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Gay Rights: Why Democracy Matters
Abstract
The year 2013 featured unprecedented strides for gay rights in some parts of the world, particularly in Western Europe and the Americas, but also startling setbacks elsewhere, as in Russia and some countries in Africa. Wealth and religion are the most discussed factors behind this so-called global divide on homosexuality. Less studied and therefore less understood, however, is the effect of the political regime, especially whether the country is democratic or not. Although gay rights are not found in all democracies, gay rights are virtually nonexistent in nondemocracies. Among the many factors that make democracy an apparent prerequisite for gay rights are the opportunities that it provides for advocacy—including access to the courts, the party system, and the legislature—as well as a social environment that permits gay people to live their lives openly and honestly, a critical but often overlooked factor in advancing societal acceptance of homosexuality.
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“the culturally traumatic denial of marriage rights (a valued cultural institution) to same sex couples denied millions of sexual minorities access to important marriage-related flexible resources (e.g., employer-sponsored health insurance, partner-inherited wealth)”
From Cultural trauma as a fundamental cause of health disparities (2022) · cites this paper as Encarnación, 2014
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“…of marriage rights (a valued cultural institution) to same sex couples denied millions of sexual minorities access to important marriage-related flexible resources (e.g., employersponsored health insurance, partner-inherited wealth) (Encarnación, 2014; Gonzales and Blewett, 2014; Perone, 2015).”
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Metadata
- Authors
- Encarnación, O. G.
- Corresponding author
- Encarnación, Omar G.
- ORCID
- Encarnación, Omar G.
- Venue
- Journal of Democracy
- Publisher
- Project MUSE
- Published
- 2014-07
- Volume
- 25
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 90-104
- ISSN
- 1045-5736 (ISSN-L)
- 1086-3214
- OpenAlex
- W2001121790
- Cited by
- 72
- References
- 10
- Citations by year
- 2026: 11 · 2025: 11 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 7 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 4 · 2015: 4 · 2014: 1
- FWCI
- 11.95
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of democracy (publishedVersion)
- Project Muse (Johns Hopkins University) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › African Sexualities and LGBTQ+ Issues
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › LGBTQ Health, Identity, and Policy
- Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Gender and Feminist Studies
- Keywords
- gay rights, democracy, political regimes, non-democracies, homosexuality, LGBT advocacy, access to justice, party system, homosexuality and religion
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