Personal Relationships and Support for Gay Rights

Since the early days of the gay liberation movement, activists have argued that coming out to heterosexuals would increase acceptance of homosexuality and support for gay rights. Though the empirical research has generally supported this hypothesis, it has not adequately controlled for reciprocal causation: having positive attitudes toward homosexuality increases the probability that a gay, lesbian, or bisexual person (LGB) will come out to you. This paper re-estimates the effect of knowing LGBs on support for gay rights using individual-level data from 27 surveys of the national population conducted since 1983. I first assess whether the same characteristics predict both attitudes and acquaintance. I next examine the effect of knowing LGBs on acceptance of homosexuality and support for gay rights in three ways: using logit models that control for the demographic and political variables used in step one, using propensity score matching to restrict comparisons of those who know LGBs to others who are as similar as possible, and using logit models for support for gay rights that also control for acceptance of homosexuality. Findings confirm that knowing LGBs affects beliefs on the morality of homosexual relations, employment discrimination, gays in the military, sodomy laws, and samesex marriage. Working Paper 07-1

The Friends and Family Plan: Assessing the Impact of Knowing Someone Gay on Support for Gay Rights

I estimate the impact of knowing someone gay on acceptance of homosexuality and support for gay rights. Method: Logit analyses on individual-level data from 27 national surveys control for demographic and political variables that predict both acquaintance with lesbians, gay men, and bisexuals (LGBs) and support for gay rights. Findings: Knowing LGBs affects beliefs on the morality of homosexual relations, employment discrimination, gays in the military, sodomy laws, and same-sex marriage. Conclusion: Coming out remains an important strategy in the battle for gay rights. Working Paper 08-1

The Demographics of Georgia III: Lesbian and Gay Couples - Brief

Using 2000 Census data, this report compares the residential patterns, household incomes, house values, property taxes, and parenting patterns of Georgia's same-sex and different-sex couples. FRC Brief 12

Understanding State Government Appropriations For the Arts: 1976-1999

Using panel data analysis, we examine the relative importance of citizen and government characteristics on a highly discretionary and volatile budget item: state appropriations to arts agencies. Despite the unimportance of arts spending to most citizens, changes in arts spending appear to reflect citizen desires. Spending rises with per capita income, state revenues, and citizen political and social liberalism, but characteristics of state legislatures do not significantly affect spending.Department of Economics and W.T. Beebe Institute of Personnel and Employment Relations Working Paper 07-0

Representation of Lesbian and Gay Men in Federal, State, and Local Bureaucracies

Americans increasingly view lesbians and gay men as a legitimate minority, entitled to equal employment opportunities and perhaps to adequate representation in government. Scholars of public administration have extensively studied whether women and racial minorities receive fair representation and pay in the public sector, but we have generally ignored lesbians and gay men, largely because we lack data on the sexual orientation of government employees. Using a 5 percent sample of the 2000 Census, this paper provides new insights into one group of lesbian and gay employees: full-time workers with same-sex unmarried partners. It first determines whether they are as likely to hold jobs in the public and nonprofit sectors as workers who are married, have different-sex unmarried partners, or have never been married. Second, it explores whether lesbians' and gay men's representation is concentrated in particular occupations. It then examines whether workers with same-sex partners earn as much as other workers, and whether any disparities can be explained by race, gender, education, age, occupation, and location. Working Paper 08-2

The Friends and Family Plan: Contact with Gays and Support for Gay Rights

According to both the contact hypothesis and gay rights advocates, coming out to straight friends and family members should increase acceptance of homosexuality and support for gay rights. If lesbians, gay men, and bisexuals (LGBs) come out primarily to people they expect to be accepting, however, the repeated finding that people who know LGBs are more likely to support gay rights could be overstating the impact of coming out. Using individual-level data from 27 national surveys, I find that similar variables predict both knowing LGBs and supporting gay rights, but in different ways. Even after controlling for those demographic, religious, and political variables – and sometimes also for beliefs about whether some people are born gay and whether homosexuality is immoral –people who know LGBs are much more likely to support gay rights. The effect holds for every issue, in every year, for every type of relationship, and for every demographic, religious, and political sub-group

Gender Integration of Occupations in the Federal Civil Service: Extent and Effects on Male-Female Earnings

Using the U.S. Office of Personnel Management\u27s Central Personnel Data File, the author shows that from 1976 through 1992 gender integration of occupations proceeded more rapidly and steadily in the federal civil service than in the general economy. During that period, increasing numbers of women moved into traditionally male occupations, especially in professional and administrative work. Little of that progress, the author finds, was attributable to changes in women\u27s education or seniority. Although average grades (indicating levels of responsibility) in male-dominated occupations declined as women entered them, gender integration of occupations helped to narrow male-female pay disparities in the federal service more than in the general economy

Why Did Californians Pass Proposition 8? Stability and Change in Public Support for Same-Sex Marriage

Despite numerous public opinion polls indicating that California voters would defeat Proposition 8, a proposed constitutional amendment to limit marriage to one man and one woman, Election Day 2008 brought an end to six months of marriage equality for same-sex couples. This paper explores four possible explanations for why Californians passed Proposition 8 despite the polls: (1) poll respondents did not respond honestly to pollsters; (2) some respondents who opposed same-sex marriage were initially reluctant to amend the constitution for this purpose; (3) the campaign over the amendment changed people’s opinions about same-sex marriage; and (4) poll respondents did not initially understand how to accurately connect their position on same-sex marriage with the “right” position on Proposition 8, but that they gained such knowledge over time. This study finds minimal support for the first three explanations and weak support for the final explanation

The Impact of Veterans\u27 Preference on the Composition and Quality of the Federal Civil Service

U.S. governments have long explicitly preferred military veterans in hiring, as a way of honoring them for their service and sacrifices. I examine the effect of this preference on the diversity and quality of the public service. Census data for 1990, 2000, and 2006-9 show that veterans are at least three times as likely to hold federal jobs as, but only 10% more likely to hold state and federal government jobs than, comparable individuals without military service. Preferential treatment of veterans has dramatically increased the percentage of federal employees who are men and has probably decreased the percentages who are Asians, gay men, and immigrants, but effects on the composition of state and local governments is small. Federal personnel data for the past decade show that veteran new hires are older and less educated than nonveteran new hires, and that they do not advance as far in the first fifteen years of their careers as nonveterans hired into the same grades at the same time, suggesting that veterans’ preference may be lowering the performance of the federal service

The Demographics of Georgia III: Lesbian and Gay Couples

Using 2000 Census data, this report compares the residential patterns, household incomes, house values, property taxes, and parenting patterns of Georgia's same-sex and different-sex couples. FRC Report 12