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I had experienced a public display of affection (PDA) before and also witnessed this phenomenon. PDA can be understood as the act of showing intimacy in public. Although the ways of showing affection are universally understood (kissing, touching, cuddling), the rules that apply to PDA differ depending on the groups of people. For example, socio-cultural context is a significant factor in how the public eye perceives PDA. Unfortunately, homophobic bias also plays a role in reacting to the couples public affection. Gay and transgender people are less likely to express their relationships in public to societal ostracization.
PDA intolerance towards LGBT people is common in the majority of world cultures. Cairns and Champagne (2002) conducted research where they evaluated peoples reception of PDA based on the sexual orientation of the couples. They presented three scenarios where a heterosexual couple, a gay couple, and a lesbian couple displayed an act of affection. The findings showed that people with more liberal attitudes towards displaying sexual attraction in public were more comfortable with the presented scenarios. Moreover, people who had little to no interactions with gay people expressed more homophobic attitudes towards gay and lesbian couples. Buck et al. (2019) conducted a similar experiment, where they established that the participants were most comfortable seeing a heterosexual couple romantically interact and less comfortable with a transgender couple.
However, the experiments above are all isolated scenarios, while in real life, the LGBT community is less likely to participate in PDA because of the associated marginalization. Kent and El-Alayli (2011) conducted a survey where they asked female participants in different- and same-sex relationships about how often they display intimacy in public. The results showed that women in same-sex relationships are less likely to engage in PDA due to feelings of marginalization. In conclusion, PDA can be considered a form of privilege that people in a heterosexual relationship have because their acts of public intimacy are not ostracized by society.
References
Buck, A. E., Lange, K. M., Sackett, K., & Edlund, J. E. (2019). Reactions to homosexual, transgender, and heterosexual public displays of affection. Journal of Positive Sexuality, 5(2). Web.
Cairns, T. T., & Champagne, M. M. (2002). The effects of gender and sexual orientation on the acceptability of public displays of affection. FSU Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 5(1), 4. Web.
Kent, E., & El-Alayli, A. (2011). Public and private physical affection differences between same-sex and different-sex couples: The role of perceived marginalization. Interpersona: An International Journal on Personal Relationships, 5(2), 149-167. Web.
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