities when compared to Caucasians (Freudenberg 1989, Staples 1982, Waldner et al. 1999). In contrast, African American homosexuals are not rejected by their families to the extent that Caucasian homosexuals are (Greaves 1987). This could be due to stronger family ties within the African American community. It has clearly been identified that homonegativity in African Americans is greater than that in Caucasians. Little research addresses the reasons why this may be the case. Harper (1991) suggested that this might be due to African Americans greater sense of nationalism that emerged from the civil rights movements of the 1960s. This suggests that homosexuality is viewed or can be viewed as un-American.

      This study attempts to discover both the influence race has over homonegativity in addition to assessing its confounding effects with other variables such as education, gender role ideologies, religious fundamentalism, and political ideology. As in the case of gender, much research has discussed the existence of this relationship, however little has been done to empirically examine why it exists.

                          Additional Influential Variables

     In analyzing potential racial or gender differences in homonegativity or the impact of gender role ideologies on homonegativity, it is necessary to consider other common variables identified as having influence over homonegative attitudes. This analysis is