New Study – Gay Rights in the States: Public Opinion and Policy Responsiveness
Using national surveys and advances in opinion estimation for studying the effects of policy-specific public opinion on state adoption of policies affecting gays and lesbians, and the factors that condition this relationship, Jeffrey R. Lax and Justin H. Phillips from the Department of Political Science, Columbia University study eight policies of particular importance to the gay rights movement: same-sex marriage, civil unions, adoption by gay parents, hate crimes laws, employment and housing non-discrimination laws, domestic-partner health benefits, and sodomy laws, seeking to explain responsiveness variation across states, in terms of ideology, interest group pressure, and institutional features of the state government.
The result are not far from what one could expect:
“Seven states cross the 50% mark overall as of our current estimates, but the generation gap is huge. If policy were set by state-by-state majorities of those 65 or older, none would allow same-sex marriage. If policy were set by those under 30, only 12 states would not allow-same-sex marriage.” (Jeff Lax)
Read the study and download the PDF here.
