Publications and Research
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2021
Abstract
Americans’ acceptance of same-sex sexual relations and their willingness to restrict the civil liberties of sexual minorities vary substantially across both time and place even as overall trends have been towards more liberalizing stances. Yet few quantitative studies have explored both the individual and contextual religious factors shaping Americans’ views and none have applied such an analysis to examining attitudes over time. Using hierarchical ordered logistic modeling and time-year interactions with 1973–2016 General Social Survey data, we examine whether the religious characteristics of residents and the contexts in which they reside moderated Americans’ liberalizing attitudes over time. We find that more religiously engaged people, those who belonged to evangelical and Black protestant faiths, as well as those living in areas with higher overall levels of religious attendance changed their moral perspective about same-sex relations at a lesser rate over time. However, we do not find similar moderating influences of religious factors for explaining Americans’ willingness to restrict the civil liberties of individuals identifying as homosexual. We frame these findings relative to the morality and equality discourses permeating the culture and the concerted efforts of the Christian Right to influence public opinion and policy since the 1970s.
Included in
Gender and Sexuality Commons, Inequality and Stratification Commons, Other Sociology Commons, Politics and Social Change Commons, Quantitative, Qualitative, Comparative, and Historical Methodologies Commons, Social Psychology and Interaction Commons, Sociology of Religion Commons
Comments
This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Laura Moore, Amy Adamczyk, J. Michael Ryan, and Seth Ovadia. 2021. “Shifting Religious Influences on Attitudes Towards Same-Sex Behavior and Civil Liberties: A Multilevel Across-Time Analysis.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 60: 400-423, which has been published in final form at https://doi-org.ez.lib.jjay.cuny.edu/10.1111/jssr.12718. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions. This article may not be enhanced, enriched or otherwise transformed into a derivative work, without express permission from Wiley or by statutory rights under applicable legislation. Copyright notices must not be removed, obscured or modified. The article must be linked to Wiley’s version of record on Wiley Online Library and any embedding, framing or otherwise making available the article or pages thereof by third parties from platforms, services and websites other than Wiley Online Library must be prohibited.