Attitudes Towards LGBT Individuals After bostock v. Clayton County: Evidence From a Quasi Experiment

• Author: Jack Thompson
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/10659129211068052
• Published date: 01 December 2022
• Date: 01 December 2022

Article

PoliticalResearchQuarterly

2022,Vol.75(4)1374–1385

©TheAuthor(s)2022

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DOI:10.1177/10659129211068052

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AttitudesTowardsLGBTIndividualsAfter

bostockv.ClaytonCounty:EvidenceFrom

aQuasiExperiment

JackThompson

Abstract

DoUnitedStatesSupremeCourtdecisionsonLGBTrightsshapeattitudestowardsLGBTindividualsamongthemass

public?Inthispaper,Iconductanempiricaltestoftheeffectofquasi-randomexposuretotheannouncementofBostock

v.ClaytonCounty—alandmarkcasewhichheldthatanemployerwhofirestheiremployeebecauseoftheirsexual

orientationorgenderidentityviolatesSectionVIIofthe1964CivilRightsAct—onfavorabilitytowardsLGBTindividuals.

RelyingondatafromPhase2oftheDemocracyFund/UCLANationscapesurvey,Ifindthatquasi-randomexposureto

theannouncementofBostockengenderedincreasesinfavorabilitytowardsLGBTindividualsamongthewiderAmerican

public.SubgroupanalysesalsoindicatethatthelargestincreasesinfavorabilitywereamongDemocraticpartisansandthe

religiouslyunaffiliated,whileminimalchangesinfavorabilityweredetectedamongthosewhoareamongthemostlikely

toopposeLGBTrights,includingRepublicansandEvangelicalProtestants.Thefindingsspeaktothevalidityofthe

legitimacymodelandhighlightthelimitationsofthebacklashmodelinthepost-Obergefelleraofpublicopiniontowards

LGBTrights.

Keywords

Supremecourt,LGBTrights,publicopinion

Introduction

OnJune15,2020,theSupremeCourtheldinalandmark

civilrightscase—Bostockv.ClaytonCounty

1

—thatan

employerwhofirestheiremployeebecauseoftheirsexual

orientationorgenderidentityviolatesSectionVIIofthe

1964CivilRightsAct.FollowingcasessuchasLawrence

v.Texas(2003),andObergefellv.Hodges(2015),Bo-

stockwaswidelyseenasanotherwatershedmomentin

furtherenshriningLGBTrights(Liptak,2020,Millhiser,

2020).Inadditiontounderstandinghowpolicydevel-

opmentleadstogreatersocialbenefitsforLGBTindi-

viduals(Floresetal.2020),scholarshaveanalyzedhow

SupremeCourtdecisionsonLGBTrightsshapeattitudes

towardsLGBTindividualsamongthemasspublic

(Aksoy,Carpenter,Haas&Tran,2020,Stoutenborough,

Haider-Markel&Allen,2006).Despitethesestudies,

scholarsinterestedintheeffectsofpolicydevelopmenton

massattitudeshavenotyetexaminedwhetherpolicygains

onprotectionsfromdiscriminationinemploymentmaylead

tomorefavorableestimationsofLGBTindividualsamong

thewiderpublic.Publicpolicyisoftenusedasastrategic

tooltochangemassopinion(Soss&Schram,2007),andthe

public’sresponsetotheintroductionofpolicyisknownas

policyfeedback(Kreitzer,Hamilton,andTolbert,2014).To

whatextentthendocompetingmodelsofmassopinion

changeexplainpublicattitudestowardsLGBTindividuals

aftertheannouncementofBostock?Thispaperteststhe

possibilitythatBostockshapedpublicattitudestowards

LGBTindividualswithanovelresearchdesignandtheuse

oftimelydata.

Demand-sidemodelsofpublicpolicyhavelonged

examinedhowmassopinionshapespolicydevelopment

(BaumgartnerandJones,2010).Thesetraditionalmodels

holdthatpolicydevelopmentisresponsivetopublicat-

titudestowardsagivenissue(PageandShapiro,1983).

DepartmentofPolitics,UniversityofExeter,Exeter,UK

Replicationdataforthisarticlemaybefoundat:https://dataverse.

harvard.edu/dataset.xhtml?persistentId=doi:10.7910/DVN/MFRYYK

CorrespondingAuthor:

JackThompson,DepartmentofPolitics,UniversityofExeter,Amory

Building,RennesDrive,ExeterEX44RJ,UK.

Email:j.thompson4@exeter.ac.uk