Newspaper Presentations of Homosexuality across Nations: Examining Differences by Religion, Economic Development, and Democracy

A lot of research attention has been devoted to understanding cross-national differences in attitudes about homosexuality. A key finding has been that richer, more democratic, and less religious nations are more supportive. However, aside from establishing these relationships, we know little about how public discourse about homosexuality differs across nations. To better understand how public discussions about sexual minorities are framed, this multimethods’ study examines over 800 newspaper articles from Muslim and Protestant-majority nations. Although there are no differences in the extent to which Muslim and Protestant nations discuss homosexuality in the context of religion, Muslim nations are more likely to frame homosexuality as a moral issue and use government claimsmakers. Very poor countries are also more likely to associate homosexuality with morality. Finally, more democratic nations are more likely to discuss homosexuality in the context of rights and include social movement leaders as claimsmakers.