Abstract
This contribution analyzes changes in public opinion attitudes towards homosexuality and LGBTI rights in Latin America over the last three decades. Using data from the World Values Survey and the Latin American Public Opinion Project, we show the evolution of those attitudes between the 1990s and 2017, their relationship with economic development and democratization in the region and the individual factors that helps us to explain the prevalence and changes of negative and positive attitudes toward LGBTI people.
Keywords
- LGBTI rights
- Homosexuality
- Public opinion
- Social attitudes
- Latin America
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Notes
- 1.
We thank the Latin American Public Opinion Project (LAPOP) and its major supporters (the United States Agency for International Development, the Inter-American Development Bank, and Vanderbilt University) for making the data available.
- 2.
Mexico has not approved national legislation in those matters, but some subnational entities, notably Mexico City, have recognized same-sex partnership since 2007 and same-sex marriage since 2009 (International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association et al., 2017, pp. 68–70).
- 3.
“CitizenGo” in several countries; “Movimiento Vida y Familia” (Ecuador, Colombia, Mexico, Paraguay); “Con mis Hijos no te Metas” and “Coordinadora Pro-Familia” (Peru); “Red por la Vida y la Familia” (Bolivia); “Padres Objetores de Chile” and “El Observatorio Legislativo Cristiano” (Chile); “Comisión Nacional de Pastoral de Familia y de Vida” (Costa Rica); “ProFamilia” (Dominican Republic); “Familia, Desarrollo y Población” (Guatemala); “La Alianza Panameña por la Vida y la Familia” (Panama); “Movimiento Pro Vida” (Honduras, El Salvador); among others.
- 4.
Figure 5 shows the mean approval level of all the countries included in each wave’s sample. To calculate the regional mean each country mean has the same weight.
- 5.
In order to calculate the “Freedom Index”, we reversed the original values of Freedom House’s “Political Rights” (PR) and “Civil Liberties” (CL) indexes, and then added them into a single index with a theoretical 0–12 range. In its original form, lower PR or CL values indicate higher levels of freedom (Freedom House, 2018).
- 6.
According to LAPOP 2014 wave, among “Other Christians”, 57% were evangelicals and 38% other protestant denominations.
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Sulmont, D., Castaman, K. (2021). Rainbows in Latin America: Public Opinion and Societal Attitudes Towards Homosexuality. In: Almakaeva, A., Moreno, A., Wilkes, R. (eds) Social Capital and Subjective Well-Being. Societies and Political Orders in Transition. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-75813-4_6
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