The Religious Dynamics of Decision Making on Gay Rights Issues in the U.S. House of Representatives, 1993–2002

Abstract

In recent decades, homosexuality has emerged as a truly national political issue. As a result, the U.S. Congress is increasingly called upon to consider and set policy on an array of issues related to the status of gay men and lesbians. This article investigates legislator decision making pertaining to gay issues in the U.S. House of Representatives. Specifically, we examine the effect of several indicators on legislator support for progressive gay policies, including ideology, partisanship, and the characteristics of district religious affiliation. We use additive indices of legislator support for progressive gay policies, and use logit and ordered logit to derive estimates of influence. The findings indicate that even while legislator partisanship and ideology largely structure decision making, legislators are also highly responsive to the presence of conservative Protestants and (to a lesser extent) Roman Catholics in their constituency.

Substantive Religious Representation in the U.S. Senate

“…A shift from Democratic to Republican Party affiliation translates into a roughly 66 percent increase in FRC support. This finding reinforces the conclusions reached by Fastnow, Grant, and Rudolph (1999), who find Republicans less likely to support abortion rights, as well as those of Oldmixon and Calfano (2007), who assert that Republicans are less likely to vote in favor of gay rights. That partisanship of senators is the most significant variable in our model is to be expected.…”

Current Explanations for the Variation in Same-Sex Marriage Policies in Western Countries

“…This does not mean that the US does not have any unique characteristics. In their study of the role of religion in political decision making on gay marriage in the US, Oldmixon and Calfano (2007) find that despite ideology and partisanship, legislators were highly influenced by conservative religious Protestants and Catholics in their districts. Thus, one major "exception" in the US is the work of a well-endowed, long enduring countermovement with political clout.…”

Voting from the Pew: The Effect of Senators' Religious Identities on Partisan Polarization in the U.S. Senate

“…The greatest temporal variation in a published study of religion in a legislature is 10 years from 1993 to 2002 (Oldmixon ; Oldmixon and Calfano ). However, in an unpublished paper, Asmussen () analyzed religious issue voting among Congressmen during the period 1955–2007 using the same data‐collection techniques that we have.…”