Race, Religion, and Opposition to Same-Sex Marriage
Darren E. Sherkat, Southern Illinois University Carbondale
Kylan Mattias de Vries, Southern Illinois University Carbondale
Stacia Creek, Southern Illinois University CarbondaleObjective.
We examine racial differences in support for same-sex marriage, and test whether the emerging black-white gap is a function of religiosity. We explore how religious factors play a crucial role in racial differences, and how secular factors have varying effects on attitudes for whites and African Americans.
Methods.
Using data from the General Social Surveys, we estimate ordinal logistic regression models and stacked structural equation models. Results. We show that the racial divide is a function of African Americans’ ties to sectarian Protestant religious denominations and high rates of church attendance. We also show racial differences in the influenceof education and political values on opposition to same sex marriage.
Conclusions.
Religious factors are a source of racial differences in support for same-sex marriage,and secular influences play less of a role in structuring African Americans’ beliefs about same-sex marriage.
The success of California’s Proposition 8 in 2008 was a stunning blow to progress on marital equality for same-sex couples. In the wake of this renunciation of marriage rights established by a decision of the California Supreme Court, activists, pundits, and scholars have pondered various factors that may have contributed to the success of Proposition 8. Perhaps the most controversial explanation has been that African-American opposition to same-sex marriage combined with high voter turnout in the presidential election supporting Barack Obama sealed the passage of Proposition 8.
SOCIAL SCIENCE QUARTERLY, Volume 91, Number 1, March 2010
“Killing the Messenger”: Religious Black Gay Men’s Neutralization of Anti-Gay Religious Messages
RICHARD N. PITT
Sociology Department Vanderbilt University
I use cognitive dissonance theory as a framework to examine coping strategies used by men endeavoring to maintain a coherent sense of themselves as gay Christians. Using interviews with black gay Christian men, I uncover a strategy used to maintain that identity in the face of stigmatizing religious rhetoric. While these men have managedto reconcile their religious and sexual identities, sermons delivered by church leaders disrupt that reconciliation, causing them to have to neutralize these anxiety-inducing attitudes.
This study shows that they focus accusations of illegitimacy on the speaker rather than the doctrine by denigrating the speakers’ knowledge, morality, focus,and motivations. In this way, they neutralize the sting of churches’ negative messages by neutralizing the moral authority of the churches’ messengers. These findings offer new insight into how parishioners persist in religious communities in which their sexual behaviors or identities are condemned.
INTRODUCTION
I stopped wrestling with [being gay and Christian] some years ago once I realized that I’m no different than anyone else except for who I have sex with. God loves me the same as He does everyone else, you know? If itwere to cross my mind, it usually happened when I heard a minister condemning those who are living this lifestyle and I’d wonder how they can preach love and forgiveness and have no compassion for those who are different.
Not specifically targeted to LGBT issues but applicable none the less. Dr. Wright explains subconscious prejudice, finding excuses for prejudice, why tolerance isn’t enough and what leads to full inclusion. Again, if you don’t have time for the entire video, go to 28 minutes (but all of it is worth it).
About...
Geekgirl is a straight ally, a molecular biologist, a believer in pure, peer reviewed science. She also has many LGBT friends.
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