Gay and Lesbian Families Well-Beeing: Respectively Ten and Seven years after the legalization of Same-sex Marriage and Same-sex Adoption in Belgium, understanding heterosexual adults' attitudes.

Belgium is one of the first European country to legalize marriage and adoption for same-sex couples (respectively in 2003 and 2006) and to state anti-discrimination laws (2008). Despite the legalization, what can we say about adults’ attitudes? This study is part of an international project, and aims at studying the attitudes towards different kind of same-sex constellations – single gays and lesbians, couples, and families – and at examining the correlates to those attitudes. Attitudes were assessed through self-report questionnaires in a cohort of 366 heterosexual participants resident in Belgium, 72% females and 28% males aged from 26 to 40 (age class corresponding to transition lifecycle and parenting choices). Participants were asked to answer socio-demographic questions and to self-report their contact with homosexual people (frequency and satisfaction). Then different scales assessed their attitudes toward homosexuality (General Attitudes Toward Homosexuality, Da Costa, 2011; ATLG, Herek), same-sex marriage (Katuzny Scale on Same-Sex Marriage, 2012) and different types of same¬-sex parenting – adoption, alternative insemination, in vitro, ovocyte donation (D’Amore & Green Homoparentality Scale, 2012). It is hypothesized that correlates to positive attitudes will be associated with female gender, lower religiosity, non-protestant religions, liberal political ideology, and higher education and socioeconomic status. This presentation contributes to a better understanding of Belgian’s attitudes toward same-sex couples and same-sex families, by measuring the predictive variables of positive and negative attitudes.