Support For Marriage Equality Research Articles

Undergraduate students' attitudes towards marriage equality: Changes in an introductory family science course

This study explored undergraduate students’ changes in attitudes toward marriage equality in an introductory family science course. Students enrolled in the course were exposed to teaching activities centered largely around prejudice and discrimination to examine their effectiveness in facilitating the development of more positive attitudes toward marriage quality. The results of quantitative analyses revealed that substantial numbers of students became more supportive of marriage equality over time in this course. Qualitative analyses of written open-ended student responses utilizing the constant comparative method resulted in three emergent themes: support of marriage equality, increased understanding of marriage equality, and opposition to marriage equality. Collectively, the findings of this exploratory study indicate that the teaching method utilized was effective in fostering the development of more positive attitudes toward marriage equality. Implications for future research, replication, and adaptation in other disciplines are discussed.

The role of religion in explaining the relationship between sexual prejudice and the rejection of marriage equality

ABSTRACT Support for marriage equality (i.e. extending the privilege of marriage beyond heterosexual couples) is gaining global momentum as evidenced by the increase of countries introducing related legislation, yet little research has attempted to understand factors predicting the rejection of marriage equality. In this paper, we explore the multi-faceted role of religion in explaining the relationship between sexual prejudice and the rejection of marriage equality. Specifically, we explored the role of religious affiliation (i.e. religious-group membership; Study 1: n= 81) and multiple forms of religiosity (i.e. trait-like conceptualisations; Study 2: n= 168) in explaining the rejection of marriage equality beyond variance accounted for by simple sexual prejudice. As expected, negative attitudes towards marriage equality were related to being higher in sexual prejudice and religious fundamentalism, being lower in Quest, and being Christian (vs. non-religious). In addition, both religious fundamentalism and intrinsic religiosity moderated the marriage equality rejection-sexual prejudice relationship. Importantly, in multiple regression analyses, religious affiliation did not predict the rejection of marriage equality, and religious fundamentalism was the only significant religiosity predictor. Taken together, religiosity emerged as a more useful quantification of religion than religious affiliation in the context of explaining the rejection of marriage equality.

Conceptualising organisational cultural lag: Marriage equality and Australian sport

This article develops a theoretical framework to understand how sexuality can be institutionalised through debates about marriage equality. We first examine 13 Australian sporting organisations concerning their support for marriage equality and sexual minority inclusion before showing they drew cultural capital from supporting episodes of equality exogenous to their organisation, while failing to promote internal inclusion. We use online content analysis alongside the identification of institutional speech acts within policy to analyse results through three conceptual lenses: Ahmed’s institutional diversity work, Ogburn’s cultural lag, and Evan’s organisational lag, from which we propose a hybrid – organisational cultural lag – as a theoretical tool within social movement theory.

Social contact with same-sex married couples and support for marriage equality: evidence from Argentina

ABSTRACT Personal interaction with lesbians and gays is associated with greater support for lesbian and gay rights, but the effects of contact with married same-sex couples have not been studied. Using original data from Argentina in 2015, we address this gap by measuring the association between direct contact with married gays and lesbians and attitudes toward Same-Sex Marriage (SSM), while controlling for alternative explanations of the association. We also examine how the association between contact and attitudes varies across subpopulations and present evidence to address concerns about causality and robustness to alternative specifications. Contact with married same-sex couples has a normalizing effect on attitudes toward lesbian and gay rights, particularly among some groups that are otherwise less likely to be supportive.

Investigating inappropriate and missing sexual orientation question responses in a New Zealand national survey.

Questions about sexual orientation are increasingly utilized in population-based surveys. The New Zealand Attitudes and Values Study (NZAVS), a national probability longitudinal panel, used an open-ended measure which asked participants to describe their sexual orientation in their own words. The resulting data allowed us to explore 3 waves of missing responses in the NZAVS (Ns = 13,944 -18,261). We examined the demographics, attitudes, and sexual orientation identities of those who provided an answer outside of the scope of the question (8.9%), or did not answer the question (10.8%). Encouragingly, we found that missing data decreased 5.5% over 2 years. Those who were coded as missing at 1 wave but provided an answer on others tended to identify as heterosexual at higher rates than the rest of the sample. Additionally, the vast majority of those with missing data at all 3 time points reported that they were in relationships with someone of a different gender. Finally, we found that gender, ethnicity, nation of birth, response mode, education, parental status, socioeconomic status, and support for marriage equality predicted differences in response type. Our results suggest that there are systematic differences between those willing to answer sexual orientation questions and those who cannot or will not.

Explaining the Australian marriage equality vote: An aggregate-level analysis

The Australian public voted in November 2017 in favour of changing the law to allow for same-sex marriage – only the second such national popular vote after Ireland in 2015. Though 61.6% of the Australian public voting in the Marriage Law Postal Survey voted Yes in support of marriage equality, this support was not uniformly distributed across the country, with support at the electoral division level varying between 26.1% and 83.7%. What, then, explains such variation in support for same-sex marriage among the Australian public? In this article, we advance an aggregate, electoral division-level explanation of the Yes vote that links support for the legalisation of same-sex marriage to a set of local-level political and socio-demographic factors.

Predicting support for marriage equality in Australia

ObjectiveThe marriage equality debate is becoming increasingly prominent in Australian political and media discourse. Moreover, as policy that would legislate marriage equality continues to be debated in political circles, public opinion on the topic appears to be becoming increasingly divided. This article presents a cross‐sectional study exploring predictors of support for marriage equality.MethodA sample of 137 Australians (66% females) responded to a series of demographic items, a measure of attitudes towards gay men and lesbian women, and a forced‐choice question asking whether or not they would support marriage between two people—regardless of their gender.ResultsThe results revealed that support for marriage equality in this sample was predicted by religious affiliation, political orientation, and sexual prejudice. More specifically, individuals in support of marriage equality were more likely to be non‐religious, politically liberal, and have more positive attitudes towards gay men (attitudes towards lesbian women were unrelated to support for marriage equality). Age and gender did not predict support for marriage equality.ConclusionsSupport for marriage equality in Australia can be predicted by social attitudes and demographic variables. These findings are discussed in terms of the implications of maintaining the legal status quo, which mandates marriage inequality.

Allure of the Abroad: Tiffany & Co., Its Cultural Influence, and Consumers

Allure of the Abroad: Tiffany & Co., Its Cultural Influence, and Consumers

Is Same-Sex Marriage an Equality Issue? Framing Effects Among African Americans

Public opinion about gay rights is often shaped by egalitarian values. While the extant literature has suggested that African Americans’ value structure tends to be very egalitarian, many popular media accounts as well as some scholarly research indicate that Blacks have, at times, opposed gay rights. We assert that when the media frame gay rights as equality issues, Blacks are more likely to rely on egalitarianism to form their opinions. We use content analysis to show that equality framing of gay rights dramatically increased in 2012, and we use national survey data to show that Blacks’ support for marriage equality also precipitously rose beginning in 2012. Then, we use data from an original framing experiment to show that exposure to an equality frame does, indeed, encourage Blacks to be more reliant on their egalitarian values to form an opinion about same-sex marriage and to be more supportive of the policy.

Playing Neoliberal Politics: Post-Racial and Post-Racist Strategies in “Same Love”

ABSTRACTThis essay argues that marriage equality discourses have successfully been used not only to advance GLBTQ rights but as a vehicle for re-securing neoliberalism after the 2008 Great Recession. Specifically, this essay analyzes how Macklemore and Ryan Lewis's “Same Love” (featuring Mary Lambert) supports neoliberalism by forwarding antiblackness and circumscribed political subjectivities while urging support for marriage equality. Through appeals to minimization, multiracialism, and inverting oppression, “Same Love” demonstrates how avowedly progressive texts can simultaneously impede the freer and fairer world the text supposedly promotes.

LGBT Psychiatric Leaders Reflect on Landmark Supreme Court Ruling

LGBT Psychiatric Leaders Reflect on Landmark Supreme Court Ruling

Before the Bride Really Wore Pink

Before the Bride Really Wore Pink