Is Opposition to Same-Sex Parenting the Mirror Image of Support? Evidence from 26 European Countries

Abstract

There is a vast literature on how various socio-demographic characteristics shape attitudes toward the rights of gays, lesbians, and same-sex couples. Most studies assume that support for and opposition to these rights are the endpoints of a single scale on which variables have a symmetric effect. Our paper challenges this assumption and examines whether the most commonly used variables that typically predict attitudes toward homosexuality have different effects on the support for and the opposition to same-sex adoption rights and parenting skills. We propose an analytical strategy for examining asymmetric effects using standard survey data. Using data from 26 countries from the European Value Survey and the European Social Survey we find consistent evidence that the effects of gender, birth cohort, religiosity and political orientation are asymmetric. These results suggest that scholars should consider different theoretical explanations for understanding the support for and the opposition to the rights of gays, lesbians and same-sex couples. This study makes a significant contribution to the existing literature by introducing a methodological innovation and presenting new findings on European attitudes toward same-sex couples’ adoption rights and parenting skills.