Deck 7: Sexual Orientation, Gender Identityexpression, and Inequality

Question 1

How does the gender binary seen in Western society affect how we consider sexual orientation?

A) We often seen gender orientation as being tied to gender identity.
B) Both gender and sexuality are seen as part of the natural order.
C) We are able to see the complexity of sexuality.
D) Gender orientation is seen as independent of the gender binary.

Answer 1

A

Question 2

"Binary categories of sex" can best be understood by which of the following?

A) These are social constructs that divide male and female and heterosexual and homosexual into categorized sex relationships.
B) It is another way of describing biological sex differentiation.
C) Binary categories of sex are the two sets of our primary cultural images of gender.
D) These are stereotypes of gender relationships that reinforce inequality.

Answer 2

A

Question 3

How can gender be "fluid" if a person is born either male or female?

A) Gender and sex are constructs, that is, the way a human being experiences being male or female, masculine or feminine.
B) Surgery allows individuals to cross the lines separating male and female.
C) Certain cultures recognize that people have both male and female characteristics.
D) Such individuals are intersex, that is, the "third gender."

Answer 3

A

Question 4

A male-to-female transgender individual who remains married to her female spouse can describe herself as a lesbian.

A) True, she can define herself as a woman and adopt the role of a lesbian.
B) No, given the norms of the gay and lesbian communities.
C) Yes, but she would not be a real lesbian.
D) False, such transgender individuals are still men and outliers as far as gender identity is understood.

Question 5

Research, as well as contemporary culture, reveals the Americans are accepting of homosexuals as opposed to homosexual acts. Which of the following is a plausible reason?

A) Americans are more supportive of civil liberties issues in regard to inequality, but tend to view specific behaviors as immoral.
B) American attitudes are ambivalent.
C) Many American are sympathetic because they see gay people as being born that way. They also see gay people as subverting straight culture.
D) Men are less tolerant of gay people than women are, hence the divided opinion.

Question 6

Despite being a minority that has suffered the deprivation of civil rights as other inequalities, Blacks tend to be more hostile to homosexuality than Whites. Choose the accepted explanation.

A) Blacks are more likely to have fundamentalist religious views that consider homosexuals sinful.
B) Blacks fear getting AIDs and other sexually transmitted diseases.
C) Black men see homosexuals as threats to their romantic sense of the masculine role.
D) Blacks reject comparisons made about their minority status to that of homosexuals.

Question 7

Numerous studies all indicate that negative attitudes about gays and lesbians are reduced by what process or phenomenon?

A) regular contact
B) television programs with positive gay characters
C) a desegregation process similar to the Civil Rights era
D) the activities of groups such as Act Up

Question 8

The scholar Stephen Murray has posited the term "quasi-ethnic group" to describe the homosexual community. Why is might this term be provocative, even for those who agree with him?

A) This point of view suggests that being gay and lesbian is biological in nature.
B) It is indicative the extreme status separation that gays and lesbians face according to Weber.
C) It suggests that gays and lesbians belong to separate castes.
D) Murray, by implication, is saying that gays and lesbians share an ethnicity much the way Blacks, Hispanics, and other minorities do.

Question 9

Why did opponents to the Defense of Marriage Act emphasize the need to protect civil rights?

A) Because polls had revealed that Americans are generally supportive or don't mobilize against civil right issues.
B) Because opponents wanted to look moral and upright-indeed, "quasi-straight."
C) Traditionally, civil rights issues are more valid than morally tinged ones.
D) Civil rights are more exemplary of a civil society.

Question 10

Why is the language in Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act so problematic in its application in deciding cases of discrimination based on sex?

A) Congress provided no definition of sex and so Title VII is interpreted narrowly.
B) Senator Howard Smith (D) of Virginia introduced the sex discrimination language as a way to defeat the entire Act.
C) Gender behavior is too weak an argument when measured against biological sex.
D) The language is so vague that it can mean how people engage in sexual intercourse as much as their biological sex at birth.

Question 11

Many states have passed laws against employment discrimination based on sexual preference. Some have of exclusions for certain occupations. What kind of job is likely meant here?

A) A very limited range of occupations in which biological sex would prevent one from performing his or her duties or interacting with people of the opposite sex on religious grounds and the like.
B) Jobs in which clients would object to gays or lesbians touching them.
C) Certain kinds of social work, such as those treating women in a crisis center.
D) There are no occupations that cannot be occupied by individuals on the basis of sexual orientation or biology.

Question 12

Which is true about American attitudes to homosexuality compared with those of other industrial nations?

A) Americans are less accepting of homosexuality than citizens of other Western countries.
B) Americans are more accepting of homosexuality than citizens of other Western countries.
C) Since Americans tend to be less religious than those in other nations, they are less supportive of homosexuality.
D) The less religious the country, the less accepting it is of homosexuality.

Question 13

The military's former policy of "don't ask, don't tell" (DADT) was eliminated in 2011. Legally, what was defective about the law?

A) DADT was based on stereotypes and required people to lie about themselves, which did not stand up in many court cases.
B) There were never any injured heterosexual parties, whom the law was intended to protect.
C) Outside of courts martial, DADT could stand up in civilian courts.
D) The law became obsolete because the military's leaders as well as its members did not agree with it.

Question 14

Attempting to shame gays and lesbians or to force them to adopt a heterosexual lifestyle can best be described by what term?

A) heterosexism
B) microaggression
C) microinequities
D) deprogramming