2.3.4. Internalized Heterosexism

The Measure of Internalized Sexual Stigma for Lesbians and Gay Men (MISS-LG) [39] is a 17-item questionnaire that assesses the negative attitudes of LG people towards homosexuality and specific aspects of themselves. A final score is achieved through three dimensions: (1) identity, or rather the enduring propensity to have negative self-attitudes (e.g., "I'd prefer to be heterosexual"); (2) social discomfort, that is the fear of publicly identifying as a LG individual, disclosure at work and in one's personal life, and negative beliefs about the religious, political, and moral acceptability of nonheterosexual orientation (e.g., "I'm careful of what I wear and what I say to avoid showing my homosexuality"); and (3) sexuality, or rather negative attitudes towards other LG individuals, and negative evaluation of same-sex relationships and sexual behaviors in LG people (e.g., "I don't believe in love between homosexuals"). The response options ranged from "I disagree" to "I agree" on a five-point Likert scale. The internal consistency reliability of the entire scale was α = 0.80 for the lesbian form and α = 0.81 for the gay man form. We used the total score of the scale, as done by other authors [51]. Higher scores indicate greater internalized heterosexism.
