Religion, Support of Equal Rights for Same-Sex Couples and the Australian National Vote on Marriage Equality

Abstract

In 2017, the Australian Government commissioned a national vote on same-sex marriage legislation, which elicited substantial debates dominated by religious voices. We examine the associations between religious identification, importance of religion to one's life and frequency of attendance at religious services and support for same-sex couples in such a unique context. We contribute to knowledge by (i) systematically examining these relationships in a country other than the US (Australia) using high-quality, nationallyrepresentative panel data spanning 2005-2015 (Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey; n=44,794 observations/18,384 individuals), (ii) assessing the degree of intragroup heterogeneity in views towards equal rights, and (iii) considering how religiosity modifies the effects of other socio-structural factors. We find high degrees of between-and within-group heterogeneity in support of equal rights for same-sex couples, and large religiosity gradients. Furthermore, religiosity suppresses the liberalising effects on attitudes of historical time, education, socioeconomic background, and city residence. BACKGROUND Recent debates about recognising same-sex marriage provide a site for the examination of the role of religion in the public sphere. Australia provides a unique opportunity, having recently conducted a national vote to gauge public opinion on same-sex marriage. While the presence of religious voices in public policy debates in Australia have been consistent, the 2017 Australian national ballot on marriage equality emerged as an arena where religious communities actively attempted to dictate what was to happen in the wider society. Religious groups, who in 2016 conducted fewer than 25% of weddings, actively campaigned to limit marriage to heterosexual couples for the whole of society-even though they were (and are) able to privately refuse to marry such couples. This paper offers a discussion of the role of religion in recent debates about same-sex marriage in Australia. Using a large, nationally representative panel study, it provides a detailed analysis of whether and how the views promoted by religious groups resonate with the views reported by individuals who identify with those religions. Specifically, we assess the importance of individual-level variables such as religious identification, religious participation and importance of religion as predictors of support of equal rights for same-sex couples. We make three key contributions to the literature. First, we draw detailed attitude comparisons amongst highly disaggregated religious groups in a new and interesting country context, Australia. In doing so, we question the universality of theories and findings from the US, where the bulk of the research has taken place, and tease out the importance of institutional context (Adamczyk 2017). Second, we discuss and test the degree of intra-group heterogeneity in attitudes to same-sex couples, which we take as a proxy for denominational subcultures (Gay et al. 1996). Third, using ...

Changes in Sexual Identity Labels in a Contemporary Cohort of Emerging Adult Women: Patterns, Prevalence and a Typology

“…The socio-political context surrounding same-sex sexuality is arguably more liberal in Australia than in the U.S., as evidenced by stronger antidiscrimination protections for sexual minorities (Mendos, 2019) and more positive community attitudes towards same-sex sexuality (McGee, 2016;Pew Research Center, 2013;Valfort, 2017). This may be the product of Australia's more secular and diverse religious landscape (Perales, Bouma, & Campbell, 2018;Stanley, 2015). Crucially, our analyses also speak about changes in sexual identity labels amongst a very recent cohort of emerging adult women.…”

“…For example, in 2013, 33% of adults in the U.S. thought that society should not accept homosexuality compared to 18% of adults in Australia (Pew Research Center, 2013). This may be an artefact of differences in the religious landscapes of the two countries, with strong trends towards religious diversification and secularization in Australia over the past few decades (Perales, Bouma, & Campbell, 2018;Stanley, 2015). Our study will therefore provide evidence on sexual identity change in both a more liberal era and a somewhat more liberal country than previous studies.…”

The geography of Australia's Marriage Law Postal Survey outcome

“…Particularly, the proportions of Australians with post‐school qualifications (ABS, ) and reporting no religion (ABS, ) are rising, and Australia's biggest cities are experiencing fast growth. On the other hand, Australia's immigrant intake is attracting new arrivals from countries in which identifying with a religion is normative, and this may exert influence in the opposite direction (Perales et al., ). And geography matters.…”

“…Finally, previous international scholarship has also reported marked attitudinal divisions by religiosity (Baunach, ; Bramlett, ; Sherkat et al., ). Individuals who identify with a religion are generally less supportive of same‐sex marriage than those who do not identify, which likely stems from the fact that religious teachings often assign negative connotations to same‐sex relations (Perales et al., ). Similar results were obtained for Australia by Perales and Campbell (), who reported that 77.4% of people who did not identify with a religion support equal rights, compared to just 47% of people with no religion.…”

“…All were expected to be positively correlated with a “Yes” outcome. The percentage of people identifying their religion as “no religion” was used as a general indication of lack of religiosity and therefore less support for traditional sexual and moral attitudes (Perales et al., ). The percentage of non‐Indigenous people born in Oceania (including Australia), Europe, and the Americas was also used as a proxy for more open attitudes to sexual diversity due to greater acceptance of non‐heterosexual orientations in those continents.…”