Peculiarities of Relations in LGBT Community

Abstract

Introduction. LGBT communities belong to groups with deviant behavior. A small amount of information about the structure of the LGBT community causes the following problems: 1. Disinformation and negative attitude towards the activities of the LGBT community. 2. The LGBT community consists of significantly different groups with different needs and specific problems, which leads to misunderstandings and conflicts of interests within the social movement. 3. Hidden conflicts within the LGBT community have an influence on its activity. The purpose of the research is to study the peculiarities of intergroup relations within the LGBT community. Methodology, methods and techniques. Participants were 134 representatives of the LGBT community. The sample included 34 lesbians, 8 gays, 16 bisexuals, 27 transgender, 15 asexual people, 14 pansexual and 20 genderqueer or non-binary people. Quantitative and qualitative methods were used in the study. The respondents were asked to fill out a questionnaire including the following techniques: 1. Questionnaire “Components of social capital” by L. G. Pochebut; 2. Questionnaire “SEP” by L. G. Pochebut; 3. Questionnaire “The need for affiliation” by A. Mahrebian; 4. Questionnaire “Measuring trust” by R. B. Sho; 5. Open questions. Results. When analyzing the data, the following significant intergroup differences were identified: indicators of “trust” and “goals and values” are lower among transgender people than lesbian, pansexual and genderqueer people. The level of trust among pansexual people is higher than in other groups. “Fear of social rejection” with asexual people is higher than with prosexual people, while the same indicator with asexual people is higher than “fear of social rejection” with lesbian, gay and pansexual people. Gays have lower “fear of social rejection” than transgender people. At the same time, the latter are less inclined to collectivism than cisgender. Lesbians are more prone to affective neutrality than gay and transgender people, while homosexual men are likely to be affective than other groups. Bisexual people are more prone to universalism than other groups. Scientific novelty of the research is determined by the fact that intergroup relations in the LGBT community have not been previously investigated by Russian scientists. Practical significance. To provide effective counselling being in great demand nowadays among LGBT people, it is necessary to understand community peculiarities and relations between groups.