Christian and Political Conservatism Predict Opposition to Sexual and Gender Minority Rights through Support for Christian Hegemony

• Published in: American journal of community psychology Vol. 66; no. 1-2; pp. 24 - 38
• Main Authors: Todd, Nathan R., Yi, Jacqueline, Blevins, Emily J., McConnell, Elizabeth A., Mekawi, Yara, Boeh Bergmann, Brett A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Blackwell Science Ltd 01-09-2020
• Subjects: Christian conservatism; Christian hegemony; Christian privilege; Christianity; Christians; Cisgender; Conservatism; Hegemony; Heterosexuality; Housing; Lesbian, gay, transgender rights; Minority groups; Religion; Rights; Same‐sex marriage; Social privilege; Structural equation modeling; Transgender persons; United States > US; Christian conservatism; Lesbian, gay, transgender rights; Christian hegemony; Christian privilege; Same-sex marriage
• ISSN: 0091-0562; 1573-2770
• DOI: 10.1002/ajcp.12420

Highlights
Opposition to sexual and gender minority (SGM) rights persists in the United States.
Christian conservatism and political conservatism are linked to opposition to SGM rights.
In this study, support for Christian hegemony helped to explain this link.
Our results suggest that a system of Christian power and privilege is a barrier to SGM rights.
Although significant strides have been made for sexual and gender minority (SGM) rights in the United States, there continues to be opposition to SGM rights from many conservative Christians and political conservatives. In this study, we investigate this opposition by examining support for Christian hegemony (i.e., the idea that Christianity should be the norm and Christians should be in power in the United States) and unawareness of Christian privilege (i.e., unearned advantages for Christians) as religiopolitical variables that help to explain the association between Christian and political conservatism and opposition to a host of SGM rights (same‐sex marriage, same‐sex adoption, nondiscrimination policies in jobs and housing for SGMs, and bills regarding transgender public bathroom use). Based on structural equation modeling analysis with heterosexual cisgender Christian (n = 688) and Areligious (n = 327) students, we demonstrate that support for Christian hegemony and unawareness of Christian privilege help to explain the association between Christian and political conservatism and opposition to SGM rights. These findings advance our understanding of a new type of religious‐based variable focused on religious power and privilege to help understand conservative religious and political opposition to SGM rights. Limitations, implications, and directions for future research also are discussed.