Pride and Prejudice: Same-Sex Marriage Legalization Announcements and Hate Crimes

Robert W. Pettis, Zehra Valencia and Breyon J. Williams

Journal of Law and Economics, 2022, vol. 65, issue 4, 811 - 835

Abstract: In this paper, we examine whether same-sex marriage legalization announcements impact the occurrence of hate crimes against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people. Using a difference-in-differences design, we exploit the variation in the timing of same-sex marriage legalization announcements across states. On average, a same-sex marriage legalization announcement reduces the anti-LGBT hate crime rate by .112 per 100,000 people, although some additional analyses have weaker results. Decreases are mostly driven by reductions in violent crimes. Event-study estimates show that results fade after 1 year and provide evidence that reductions are not due to changes in social trends before an announcement. Our results demonstrate that salient, progressive LGBT policy announcements may, by themselves, effectively reduce anti-LGBT hate crimes.

Date: 2022
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