Gay marriage why do people care

In Taiwan, for example, the government stopped short of granting full adoption rights. Elsewhere, some nations are bringing in stricter anti-gay laws and same-sex relationships remain illegal in about 69 countries. On Friday, Kenya's High Court upheld a law banning gay sex. In some countries, opposition towards gay relationships is deeply entrenched and may be growing. For example, in Ghana, where gay sex can be punished with a prison sentence , attitudes have become even less accepting.

Elsewhere, official punishments for gay sex may provide insights into how residents, or at least their leaders, view homosexuality. For example, Brunei recently made sex between men punishable with death through stoning, although it has since backtracked on this. Another issue is that while laws and perceived attitudes may appear to have become more relaxed in some countries, the reality may be very different for the LGBT community there. For example, while Brazil's Supreme Court has recently voted in favour of making homophobia and transphobia crimes illegal, it did so in response to a large number of killings of LGBT people.

So, why does support for gay and lesbian people vary so much around the world? Studies suggest the reasons are often linked to three factors - economic development, democracy and religion. One theory is that a nation's economy shapes the attitudes of its people - including how they feel about LGBT rights.

Often, poorer nations tend to be less supportive, partly because cultural values tend to focus more on basic survival. When people are concerned about things like clean water, food, shelter and safety, they can become more reliant on others. This dependency tends to promote strong group loyalty - increasing support for its norms, including "traditional" heterosexual family structures. People living in richer nations, by contrast, tend to have a lot more security.

As a result, they are more likely to have freedom to make the decisions that suit them, and to believe in self-expression. Not everyone in richer countries is more tolerant of gay relationships, but the data we have indicates they tend to be more supportive. In democracies, principles like equality, fairness, and the right to protest are more likely to form part of the actions of government and residents.

As a result, people who are sometimes seen as different, like gay and lesbian individuals, may be more likely to gain acceptance. Compared with longer-term democracies, former communist nations such as Slovenia and Russia appear to have been slower to develop more tolerant attitudes.

Western Europe, with its relatively low levels of religious belief , has been at the forefront of legalising same-sex marriage. In , an estimated , United States households were headed by a same-sex couple 1. Between and , 2 Based on household counts, there were an estimated , same-sex couples raising children in , including 28, male same-sex couples and 86, female same-sex couples not shown.

Married male same-sex couples with children were the most likely of all couples with children to be raising adopted and foster children Table 2. Percentages are averaged across the weighted , , and American Community Survey data and counts may not sum to totals due to rounding. Percentages are averaged across the , , and weighted American Community Survey data. Download the brief. Census Bureau.

Each year, approximately 3. For more information on ACS Methodology, see here and here. When completing the survey, one person in each household, known as the primary householder, fills out a survey for the entire household. But most states still discriminate, and several research studies have reported related disparities in health and access to care for lesbians, gays, and bisexual people living in states that ban same-sex marriage through constitutional amendments.

Same-Sex Marriage Improves Health and Access to Health Care Research on marriage and health reports a consistent and well-established theme: married people live happier, healthier and longer lives. Consequently, expanding and supporting marriage for same-sex couples should enable lesbian, gay, and bisexual adults to live happier, healthier and longer lives.

In fact, studies conducted in states that have adopted same-sex marriage have already established significant improvements in health and access to care:. The health benefits from legal same-sex marriage extend beyond the adults themselves — particularly to the , children in the United States being raised by same-sex parents. Employers who offer health insurance to dependent children often require minors to be related to the employee by birth, legal marriage or legal adoption.

Thus, children are left with diminished protections in states that do not allow legal marriages or adoptions for lesbian and gay couples.

A study recently reported in Pediatrics found that children with same-sex parents were less likely to have private health insurance than children with heterosexual parents. The study also found that disparities in private insurance coverage diminished for children of same-sex parents living in states with marriage equality or laws supporting gay and lesbian adoptions.

How All States Can Improve Family Protections Given political gridlock in Congress, states are more likely than the federal government to advance protections for members of gay, lesbian, and bisexual families. Public opinion is shifting rapidly in support of same-sex marriage, so more states will take this step. But not all states will legalize same-sex marriage in the immediate future, and in many of these lagging states, steps forward will take the form of measures that garner stronger public support than legal marriage.

Such steps beneficial to the lesbian, gay, and bisexual population include anti-discrimination laws in housing and employment; rights of legal adoption by gay and lesbian couples; anti-bullying laws to better protect gay youth from harassment; and inclusion of crimes against gays, lesbians, and bisexual people in anti-crime legislation.

Each of these steps can reduce discrimination and lead to improvements in mental and physical health.