No abstract

Global attitudes involving homosexuality are changing rapidly. Tolerance toward lesbian and gay relationships has increased in almost every continent. More often than not, younger people have been at the forefront of this change. In this article, we explore explanations for this cross-national phenomenon. Specifically, we test to see whether contextual factors, those that allow lesbian women and gay men to freely express themselves or to gain cultural representation in the media, have driven this transformation. The results show that inter-cohort effects, or more liberal attitudes among younger people, are related to the pervasiveness of a nation’s mass media and to the presence of press freedom. This research suggests a strong link between increasing mass support for minority rights and the factors that encourage and allow minorities to express their viewpoints to others. These findings have broad implications, in that they help us understand the growing global acceptance around gay rights.

This article is concerned with the question of why lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans (LGBT) rights legislation is introduced at higher levels in some cases and less so in others. To address this puzzle, the article analyzes changes in LGBT rights legislation across European Union (EU) member states between 1970 and 2009. It focuses on the diffusion of five different categories of such legislation (anti-discrimination, criminal law, partnership, parenting rights, and equal sexual offenses provisions) to new EU member states in Central and Eastern Europe, compared with diffusion patterns in older EU member states. I argue that new-adopter states are more dependent on international resources for making new issues visible and are more inclined to see policy adoption as a means to gain external legitimacy and improve reputation. The analysis reveals that the transnational embeddedness of a state's LGBT advocacy organizations is a powerful statistical explanation for successful policy diffusion to new EU member states, alongside international channels that lead to LGBT visibility among society and state authorities. In addition to lending cross-national, empirical reinforcement to some of the theoretical expectations regarding the international sources of diffusion, the results suggest variability in the determinants of LGBT policy adoption between the 15 old and 12 new EU states. Domestic factors, particularly economic modernization, are more relevant for policy adoption in the older member states, whereas the newer member states display greater dependence on transnational actors and are more influenced by international channels.

This article builds on previous research on Europeanization and political opportunity structures (POS) for mobilization, to explore the processes of transnational LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender) mobilization in the European Union (EU). In the case of LGBT activism, European integration affects contentious politics by altering POS -both vertically and horizontally -for mobilization and changing the tactics of LGBT activism. Using the cases of Germany and Poland to trace cross-border connections between norm entrepreneur and target state, the findings suggest that LGBT activism relies on transnational resources -primarily, social spaces and organizational capacity -that are scarce in many member states but readily available in others. These horizontal opportunities among member states, alongside top-down vertical ones provided by Brussels, serve as mobilizing structures that bring together distinct groups of international actors. Europeanization also alters the tactics that transnational actors use when engaging with authorities in the target state. Employing socialization mechanisms that highlight appropriate behavior, actors tactically frame their demands in a European discourse by associating the issue of LGBT acceptance with democratic responsibilities as members of the EU community.