Human Sexuality Final Project

Utah vs. German beliefs

Christina RandleCathy CareyFHS 2450July 19, 2012

My Project This semester I decided to create a

research project between the beliefs of Utahans and Germans on same sex couple raising children. I am from Utah and I live in Germany now. I interviewed five people from each location and asked them all the same set of questions. My findings are very interesting and I hope you can learn something from this.

Utahans

Germans

My Questions How old are you?

What would you consider your sexual orientation to be?

UtahSubjects

Age Orientation

1 63 Heterosexual

2 62 Heterosexual

3 21 Heterosexual

4 17 Heterosexual

5 42 Homosexual

Question #1

German Subjects

Age Orientation

1 33 Heterosexual

2 47 Heterosexual

3 20 Bisexual

4 19 Heterosexual

5 28 Heterosexual

Question #1

On a scale of 1-10 how comfortable are you around any individuals whose sexual orientation is not heterosexual? 10 being comfortable 0 will leave a room if an individual that is not heterosexual is in one.?

1 2 3 4 502468

10

How comfortable each Utahan feels

How com-fortable each Utahan feels

1 2 3 4 50

2

4

6

8

10

12

How comfortable Germans feels

How com-fortable Germans feels

Question #2

From my research done on the first question you can see that the people in Germany are more open to sexual orientations other than heterosexual. Most of my subjects from Utah reported that they were “okay with them as long as it is in a public setting.” The people in Germany seemed to be okay either way. The atmosphere in Germany is very different than in Utah. Utah is more conservative and Germans are a little of both conservatives ad liberals. The only difference is that the conservatives in Germany do not voice it as much. The subjects that I interviewed in Germany didn’t seem to care. They didn’t act like I had just screamed the word sex at the top of my lungs like the subjects in Utah did when I asked this question. It was very interesting to see the differences in beliefs and body language as well.

Thoughts on question #2

What are your views on same sex couples raising children?

Utah Subject

s

Their answers

1 She feels that same sex couples’ can parent children because of the divorce rates today of heterosexual parents are not any better. If they can give enough love and care to a child then they should be able to parent no matter their sexual orientation

2 He feels that the bible says two things, marriage is between a man and a women and that he who is never sin case the first stone.(which no one can because everyone sins.) He also thinks that it is not up to him to judge anyone else. Everyone needs to be treated like a human being no matter the life style.

Question #3

What are your views on same sex couples raising children?

Utahans

Utah Subject

s

Their answers

3 She feels that it is okay, she thinks that if they have the opportunity to do that then the couple really has a great and strong relationship and that it is okay for them to raise children.

4 Wouldn’t even answer the question. Was upset that I even asked it.

5 She prefer that heterosexuals raise children but she feels that there are certain situations where she would rather have a child go to a homosexual coupe than an orphanage.

What are your views on same sex couples raising children?

Germans

German

Subjects

Their answers

1 Her beliefs are that a man and a women were made to procreate children and that the mom and dad need to be in the home. For example if there were two women raising a son then how would they teach him to be a good father? She feels that people who are not heterosexual do not know who they are.

2 She thinks that if a couple is in love no matter what their orientation is they should be able to raise children just the same as everyone else as long as they teach their children good things.

3 He thinks that it should not happen, because kids need both a mother and a father, if they do not receive both sides of it then he doesn’t feel that they are raised correctly.

Question #3

What are your views on same sex couples raising children?

Germans

German

Subjects

Their answers

4 I don't think there's anything wrong with gay parenting.

5 As long as they are good parents, who cares about their living arrangements or who they choose to love? There are kids who are being raised by their grandparents, step-parents, siblings, aunt and uncle. Every living arrangement under the sun and people against gay marriage stated that "it's non-traditional" and that the kids will be bullied.

Question #3

Thoughts on question #3

Before conducting these interviews I was almost certain that I was going to get more conservative and negative views from the people in Utah but that was not the case. They were about the same when it came to the beliefs of both Utahans and Germans. It was a big eye opener for me.

Utah

Germany

Question #4

Do your views change if the child is invetro or adopted?

Would you rather a homo-sexual had an invetro child

or adopted?

Don't careInvetroAdoption

This pie chart represents both Germans and Utahans views on the question. It was about half and half on each side.

Question #5

What do you feel are the positives to same sex couples raising children?

Utahans Children without a home are

given to a loving family. More children will be able to

have a loving home and grow up into responsible citizens.

Teaches acceptance, and that love is unconditional

Less divorces in the gay community

I think both adopted and biological children have equal chances of being happy either in an heterosexual or in a gay or single parent family.

Germans

Gay couples offer adopted children two full-time parents.

There is a shortage of adoptive parents. The 'family', whether gay or straight, is better than the foster-care system.

To have a family that loves and supports the children.

Children get shelter, food and clothing.

More aware of prejudices

Negatives of gay parenting?

Utahans

Bullied in school. Depends on each family

and how they raise their children.

That they could be confused about their own sexual identity, they would have a lot of negative social pressure.

That it would just be really hard for the children to grow up although the world it changing.

Gender identity.

Germans

o Stupid people may make fun of the kids for having 2 moms or 2 dads.

o Just that a women with two dads would not be able to talk to her dads about puberty or her body. It is not the why it was meant to be.

o Having the child be confused themselves.

o Noneo The child having the chance

of going into an unhealthy family.

Questions #5 Part 2

Do you think the gender of the child should be the same as their parents or different?

Question #6

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Oppos

ite

Doesn

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Utahans opin-ionGermans opin-ion

Conclusions

My hypothesis was that Utahans were going to be more conservative and disagree with the questions about same sex parenting. The actual outcome as seen in my slides proves that there is both conservative and liberal people on both sides. Germans had some of the exact opinions on some questions. Even though most Germans are not Mormon they are religious and most religions do not agree with homosexual marriage or parenting. I loved this assignment and I learned many new views on the topic.

THE ENDChristina Randle

Cathy CareyFHS 2450

July 19, 2012