Predicting support for marriage equality in Australia

Abstract

Objective

The marriage equality debate is becoming increasingly prominent in Australian political and media discourse. Moreover, as policy that would legislate marriage equality continues to be debated in political circles, public opinion on the topic appears to be becoming increasingly divided. This article presents a cross‐sectional study exploring predictors of support for marriage equality.

Method

A sample of 137 Australians (66% females) responded to a series of demographic items, a measure of attitudes towards gay men and lesbian women, and a forced‐choice question asking whether or not they would support marriage between two people—regardless of their gender.

Results

The results revealed that support for marriage equality in this sample was predicted by religious affiliation, political orientation, and sexual prejudice. More specifically, individuals in support of marriage equality were more likely to be non‐religious, politically liberal, and have more positive attitudes towards gay men (attitudes towards lesbian women were unrelated to support for marriage equality). Age and gender did not predict support for marriage equality.

Conclusions

Support for marriage equality in Australia can be predicted by social attitudes and demographic variables. These findings are discussed in terms of the implications of maintaining the legal status quo, which mandates marriage inequality.

Key words:

• discrimination
• equality
• marriage equality
• plebiscite
• same‐sex marriage

Notes

1. If students were enrolled in a psychology degree at the hosting institution, they could instead request they receive partial course credit instead of being included in the draw for gift cards.

2. Analyses were run on both the full sample and a sub‐sample comprising only heterosexual participants. There were no substantial differences between these analyses, so the full data set was used in all analyses presented within.