choice, rather than environment or biology. Finally, they found respondents with a high school degree or below were less in favor of homosexuals having equal civil rights. Religious Fundamentalism

     Certain religious segments have been most noted for expressing homonegavity

(e.g., the Christian coalition). In this study, level of religious fundamentalism, in contrast to liberalism, will be controlled for. Admittedly, there are many factors of religion that can impact homonegativity such as extent of intrinsic beliefs, denomination, frequency of church attendance, etc.

     On average, Catholics are usually more tolerant of homosexuality than are

Protestants (Bierly 1985, Wills and Crawford 2000). People whose religion has a more fundamentalist orientation are more likely to be homonegative compared to individuals with religions that have less fundamentalist orientations (Herek and Glunt 1993). Herek (1994) found that simply being more religious would cause a person to exhibit a more anti-homosexual attitude. In contrast, research supports that individuals high in several aspects of religiosity will internalize their beliefs; thereby they display less homonegativty than individuals who use religion as an explanation for current social climates (Batson et al. 1986).

Age

     The children of both Generation D and Generation X have been growing up in an era where gays are being portrayed by the media in a more positive light. Some of the only negative media attention that a member of Generation X would have heard about gays may have centered on the HIV/AIDS epidemic. For the most part, it is now socially accepted that HI V/AIDS is not a gay disease, and hence much of that attribution has been dispelled. Members of previous generation cohorts, such as the baby boomers and those