Determinants of Public Support for Same-Sex Marriage: Generational Cohorts, Social Contact, and Shifting Attitudes

This chapter discusses the two central theoretical questions that run throughout the story of Obergefell v. Hodges. It analyzes the proper role of the federal judiciary in a democracy and the role of politics and courts in creating and shaping constitutional meanings. It also explains how the work of social movements outside the courts and the work of litigators before the courts helped shape the constitutional understandings of the future. The chapter recounts public support for same-sex marriage that steadily increased as the opposition steadily declined until the two sides were roughly in equipoise around 2011. It talks about two contradictory stories about the role of courts in a democratic society, which are labelled as the Court as Mirror and the Court as Brick Wall.

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Differential fertility makes society more conservative on family values

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ◽

10.1073/pnas.1918006117 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 117 (14) ◽

pp. 7696-7701

Author(s):

Tom S. Vogl ◽

Jeremy Freese

Keyword(s):

Family Size ◽

Public Support ◽

General Social Survey ◽

Family Values ◽

Same Sex ◽

Differential Fertility ◽

Same Sex Marriage ◽

Traditional Family ◽

Evolutionary Forces ◽

Family Issues

Data from the General Social Survey indicate that higher-fertility individuals and their children are more conservative on “family values” issues, especially regarding abortion and same-sex marriage. This pattern implies that differential fertility has increased and will continue to increase public support for conservative policies on these issues. The association of family size with conservatism is specific to traditional-family issues and can be attributed in large part to the greater religiosity and lower educational attainment of individuals from larger families. Over the 2004 to 2018 period, opposition to same-sex marriage and abortion was 3 to 4 percentage points more prevalent than it would have been were traditional-family conservatism independent of family size in the current generation. For same-sex marriage, evolutionary forces have grown in relative importance as society as a whole has liberalized. As of 2018, differential fertility raised the number of US adults opposed to same-sex marriage by 17%, from 46.9 million to 54.8 million.

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Support for same-sex marriage after the Pulse nightclub shooting: Evidence from a quasi-experiment

10.31219/osf.io/64qm9 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Jack Thompson

Keyword(s):

Hispanic Americans ◽

Empirical Test ◽

Public Support ◽

Gun Control ◽

White Americans ◽

Same Sex ◽

Mass Shootings ◽

Same Sex Marriage ◽

Mass Shooting ◽

And Gender

Multiple studies find that exposure to news about mass shootings does little to increase public support for gun control. But are mass shootings able to shape public support for other policy preferences? In this paper, I conduct an empirical test of the effect of quasi-random exposure to news about the Pulse nightclub shooting – a mass shooting that occurred at an LGBTQ nightclub in Orlando, FL in June 2016 - on public support for same-sex marriage. Leveraging data from Wave 55 of The American Panel Survey (TAPS), I find that quasi-random exposure to news about the shooting increased public support for same sex-marriage by 10 points. Subgroup analyses indicate that the largest increases in support for same-sex marriage were among moderates, liberals and White Americans, while minimal increases in support were detected among conservatives and Hispanic Americans. The findings indicate that mass shootings may shape public support for policies that are related to victim characteristics such as sexual and gender identity, even if they do not shape broader support for gun control.

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The Political Foundations of Support for Same-Sex Marriage in Canada

Canadian Journal of Political Science ◽

10.1017/s0008423905040485 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 38 (4) ◽

pp. 841-866 ◽

Cited By ~ 16

Author(s):

J. Scott Matthews

Keyword(s):

Public Support ◽

The Political ◽

Equal Rights ◽

Same Sex ◽

Same Sex Marriage ◽

Legal Recognition ◽

Legislative Activity ◽

Political Foundations ◽

Election Studies ◽

The Impact

Abstract.Public support for legal recognition of same-sex marriage increased markedly in Canada over the course of the 1990s. The argument of this paper is that a sequence of Supreme Court decisions in the realm of same-sex relationship recognition—and the legislative activity that followed as a result—played a pivotal role in shaping public opinion on this issue. It is argued that the impact of these institutions was twofold. First, by framing the issue as one of equal rights, the courts and legislatures induced many Canadians to weigh equality-related considerations more heavily in the formation of opinions on same-sex marriage. Second, legal recognition of same-sex relationships directly persuaded many Canadians that such recognition was legitimate. The paper uses data from the Canadian Election Studies for 1993, 1997 and 2000.Résumé.Durant les années 1990 le soutien populaire aux mariages entre conjoints de même sexe s'est clairement renforcé. La thèse principale de cet article avance qu'une série de décisions de la Cour suprême portant sur les relations entre conjoints de même sexe, de même que les décisions adoptées par les pouvoirs législatifs en réponse à ces jugements, jouèrent un rôle crucial dans la formation de l'opinion publique sur ces questions. D'abord, en formulant le débat en termes d'égalité devant la loi, les appareils judiciaire et législatif ont amené les Canadiens à accorder plus de poids aux arguments liés à l'égalité dans leurs réflexions sur le sujet. En second lieu, la reconnaissance légale des unions entre conjoints de même sexe a persuadé les Canadiens de la légitimité de cette reconnaissance. Les conclusions de ce texte s'appuient sur les données des éditions d'Étude électorale canadienne de 1993, 1997 et 2000.

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