Sexual Identities and the Role of Marriage in Social Movement Activism

Abstract

Though marriage is seemingly attached to the private sphere and politics to the public sphere, marriage and politics operate as intertwined institutions. Political parties routinely pitch themselves as “the protector of family values” and getting married can shift a person’s political commitments. Studies generally agree that married people in different-sex marriages are more conservative than single or divorced individuals, but there is uncertainty as to whether same-sex marriages have the same political ramifications. This study examined data from the 2010–2102 American National Election Survey and found that sexual identity sometimes modifies the conservative elements of marriage (n = 3815). Same-sex marriages inspired greater participation in antiracist, queer, and feminist social movements while different-sex marriage showed an inverse relationship. Implications for how these findings require a rethinking of the marriage and politics are addressed as well.