Democratic Values, Religiosity, and Support for Same-Sex Marriage in Latin America

Abstract

Latin America has been at the forefront of the expansion of rights for same‐sex couples. Proponents of same‐sex marriage frame the issue as related to human rights and democratic deepening; opponents emphasize morality tied to religious values. Elite framing shapes public opinion when frames resonate with individuals’ values and the frame source is deemed credible. Using surveys in 18 Latin American countries in 2010 and 2012, this article demonstrates that democratic values are associated with support for same‐sex marriage while religiosity reduces support, particularly among strong democrats. The tension between democratic and religious values is particularly salient for women, people who live outside the capital city, and people who came of age during or before democratization.

Dealigned or Still Salient? Religious‐Secular Divisions in Chilean Presidential Elections

“…As more people come to adopt post‐material value systems, issues of personal choice and morality such as abortion and extending marriage rights to same‐sex couples enter the issue agenda. In keeping with this argument, we see that opinion on issues like abortion (Rossi and Triunfo, 2012; Palermo, Infante Erazo and Hurtado Pinochet, 2015; Küng et al, 2018) and same‐sex marriage (Dion and Díez, 2017; Navarro et al, 2019) divides along religious‐secular lines in several countries in Latin America. Because religious groups holding more traditional value systems tend to oppose policy liberalisation on these issues, divisions between religious and secular may persist or even intensify, polarising voters along religious and secular lines (Hildebrandt and Jäckle, 2019; Navarro et al, 2019).…”

New Media and Support for Same-Sex Marriage

“…In Latin America, national debates about the right to SSM are often framed by gay and lesbian activists and allies as an issue of human rights and democratic values (Díez 2015). Previous research has established that those who express support for democracy and democratic values are more likely to support SSM in Latin America (Dion and Díez 2017). We include an indicator for support for democracy that measures the extent to which respondents agree that despite its problems, democracy is the best form of government, on a seven-point scale, which is a most common measure of respondents' commitment to democracy and has been found to be highly correlated with other measures of democratic values (Córdova and Seligson 2010;Seligson 2007).…”

Modelling Diffusion through Statistical Network Analysis: A Simulation Study

“…Religiosity can slow down the speed at which same-sex marriage or union policies can become law in a nation, as is exemplified by specific types of religions constantly reinforcing ideologies against homosexuality depending on level of church attendance (Kollman, 2007;Hooghe and Meeusen, 2013). Specific types of religions depicting homosexuality in negative ways repeatedly overtime can create a public disapproval of same-sex marriage, preventing the policy to diffuse from one nation to another (Beer and Cruz-Aceves, 2018;Dion and Díez, 2017). This could be why highly religious nations like Ireland and the United States took longer to adopt same-sex marriage than low religious nations like the Netherlands (Hildebrandt, Trüdinger and Jäckle, 2017).…”