Abstract
Discrimination and negative attitudes towards homosexual individuals have been widespread among different societies across the years. Religion plays a fundamental role in the development of an individual’s attitude towards homosexuality. One’s religious identity informs the values, beliefs, and attitudes they hold, as well as the behaviour they elicit towards homosexual individuals. Using hermeneutic phenomenology, the study aimed to explore the perceived attitudes and discriminatory behaviour of heterosexual individuals towards gay men that identify with the same religion, from the perspective of 12 gay men (six Christian and six Muslim) from different working industries within South Africa. The findings indicate that gay men from both Christian and Muslim religions experience negative attitudes and covert forms of discrimination from heterosexual colleagues identifying with the same religion. Although negative attitudes and discrimination occurred, there seems to be a slight shift in more accepting attitudes towards gay men in the workplace. The six themes identified for Christian gay men included tolerance, accepting attitudes, prejudice and stereotypical perceptions, bullying, and issues pertaining to company policy and practices...
M.Com. (Industrial Psychology)