Introduction

On June 26, 2015, Justice Anthony Kennedy rendered the majority opinion in Obergefell v. Hodges and in effect legally recognized marriages for same-sex (SS) couples across the United States. In his opinion and in oral arguments, Justice Kennedy seemed preoccupied by the sheer number of children being raised in SS households. It would only later come out how much the children mattered to him: “it just seemed to me…wrong under the constitution to say that over 100,000 adopted children of gay parents couldn’t have their parents married” [1].

About 200,000 children are being raised in SS couple households, and three million lesbian, gay, bisexual, and/or transgender (LGBT) adults in the US have had a child [2]. Over half of them are biological children [2]. LGBT parents tend to be people of color and have lower median household incomes [2]. There remain research gaps in the systematic study of people with SS parents [3], and most of this research is in the domain of developmental and educational psychology. In that context, most studies show that children and adolescents of SS couples are not at any disadvantage when compared to children and adolescents of different-sex (DS) couples [4–7]. We explore the political attitudes of people with SS parents and compare them to those of people with DS parents. We find that the political attitudes of people with SS parents do not differ much from people with DS parents both before and after considering household and demographic characteristics. When differences exist, people with SS male parents tend to be more conservative and people with SS female parents tend to be more progressive than their counterparts.

Political socialization is the process through which young people form their political attitudes and behaviors [8]. Parents are a large contributor to political socialization. The two major schools of thought in American political behavior identify the family as a primary source of a person’s political attitudes and behaviors [9,10]. There is a positive correlation between the attitudes of young adults and their parents, but they are not consistently strong [11]. Parental socialization is stronger if families are highly politicized and parents consistently share their political viewpoints [12]. Parents provide their children with prior beliefs about politics, and beliefs are updated by other experiences [13].

There is ample reason to believe that people with SS parents are socialized in an environment that would result in distinct political attitudes. LGB people are more politically engaged and socially progressive [14–19]. LGBT people are more likely than non-LGBT people to engage in political discussion, write government officials, attend protests and rallies, and give money to political campaigns [15]. LGBT people are more progressive on issues beyond LGBT rights including, abortion, gun control, immigration policy, environmental protection, criminal justice reform, and race-relations in the US [15]. About 75% of LGBT people identify with or lean toward the Democratic Party compared to 45.2% of non-LGBT people [15]. Such political distinctiveness may pass to children of SS couples, especially because research shows that SS parents spend on average more time with their children than DS parents [20].

Gay and lesbian parents also engage in conversations with their children about homophobia and legal inequities [21–25]. Conversations can build a family identity [21,22], foster resilience [24], and may be motivated by parents’ concerns over the impact sexual stigma may have on their children [23]. One qualitative study in Florida finds that gay and lesbian parents who have these conversations do so to prepare their children for anti-gay stigma and discrimination, to foster pride, and to encourage political activism [25]. These conversations better enable children to cope with adversity to homophobia [23] and stigma as it relates to their family structure [21]. Gay and lesbian parents tend to have these conversations when they believe their children are at an appropriate age when it seems necessary that they may begin to become aware of social stigmas around homosexuality [25]. These studies suggest that the sociopolitical socialization of people with SS parents is distinct from people with DS parents due to social stigmas and discrimination LGB people encounter.

Major political events that occur during adolescence can also have lasting effects on youth partisanship [26]. Recently in LGBT rights, major political events occurred that likely reinforce the importance of the rights of SS couple households. The data for this study come from the same year as the Obergefell decision, which followed the rulings of several federal district and circuit courts legally recognizing marriages for same-sex couples. These major legal and political events improved the wellbeing of LGB households [27], and disparities in measures of wellbeing between LGBT and non-LGBT people were reduced immediately following the Obergefell decision [28]. Events such as these can have long-lasting effects on youth political orientations [26], likely increasing the relevance of progressive politics and LGBT rights for the wellbeing of people with SS parents and their parents. Indeed, it was after Florida changed its adoption law in 2010 that gay and lesbian parents took the opportunity to discuss legal inequities with their children [25].

Previous studies also support the expectation for people with SS parents to have distinctive experiences affecting their political attitudes. Qualitative studies suggest that adults who have LGB parents tend to report that they feel more open-minded, more impacted by laws regulating family, and more affected by the prejudices their parents face [29–31]. For example, some people with SS parents questioned whether they would themselves marry when legal marriage was denied to their parents [30]. These patterns are similar for children in multiracial households who have a different set of political attitudes [32].

For these reasons, we expect:

1. H1: People with SS parents will be more progressive than people with DS parents.

There are gender differences in the way males and females are politically socialized [33], which influences their political attitudes [33] and behaviors [34]. In the general population, households with girls tend to more strongly instill traditional gender role beliefs and be Republican leaning [35]. Politics tends to be viewed and internalized by women and girls as a male-dominated space particularly as young girls grow older [36], and they develop disinterest toward politics [37], which may lower their ambition to run for public office [38]. Though contextual factors can reduce some of these differences such as having a female social studies teacher [39], the differences in the political socialization of boys and girls continues to result in gaps in their political attitudes and behaviors [33].

There are additional gender differences of children of SS parents in their psychological adjustment [e.g, 40]. For instance, adolescents raised with lesbian parents occasionally have gender differences in measures of their psychological adjustment [40]. We can only conjecture with the existing literature about the possibility for having SS parents to result in differences between men and women, though we consider gender to be an important consideration for analysis. Given the gender differences in political socialization and in psychological adjustment, we consider the following:

1. RQ1: Does respondent gender moderate the effect of having SS parents?

In addition, male and female sexual minorities internalize social stigmas and are sensitive to sexual stigma to different degrees [41]. Thus, SS male households may be different from SS female households in how they discuss homophobia and discrimination [41]. As detailed in the next section, we further subdivide our analyses between SS female parents and SS male parents. This latter decision is motivated by prior research [4] and following recommend practices due to the differences between SS male and female couples in the family formation process [42,43]. While this decision is motivated by analytic best practices, the gender of the SS couple is another important dimension to our results.

Materials and methods

The data for this exploratory study come from the 2015 administration of The Freshman Survey conducted by the Higher Education Research Institute (HERI) at the University of California at Los Angeles. Every year, HERI conducts surveys of first-year college students among participating American colleges and universities. The multistage, complex survey collects demographic and financial data about first-year college students and their parents throughout the United States. All institutions of higher learning that have a new first-year cohort in a degree granting program at the baccalaureate-level or higher are invited to participate, and all first-year, full-time students at these institutions are recruited to participate. HERI charges fees to these institutions to administer the survey, and member institutions have access to data and reports specific to their institution. In 2015, 199 colleges and universities participated with at least 65% of the first-year cohort completing the survey. The survey was administered between March and October and interviewed 141,189 first-time, full-time first year students [44]. The data are weighted by stratifying by institution type, then by gender of the first-year cohort, and then the demographics are adjusted for the demographics within each institution strata. Access to the data is restricted by HERI, but investigators can apply for data access by articulating a research design, hypotheses, and planned use of the data.

Results

Demographic characteristics

Table 1 provides the demographic characteristics by household type. Prior to matching, people with SS female parents are less heterosexual, more female, more first generation, lower income, slightly older, less likely to racially self-identify as white and more likely to racially self-identify as black compared to people with DS parents. People with SS male parents are less heterosexual, less female, slightly older, and more likely to racially identify as Asian compared to people with DS parents. There are also differences between people in SS female and SS male households. People with SS female parents are more heterosexual, more female, more first generation, lower income, less likely to be racially self-identify as white or Asian and more likely to racially self-identify as black compared to people with SS male parents. All the demographic differences between people with SS parents and DS parents are statistically insignificant after matching as documented in S2 Appendix. Given the greater propensity for people who self-report SS female parents to racially self-identify as black, the HERI administrators suspected that extended family members may be identified as one of the parents. We replicate our analyses in S4 Appendix excluding black respondents, and the results remain unchanged.

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Table 1. Demographics by household type.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0246929.t001

Political attitudes

Fig 1 provides differences in mean scores on political attitudes of people with SS parents and DS parents relying on unmatched and matched respondents. Positive differences suggest that people with SS parents are more progressive than people with DS parents, and negative differences suggest that people with SS parents are more conservative than people with DS parents. Prior to matching, people with SS female parents appear more socially progressive on affirmative action in college admissions, seeing race discrimination as a problem in the US, marijuana legalization, ideological self-placement, and US nonintervention into foreign conflicts. People with SS male parents appear more conservative on women’s workplace equality and colleges banning racist or sexist speech, and they are only more progressive on marijuana legalization. The average respondent to the Freshman Survey, however, is more left-of-center than the general public. After matching, the differences between people with SS parents and DS parents are substantially reduced. People with SS female parents hold more progressive views in affirmative action in college admissions and seeing racial discrimination as a problem. People with SS male parents hold more conservative attitudes about women’s equal pay; they are less likely to support colleges prohibiting racist or sexist speech and US nonintervention into foreign conflicts as compared to people with DS parents. People with SS male parents are only more progressive on marijuana legalization.

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Fig 1. Differences in the political views of people with same-sex parents compared to those with different-sex parents.

Positive differences indicate more progressive political attitudes; negative differences indicate less progressive political attitudes. 90% confidence intervals are represented by the error bars and 80% confidence intervals are represented by the cross-bars; n_min = 125,634 to n_max = 125,909 for SS female couple comparisons and n_min = 125,235 to n_max = 128,131 for SS male couple comparisons. Estimated differences are provided for people with DS parents relying on the HERI probability weights and also the CBPS inverse weights matching background characteristics of people with DS parents to people with SS parents.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0246929.g001

Fig 2 provides differences between people with SS parents and DS parents by the respondent’s sex, relying on both the probability and final weights. Similar to Fig 1, positive differences suggest people with SS parents are more progressive than people with DS parents, and negative differences suggest they are more conservative. While there are few significant differences, we tend to observe that having SS female parents is associated with both more conservative and more progressive policy positions among women and more progressive policy positions among men when differences exist. Conversely, we observe that having SS male parents is associated with more conservative policy positions among men and more progressive policy positions among women. These patterns are consistent regardless of using the probability or the final weights.

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Fig 2. Differences in the political views of people with same-sex parents compared to those with different-sex parents, by sex.

Positive differences indicate more progressive political attitudes; negative differences indicate less progressive political attitudes. 90% confidence intervals are represented by the error bars and 80% confidence intervals are represented by the cross-bars. Estimated differences are provided for people with DS parents relying on the HERI probability weights and also the CBPS inverse weights matching background characteristics of people with DS parents to people with SS parents.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0246929.g002

Gender differences for people with same-sex female parents.

Women who have SS female parents significantly differ from women who have DS parents in some of their political attitudes. Based on unmatched and unadjusted means, more women with SS female parents support affirmative action in college admissions, view race discrimination as a problem in the US, identify as more politically liberal, and support marriage equality than women with DS parents. While not statistically significant, women with SS female parents are slightly more conservative in their abortion attitudes, women’s equal pay, and whether colleges should ban racist or sexist speech. The only difference that remains significant after applying matching and adjustment is that women with SS female parents are more likely to view race discrimination as a problem in the US compared to women with DS parents. Men who have SS female parents significantly are more progressive than men who have DS parents in their attitudes about the use of affirmative action in college admissions, perceptions that race discrimination in the US, ideological self-placement, and opinions on marijuana legalization. These differences remain even after applying the final weights and adjustment. Men who have SS female parents were less likely to support colleges banning extremist speech, though this difference does not remain after weighting and adjustment.

Gender differences for people with same-sex male parents.

Women who have SS male parents significantly differ from women who have DS parents in their attitudes on marijuana legalization and affirmative action in college admissions. These differences are present both prior to and after matching and regression adjustment. While not statistically significant, women with SS male parents tended to be more progressive in viewing race discrimination as a problem in the US and legal access to abortion. Men who have SS male parents significantly differ from men who have DS parents in their perceptions that race discrimination in the US, whether colleges should ban racist or sexist speech, and women’s equal pay in the workplace. Based on the unmatched and unadjusted estimates, men with SS male parents are more conservative in their attitudes on these topics. After matching and adjustment men with SS male parents remain more conservative in their views that race discrimination in a problem in the US and that colleges should ban racist or sexist speech, but there is not a significant difference in their views regarding women’s equal pay in the workplace.

Discussion

What are the political attitudes of people with SS parents, and do they differ from people with DS parents? Prior to matching, people with SS parents are more progressive, except for respondents with SS male parents, who are more conservative on gender equality in the workplace. Differences diminish after matching, suggesting background characteristics that distinguish people with SS parents from people with DS parents likely lead to those differences. We do not find that people with SS female or male parents are much different from people DS parents. Indeed, on some measures people with SS male parents are more conservative than similarly situated people with DS parents. This is contrary to what is expected, and it fails to support our hypothesis. Given the exploratory nature of our study, future work should see if our findings replicate in other samples.

There are potentially a few reasons why we do not find support for our expectations. First, there may be differences in the political attitudes of LGB persons who choose to become parents as compared to LGB people in general. For example, in the cumulative General Social Survey, LGB parents are more likely to be political independents than LGB people who are not parents (see S5 Appendix). Thus, LGB parents may not hold as distinctly progressive political attitudes as LGB people in general. This may be particularly important to explain the somewhat more conservative attitudes of people with SS male parents. Second, our sample is of entering college first-years, and this age cohort may be distinctively more progressive on politics [e.g., 52] such that the distinctiveness we would expect to find by having SS parents is muted by an overall more progressive sample. Third, the sample size of people with SS parents is small relative to people with DS parents. While there is a large sample in the HERI survey data, these null patterns may be due to a lack of analytical power. If this is the case, then pooling multiple years of the HERI data may reveal patterns that are significant and distinct.

Our findings further suggest that there are meaningful differences between SS female and SS male households. People with SS female parents have lower household incomes and are more racially and ethnically diverse than people with SS male parents. SS male couples face, on average, greater costs to become parents, and SS female couples are more likely to be raising biological children [2]. Thus, socialization may be different in SS female households and SS male households, and this may intersect with both race and class. This is further supported by the demographic differences we observed in the data, as people with SS female parents are more likely to self-identify as black and have lower household incomes. The overall effects of SS parentage are being primarily driven by both the type of SS couple and the gender of the respondent. Men with same-sex male parents are more conservative, but men with same-sex female parents are more progressive. As prior work indicates that there are differences in the political socialization of boys and girls [34], we find divergences between males and females with SS parents. That most of these differences are among males complements prior work that suggests boys have a more malleable orientation toward politics than girls [33]. Thus, both the gendered nature of politics and gendered differences in political socialization can explain the distinctive patterns we observe for men with SS parents.

There are limitations in our current exploration. The secondary analysis of survey data means that we lack the ability to control the questionnaire design. This means that we have only one indicator of SS parentage. Thus, we lack an opportunity to more fully understand the households and characteristics of the respondents. Our analysis would be more thorough if we had measures of length of time in a SS parent household, aspects of family formation (e.g., if children were biological from a previous heterosexual relationship, if children were born through surrogacy; or if children were adopted), and other aspects of family stability. Prior research suggests the family formation SS households are distinct from DS households [3], so these measures may identify distinct subgroups of individuals with SS parents where their political attitudes are distinct (e.g., people who have had a long tenure of having SS parents with no family disruptions versus people who only recently had SS parents). Future primary data collection efforts can move beyond the current study’s limitations by incorporating such measures to evaluate political attitudes with a fuller understanding of the family formation process. Even with its limitations, our study at least can incorporate some characteristics of parents, which enables us to make more direct comparisons with similarly situated people with DS parents. Large-N studies of political attitudes rarely incorporate such details [14], even though prior work suggests that such details are important to understanding identity and attitude formation [14,32].

Despite these limitations, we present novel data to explore the potential for the distinct political attitudes of people with SS parents. Parental socialization is occasionally a factor in the political orientations of people with SS parents, though in unanticipated ways.

Supporting information

Acknowledgments

This manuscript was presented at the 2019 Western Political Science Association annual meeting in San Diego, California, United States of America. Thanks to Ben Bishin and Jeremiah Garretson for their helpful comments. We further thank our peer reviewers for their helpful feedback that strengthened this manuscript.