Media Exposure and Attitudes about Gay Marriage and Raising Children

• In Event: 306 - Section on Sociology of Sexualities Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 03. LGBT Families

Abstract

Using the 2012 General Social Survey, I test the influence of media exposure on attitudes about gay marriage, lesbians and gays raising children. I suggest four hypotheses: 1. individuals watch more television, that they would be more likely to hold a negative attitude toward gay marriage, lesbian and gay parenthood, 2. individuals who hold more conservative religious attitudes and affiliations will be less likely to support gay marriage, lesbian and gay parenthood, 3. individuals who hold a more conservative political view will be less likely to support gay marriage, lesbian and gay parenthood, 4. individuals who hold more the traditional lifestyle values will be less likely to support gay marriage. Because the responses are categorical, I utilize the analyses for the gay marriage and raising children exogamous variables a binominal logistic regression. I find partial support for two of the four hypotheses.

Author

• Carol Walther, Northern Illinois University