There have been major shifts at the state level in social and legal rights available to women and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (“LGBT”) individuals. Variation in policies across states has ...resulted in a patchwork of rights for these groups. In this study, we examine the effects of state-level policies on migration attitudes, including restrictions on abortion, gender-affirming medical care, transgender individuals’ access to sports in schools, discussions about gender and sexuality in schools, same-sex marriage, and employment discrimination based on sexual orientation. Drawing on survey data from 1061 participants, we pay particular attention to how state-level political context and sociodemographic factors shape desire to move to a state with newly restrictive gender and sexuality policies. Results indicate that restrictive state policies on abortion and LGBT issues serve as both push and pull factors affecting desire to move to a state. Although political orientation provides the greatest explanatory power for migration attitudes, the majority of survey respondents across political orientations reported that these policies either made them less likely to want to move to a state or did not affect their desires. Further, state-level political climate, gender, sexual orientation, race, parenthood status, income, and willingness to migrate for work, political climate, or education were related to migration attitudes. Findings suggest that states enacting these policies could experience economic effects due to a decline in migration, particularly for those seeking employment opportunities or pursuits of higher education. In addition, states could see a decline in migration from women and LGBT individuals, and their allies.
Objective
To examine the role of family law attorneys in providing counsel regarding the legal rights, vulnerabilities, and implications of marriage for their lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender ...(LGBT) clients.
Background
Although the acquisition of state and federal marital rights could result in a convergence of practice experiences for family lawyers representing LGBT and heterosexual clients, the contentious legal history surrounding LGBT individuals could continue to produce different client demands surrounding marriage.
Method
This study draws on in‐depth interviews with 21 family law attorneys with LGBT clients.
Results
Participants attributed the demand for legal counseling about the marriage decision to a lack of socialization into marriage and uncertainty and skepticism regarding the permanence of legal changes. They indicated requests for legal counseling varied by age cohort and by the legal and sociopolitical context in which clients were nested.
Conclusion
The practice of family lawyers has been responsive to rapid legal and cultural shifts for LGBT individuals and their families, resulting in the emergence of new foci of legal counseling surrounding the marriage decision.
Implications
Family lawyers might consider a more concerted effort to offer legal counseling about the marriage decision, particularly for older LGBT clients, those living in negative sociopolitical environments, and different‐sex couples.
Lawyers who practice family law for LGBT clients are key players in the tenuous and evolving legal environment surrounding same-sex marriage recognition. Building on prior research on factors shaping ...the professional identities of lawyers generally, and activist lawyers specifically, I examine how practice within a rapidly changing, patchwork legal environment shapes professional identity for this group of lawyers. I draw on interviews with 21 LGBT family lawyers to analyze how the unique features of LGBT family law shape their professional identities and practice, as well as their predictions about the development of the practice in a post-Obergefell world. Findings reveal that the professional identities and practice of LGBT family lawyers are shaped by uncertainty, characteristics of activist lawyering, community membership, and community service. Individual motivations and institutional forces work to generate a professional identity that is resilient and dynamic, characterized by skepticism and distrust coupled with flexibility and creativity. These features are likely to play a role in the evolution of the LGBT family lawyer professional identity post-marriage equality.
In 2013, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) began allowing anyone who believed that they experienced sexual orientation or gender identity (SOGI) discrimination to file charges of sex ...discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. Very little is known about the impact of the EEOC's decision and whether it has enhanced protections for LGBT people. In this brief report, we present preliminary findings on trends and patterns in charge filing, paying particular attention to differences that emerge in charges filed in states with and without SOGI employment nondiscrimination laws. Differences in the characteristics of charging parties, allegations, and charge outcomes suggest that legal protections operating at the state level shape the experiences and disputing behaviors of LGBT individuals in pursuing Title VII remedies.
In this article, I examine how a history of legal conflict has produced a constantly evolving professional identity for lawyers representing lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender (LGBT) clients on family ...matters. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 21 lawyers, I describe variation across areas of specialization, advertising, clientele, and access to professional networks. In addition, I focus on how sociopolitical and legal context shapes professional identity and practice for these lawyers, demonstrating the importance of practice location for this group of lawyers. Although interviews were conducted prior to national marriage recognition, these findings provide insight into the future development of the LGBT family law profession post-'Obergefell'.
As set forth in Article I of the US Constitution, seats in the US House of Representatives will be assigned to the states based on counts of the population obtained through the decennial census. The ...Constitution is silent regarding the definition of the apportionment population. Given current partisan debates regarding immigration and citizenship questions on the 2020 Census, in this article we ask how the 2020 apportionment of House seats might change if the apportionment definition is altered via aspects of citizenship and immigration. We show, first, that historical immigration has significantly favored states that, based on recent election results, tend Democratic. This goes a long way toward explaining the deep political schism on immigration. A second scenario indicates that excluding non-citizens from the apportionment population would have a minor effect on apportionment from the Republican vs. Democratic-leaning state perspective. Most striking and timely, removing undocumented immigrants from the apportionment population would have only trivial effects on the partisan political alignment of the US House of Representatives. There would be little to no change in the overall number of seats allocated to Republican- or Democratic-trending states. The addition of a citizenship question on the 2020 Census, which will likely increase the population undercount, will be unlikely to significantly alter the political strength of either party in the US House of Representatives.
•Elders in same-sex partnerships differ across financial and health outcomes.•Women in same-sex partnerships fare worse than men or women in other couple types.•Worse outcomes might be a result of ...cumulative effects of the sex of their partner.•Worse outcomes might result from less access to benefits associated with marriage.
In this article, I use pooled data from the 2008–2010 American Community Surveys to examine outcomes for different-sex married, different-sex cohabiting, and same-sex cohabiting elders across several key economic and health indicators, as well as other demographic characteristics. The findings suggest that elders in same-sex cohabiting partnerships differ from those in different-sex marriages and different-sex cohabiting relationships in terms of both financial and health outcomes, and that women in same-sex cohabiting partnerships fare worse than men or women in other couple types. The results indicate that financial implications related to the sex of one’s partner might be more predictive of economic and health outcomes in old age, rather than solely access to legal marriage. Nonetheless, findings suggest that individuals in same-sex cohabiting partnerships might experience worse outcomes in old age as a result of cumulative effects across the life course from both the sex of their partner (in the case of female couples) as well as their lack of access to benefits associated with marriage. Accordingly, these findings demonstrate that persons in same-sex cohabiting partnerships require unique policy considerations to address health and economic concerns in old age.
In this paper we use data from the 2002 National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) to ascertain and analyze patterns of asexuality in the United States. We endeavor to extend the earlier work of Bogaert ...(2004) on this topic, which focused on patterns of asexuality in Great Britain. Using a social constructionist perspective to study asexuality, we conceptualize and measure the phenomenon in several ways, according to behavior, desire, and self-identification. We use the NSFG respondent sampling weights to produce several sets of unbiased estimates of the percentages of persons in the U.S. population, aged 15-44, who are asexual; each set is based on one or more of the various definitions of asexuality. Finally, we describe some of the characteristics of the asexual population using logistic regression.
This article builds on earlier studies that have examined "the economic cost of homosexuality," by using data from the 2000 U.S. Census and by employing multilevel analyses. Our findings indicate ...that partnered gay men experience a 12.5 percent earnings penalty compared to married heterosexual men, and a statistically insignificant earnings penalty compared to partnered heterosexual men, when both individual-and state-level characteristics are taken into account. Partnered lesbians experience about a 3.5 percent earnings advantage compared to married heterosexual women, and a 9 percent earnings advantage compared to partnered heterosexual women. Although individual-level characteristics are the primary determinants of their earnings, we find that some contextual characteristics affect the earnings of partnered gay men and lesbians, relative to partnered heterosexuals, and that these effects vary by sex.
Objectives. Prior research has repeatedly shown that parenthood affects employment outcomes; mothers have, on average, lower wages and are less likely to be hired than childless women. Some research ...indicates that this effect of parenthood on employment outcomes is dependent on sexual orientation. In particular, lesbian mothers might be treated more like childless women by those making employment decisions. This article examines the degree to which the lesbian wage advantage can be explained by lesbians avoiding the motherhood wage penalty experienced by heterosexual women. Methods. Drawing on 2000 U.S. Census data, this issue is first explored via ordinary least squares regression equations that estimate the effect of having a child present in the household on income. The Blinder-Oaxaca method is then employed to decompose the earnings differential between heterosexual and gay individuals. Results. Results indicate that lesbians appear to experience a motherhood advantage that increases their wages by approximately 20 percent. Further, results support the notion that lesbians receive different returns to the presence of children in the household than do heterosexual women. Approximately 35 percent of the wage differential between lesbians and heterosexual women is attributable to differences in returns to child rearing. Conclusion. These findings have relevance for state and federal anti-discrimination laws and work/family policies, as they provide further insight into the role that gender, and gender-based assumptions, play in determining employment outcomes.
PDF
