Analysis shows laws lag public opinion on LGBT rights
A new examination of LGBT rights laws and public opinion across the U.S. shows legislators by and large have been followers rather than leaders on the issue. Catherine Rampell at the NY Times’ Economix Blog did an in-depth analysis of the phenomenon, concluding:
The takeaway: When policy does not match public opinion on gay and lesbian issues, the policy usually skews more conservative than what voters say they want, rather than more liberal (or in support of civil rights for gay people) than what voters say they want.
Do these disconnects between what voters say they want and what public servants are doing mean that our representative democracy is malfunctioning? Or simply slow? Or neither? You tell me.
One example: while nearly every state shows explicit support for extending spousal benefits to state employees, fewer than half of U.S. states actually have managed to grant this right.
The takeaway: When policy does not match public opinion on gay and lesbian issues, the policy usually skews more conservative than what voters say they want, rather than more liberal (or in support of civil rights for gay people) than what voters say they want.
The most obvious outlier is Iowa, where (as in pre-Proposition 8 California) a court decision approved same-sex marriage even though the policy did not have a majority of popular support.
Do these disconnects between what voters say they want and what public servants are doing mean that our representative democracy is malfunctioning? Or simply slow? Or neither? You tell me.
