Religion, the state, and the states explain why Mexico has stronger LGBT rights than the US
Published on: Wednesday 25 April 2018
New research reveals the puzzling finding that Mexico has offered greater legal equality for LGBT people for a longer period of time than the United States. This can be explained by the wider separation of church and state in Mexican politics and the strong importance of human rights in new democracies. At the subnational level, states with more LGBT organisations and governors from left parties are more likely to recognise same sex relationships, but the religious makeup of states only matters in the United States, not in Mexico, write Caroline Beer (University of Vermont) and Victor Cruz Aceves (Christian-Albrechts Universität zu Kiel).
