LGBT Americans Research Articles

The Influence of Religious Affiliation on the Political Views of LGBT Americans

AbstractWith a nationally representative, repeated cross‐sectional sample of over 250,000 Americans from 2016 to 2019, we investigate the role that religious and LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) identities play in influencing Americans’ political attitudes, centering the narratives of religious LGBT Americans. We find that nearly half of LGBT Americans affiliate religiously. Logistic regressions show that identifying as religious is related to more conservative views on LGBT rights and abortion while identifying as LGBT is related to more liberal views on both of these issues. We failed to observe interaction effects, suggesting that religious affiliation influences LGBT individuals’ political views in a manner similar to the way it influences cisgender, heterosexual individuals’ views. Comparisons of the variation accounted for by religious or LGBT identities show that religious affiliation more frequently accounted for more variation in political views.

Exploration of Demographic Differences in Past and Anticipated Future Care Experiences of Older Sexual Minority Adults.

Care experiences of sexual minority (SM) adults are largely characterized by the need for receiving care and providing care to their chosen family. This is due, in part, to the lack of family and social support and higher rates of health disparities. Using data from the "Maintaining Dignity: Understanding and Responding to the Challenges Facing Older LGBT Americans" AARP survey (N = 1694), we examined factors associated with past and anticipated future care experiences among older SMs. Older SM individuals reported high rates of providing care (70%), anticipating future provision of care (71%), and needing care from a loved one (73%). Being older, identifying as female, and having a disability were highly associated with past care experiences. Being female, being in a relationship, and having better self-rated health were highly associated with future anticipated care experiences. These outcomes indicate the importance of having services that are inclusive in serving the SM community.

Care Experiences and Expectations of Older Sexual Minority Adults

Sexual minority (SM) adults have unique care needs and experiences, partially because they receive and give care by and to “chosen family”. This study examines the care experiences and expectations of diverse SM adults. Using data from the 2018 AARP Survey “Maintaining Dignity: Understanding and Responding to the Challenges Facing Older LGBT Americans,” logistic and ordinal regressions were conducted to examine associations with care experiences (i.e., provided caregiving and received caregiving) and care expectations (i.e., likelihood of having to provide care and need care) among SM respondents. Gender was highly associated with care experiences, with female respondents being 70% and 74% more likely to have provided caregiving [OR:1.71, SE=.26; p<0.001] and received caregiving [OR:1.74, SE=.22; p< 0.001]. Relationship status was significantly associated with care expectations, with those who were married/civil union/domestic being 4 times [OR:4.0, SE=.52; p<0.001] and those in a relationship being 3 times [OR:3.3, SE=.51; p<0.001] more likely to expect that they will provide care in the future. Those same respondents had a 64% [OR:1.64, SE=.21, p<0.001] and 55% [OR:1.55, SE=.23, p<0.01] greater odds of reporting being “very likely” that they will need care in the future. Additionally, older age, being a racial minority, having higher education, and being employed were significantly and positively associated with care experiences and expectations. These findings provide a deeper insight into how SM individuals of different backgrounds experience and anticipate different aspects of caregiving. Moreover, we will discuss how our findings compare to non-SM individuals and implications of these findings.

Voter Registration Rates and Traits by Sexual Orientation and Gender Expression

AbstractStudies of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people suggest that they are more politically engaged and active compared to cisgender and heterosexual people. However, knowing the voter registration rates of eligible LGBT Americans has been elusive because the U.S. Census Bureau does not document sexual orientation or gender identity in the Current Population Survey and existing estimates are limited based on small sample sizes or on self-reports, which have social desirability biases. The 2016 and 2018 Cooperative Congressional Election Survey merges respondents to their official voter status as contained in state voter files, which overcomes biases in self-reported registration status. We provide demographics and estimates of voter registration rates by sexual orientation and gender expression. Many gaps in registration rates are attributable to demographic differences between groups, though lesbians and gay men were registered at greater rates than heterosexuals even after adjusting for demographics. Transgender Americans were the least likely to be registered to vote, though this may be due to the vote-validation process itself.

Political Distinctiveness and Diversity Among LGBT Americans

AbstractAt least partly due to data limitations, academic analyses of public opinion rarely acknowledge lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) identities. Our models of political attitudes almost always overlook respondents’ sexual orientation and gender identities, and targeted research on the views of LGBT people is uncommon. This omission has obscured both the distinctiveness of LGBT Americans and the diversity within the group. Using recent large-N surveys, this article shows that LGBT Americans are distinctively liberal compared to otherwise similar straight and cisgender respondents—in their general political predispositions, electoral choices, and attitudes on a wide range of policy matters. At the same time, there is substantial diversity within the community—bisexual and transgender respondents are frequently less liberal than lesbians and gay men. Analysis of intersecting identities reveals substantial differences between bisexual men and bisexual women, but little evidence of diversity based on gender within lesbian/gay and transgender subgroups. Given these findings, public opinion scholars should routinely incorporate measures of LGBT identities in their analyses, alongside race, gender, class, and other politically salient respondent characteristics.

Anchoring More than Babies: Children's Rights after Obergefell v. Hodges

The Supreme Court’s recent decision upholding a constitutional right to same sex marriage in Obergefell v. Hodges was a huge advance not just for LGBT Americans, but also for children. Obergefell suggests children have a fundamental right to be raised by their parents without being demeaned or marginalized by the state. This has important implications for other vulnerable children, including U.S. citizen children with undocumented parents. This Article argues that deporting these children’s parents contravenes their fundamental right to be raised by a loving parent, to equal protection of the law, and to remain in the United States as U.S. citizens. It explains the important shift in perspective on children’s rights suggested by the Obergefell decision and its implications for children with undocumented parents. It describes the current situation confronting U.S. citizen children whose parents lack legal immigration status and the unconstitutional harm they suffer when their parents are deported. It notes that three important constitutional rights are implicated: children’s substantive due process right to be raised by their parents, their right to equal protection of the laws, and their right under the Privileges and Immunities Clause to live in the United States. Finally, the Article discusses procedures to protect the rights of U.S. citizen children with undocumented parents. It concludes that executive action to prevent the deportation of parents of U.S. citizen children is clearly warranted. Given the fundamental rights of children that are at stake, the Article contends that mechanisms to prevent the deportation of U.S. citizen children’s parents are not only lawful, but perhaps constitutionally required.

Aint Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around: Black LGBT Sociopolitical Involvement

Over the past decade, progress in the social and political climate among LGBT Americans has been impressive. However, are all subgroups experiencing that process equally? More specifically, for example, what is the sociopolitical involvement of Black LGBT people within the mainstream (White) community? Using a national sample of LGBT Black people (N=1,363), this article examines the relative importance of a variety of characteristics in understanding Black LGBT respondent's sociopolitical involvement. Hierarchical regression modeling revealed that being comfortable within the larger LGBT community, gender, age, sexual identity, and relationship status all proved to be significant. The implications of these findings are discussed regarding future research with Black LGBT populations.

The Colorblind Rainbow: Whiteness in the Gay Rights Movement

ABSTRACT Discourse on “identity politics” tends to treat political minority identities as distinct entities, discussing them as if an individual is either black or a woman or LGBT, etc. This separates race and sexuality in a way that, supported by white homonormativity and a possessive investment in whiteness, renders the LGBT community “white” despite racial diversity. This masks the ways that the policy preferences of LGBT individuals are structured along racial lines and hinders inter-minority coalition building. Utilizing a Pew Research Center dataset of LGBT Americans collected in 2013, I show that race is significantly correlated with economic policy preferences and perceptions of racial discrimination. While a majority of white LGBT Americans hold liberal positions, the significant differences between white and nonwhite individuals and the well-documented self-reports of experiences of racism by nonwhite LGBT Americans, suggest that white LGBT Americans must actively address the question of race in order to build successful coalitions.

Bureaucratic Responsiveness to LGBT Americans

AbstractMarriage rights were extended to same‐sex couples in the United States in 2015. However, anecdotes of bureaucratic noncompliance (in the form of bias or denial of license issuance) raise the possibility that de jure marriage equality has not led to equality in practice. We investigate this by conducting a nationwide audit experiment of local‐level marriage license–granting officials in the United States. These officials vary in the constituencies they serve, as well as how they are selected, allowing us to evaluate long‐standing hypotheses about bureaucratic responsiveness. Overall, we find no evidence of systematic discrimination against same‐sex couples—regardless of responsiveness measure, institutions, ideology, or prior state legal history. We find, however, that among same‐sex couples, officials tended to be more responsive to lesbian couples. In contrast to evidence in other areas of service provision, such as policing and federal assistance programs, we find bureaucrats tasked with provision of marriage services show little evidence of discrimination.

Conexión a la Comunidad: Latinx LGBT Feelings of Connectedness

Abstract Over the past decade, progress among LGBT Americans has been impressive. However, are all subgroups experiencing that process equally? More specifically, for example, how connected to the larger/majority (white) LGBT community do Latinx LGBTs feel? Using a national sample of LGBT Latinx people (N=1,159), this article examines the relative importance of a variety of characteristics in understanding connectedness to the larger LGBT community. Hierarchical regression modeling reveals that racial salience and comfort in the LGBT community, LGBT activism, sexual orientation identity, nativity, and city residency all have a significant impact. The implications of these findings are discussed regarding future research with Latinx LGBT populations.

Why the Religious Right Can't Have Its (Straight Wedding) Cake and Eat It Too: Breaking the Preservation-Through-Transformation Dynamic in Masterpiece Cakeshop V. Colorado Civil Rights Commission

This term, the U.S. Supreme Court will consider the most significant LGBT-rights case since it recognized marriage equality: Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission. While the case is framed as a First Amendment case—whether antidiscrimination law, as applied to secular, for-profit business with Christian owners who oppose same-sex marriage on religious grounds, violates the owners’ Free Exercise and Free Speech rights—there is a secondary and subordinate argument lurking just below the surface, one that presents a risk of great harm to LGBT Americans if it is not exposed and rejected by the Court. This essay exposes that argument as one that is nothing more than a modernized version of the “status-conduct” argument—an argument used three decades ago to justify the Court’s decision in Bowers v. Hardwick and to deny LGBT Americans the protection of the law in all realms of life. The Religious Right has modernized the status-conduct argument in the seemingly neutral garb of the exalted American values of free speech and religious freedom: Christian business owners are not discriminating based on the status of the gay or lesbian customers when refusing same-sex wedding goods and services, but rather are refusing to participate in conduct—the act of marriage. We should not be fooled: In using this old trope in new garb, the Religious Right is attempting to achieve what Professor Reva Siegel calls “transformation-through-preservation”—a dynamic through which a group that opposes civil rights reform modernizes its rhetoric after a civil rights victory in an effort to maintain unequal status regimes. The Religious Right’s modernized status-conduct argument attempts to hide its real goal—ushering in an era of Gay Jim Crow. The essay urges the Court to expose and reject the Religious Right’s attempt at preservation-through-transformation. Failure to do so will preserve anti-equality status regimes by denying formal equality to LGBT Americans and will undermine the legitimacy of the Court’s prior LGBT-rights cases and thus the legitimacy of the Court itself.

Why the Religious Right Can't Have its (Straight Wedding) Cake and Eat it Too: Breaking the Preservation-Through-Transformation Dynamic in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission

This term, the U.S. Supreme Court will consider the most significant LGBT-rights case since it recognized marriage equality: Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission. While the case is framed as a First Amendment case—whether antidiscrimination law, as applied to secular, for-profit business with Christian owners who oppose same-sex marriage on religious grounds, violates the owners’ Free Exercise and Free Speech rights—there is a secondary and subordinate argument lurking just below the surface, one that presents a risk of great harm to LGBT Americans if it is not exposed and rejected by the Court. This essay exposes that argument as one that is nothing more than a modernized version of the “status-conduct” argument—an argument used three decades ago to justify the Court’s decision in Bowers v. Hardwick and to deny LGBT Americans the protection of the law in all realms of life. The Religious Right has modernized the status-conduct argument in the seemingly neutral garb of the exalted American values of free speech and religious freedom: Christian business owners are not discriminating based on the status of the gay or lesbian customers when refusing same-sex wedding goods and services, but rather are refusing to participate in conduct—the act of marriage. We should not be fooled: In using this old trope in new garb, the Religious Right is attempting to achieve what Professor Reva Siegel calls “transformation-through-preservation”—a dynamic through which a group that opposes civil rights reform modernizes its rhetoric after a civil rights victory in an effort to maintain unequal status regimes. The Religious Right’s modernized status-conduct argument attempts to hide its real goal—ushering in an era of Gay Jim Crow. The essay urges the Court to expose and reject the Religious Right’s attempt at preservation-through-transformation. Failure to do so will preserve anti-equality status regimes by denying formal equality to LGBT Americans and will undermine the legitimacy of the Court’s prior LGBT-rights cases and thus the legitimacy of the Court itself.

Their Own Received Them Not: Black LGBT Feelings of Connectedness

Over the past decade, social progress among LGBT Americans has been impressive. However, are all subgroups experiencing that process equally? More specifically, for example, how connected to the larger/majority (White) LGBT community do Black LGBTs feel? Using a national sample of LGBT Black people (N=1,350), this article examines the relative importance of a variety of characteristics in understanding connectedness to the larger LGBT community. Hierarchical regression modeling reveals that racial salience and comfort in LGBT community, LGBT activism, gender, age, and sexual orientation identity all have a significant impact. The implications of these findings are discussed regarding future research with Black LGBT populations.

U.S. Attitudes Toward Lesbian and Gay People are Better than Ever

The large-scale increase in attitudes toward LGBT americans has outpaced change on other social dimensions like race and immigration status.

LGBT health and vaccinations: Findings from a community health survey of Lexington-Fayette County, Kentucky, USA

Data on adult immunization coverage at the state level and for LGBT Americans in particular are sparse. This study reports the results of a 2012 Lexington-Fayette County, Kentucky, community health assessment's results asking about eight adult vaccinations among 218 lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered (LGBT) respondents. Researchers collected data using an online survey distributed through LGBT social media, posters, and LGBT print media. The LGBT sample largely matches the demographics of the county as a whole except this group reports higher level of education and fewer uninsured individuals. Among LGBT respondents, immunization prevalence reaches 68.0% (annual Influenza), 65.7% (Hepatitis B), 58.8% (Chickenpox/Varicella), 55.9% (Hepatitis A), 41.2% (Smallpox), and 25.8% (Pneumonia). Among respondents who are currently within the recommended 19–26 years age range for the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, the LGBT females are less likely to report receiving the vaccine (15.4%) compared to the national coverage percentage of 34.5%. Males, however, are more likely to have received the vaccine (10.3%) than the national percentage of 2.3%. The small number of LGBT seniors in the study report a much higher prevalence of the Shingles (Herpes Zoster) vaccines than for U.S. seniors 60 and older (71.4% compared to 20.1% nationally). LGBT respondents report higher percentages of adult vaccination.

Networked publics: How connective social media use facilitates political consumerism among LGBT Americans

ABSTRACTWe test whether connective use of social media mobilizes individuals to engage in political consumerism. Analyzing data from a 2013 survey of LGBT adults (N = 1,197), we find that those who use social media for connective activities, (e.g., to meet new LGBT friends, discuss LGBT issues), are significantly more likely to engage in boycotts or buycotts to promote equality. We find significant interactions between connective social media use and political interest. Specifically, connective social media use mobilizes people with low levels of political interest to participate and reinforces the likelihood that people with high levels of political interest participate.

There's No T in Fair?

Abstract The Committee on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender History's scholarly Making the Framework FAIR report (2014) recommends substantial revisions to California's K–12 History–Social Science Framework in order to bring it into compliance with the FAIR Education Act. The law, passed in 2011, mandates inclusion of the roles and contributions of LGBT Americans and people with disabilities in the state's primary and secondary school US history education. To date, efforts to get state agencies, school districts, and educators to fully implement the FAIR Education Act have been insufficient, particularly in relation to transgender history. As the state undergoes History–Social Science Framework revision, it should adopt the transgender-inclusive changes suggested by Making the Framework FAIR report for grades two, four, five, eight, and eleven. This represents a golden opportunity to create comprehensive and lasting change across elementary, middle, and high school, in California and beyond.

Past overdue!: Protections for LGBT Americans in the workplace

Past overdue!: Protections for LGBT Americans in the workplace

Transcultural marketing: building customer relationships in multicultural America

1. Crossing Cultural Borders at Home: Transmigration 2. Who Do You Want to Be Today? Choosing Products, Creating Identities 3. Transcultural Marketing: Developing a Cultural Values Proposition 4. U.S. Hispanics: Cultural Roots Unite a Diverse Group 5. Age Differences Create Unique Consumer Subcultures 6. African Americans: Ethnic Roots, Cultural Diversity 7. Sexual Orientation as Community Boundary: LGBT Americans 8. Asian Americans: Realizing the Asian-American Dream

Will Marriage Equality Make a Difference in the Health of LGBT Americans?

Will Marriage Equality Make a Difference in the Health of LGBT Americans?