Gay Politics Goes Mainstream: Democrats, Republicans, and Same-Sex Relationships

Raquel Fernandez and Sahar Parsa

No 29062, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: Attitudes towards same-sex relationships in the US have changed radically over a relatively short period of time. After remaining fairly constant for over two decades, opinions became more favorable starting in 1992—a presidential election year in which the Democratic and Republican parties took opposing stands over the status of gay people in society. What roles did political parties and their leaders play in this process of cultural change? Using a variety of techniques including machine learning, we show that the partisan opinion gap emerged substantially prior to 1992—in the mid 1980s —and did not increase as a result of the political debates in 1992-'93. Furthermore, we identify people with a college-and-above education as the potential "leaders" of the process of partisan divergence.

JEL-codes: P16 Z1 Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-big, nep-his, nep-isf and nep-pol
Note: PE POL
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Published as Raquel Fernández & Sahar Parsa, 2022. "Gay Politics Goes Mainstream: Democrats, Republicans and Same‐sex Relationships," Economica, vol 89(S1).

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