Sex role endorsement among homosexual men across the life span

This study assessed the sex role endorsement of homosexual men at different ages across the life span. A sample of homosexual men from dignity chapters in the northeastern, midwestern, southern, southwestern, and western United States was mailed a demographic questionnaire and the Bem Sex Role Inventory. Respondents were classified into four age brackets and categorized as androgynous, masculine, feminine, and undifferentiated. A pattern of diverse sex role endorsement was found from adolescence to maturity in which gay men were equally androgynous, masculine, feminine, and undifferentiated at each age level. This finding contradicted an earlier study of heterosexual men that reported increasing numbers of androgynous males with age. The contrast suggests that the sex role endorsement of gay men may be very different from their heterosexual counterparts. It was further suggested that gay men are capable of meshing masculine and feminine aspects of their personalities early as well as later in life, that gay men do not comprise a homogeneous group, and that the stereotype of cross-gender role endorsement is unfounded.This work was supported in part by funds from the foundation of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and from the state of North Carolina.