Health care professionals' attitudes toward lesbian women and gay men

The purpose of this paper is to examine health care workers' attitudes toward lesbian women and gay men before and after the AIDS epidemic. Fifty-one studies which assessed attitudes using paper and pencil instruments were examined. Attitudes were assessed using primarily cognitive and affective questions about homosexuality, lesbian women, gay men, and AIDS patients. Less than 50% of the studies reported any evaluation of validity and reliability issues. Characteristics of subjects with more negative views and factors influencing responses are presented.