Does All the Excitement Really End at Marriage? An Assessment of Same-Sex Marriage Legislation and LGBT Activis

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between the legalization of same-sex marriage, civil unions, and domestic partnerships with LGBT political participation and activism. There has long been a debate between several groups of LGBT activists on what the legalization of same-sex marriage will do to LGBT activism. Will achieving same-sex marriage ultimately hinder the movement or will it open new realms of possibility for change? This study aims to survey the arguments offered by a few prevalent sides of the same-sex marriage debate, then provide empirical information as support for one of those claims. This study will conduct a generalized ordinal logit of legalization and LGBT participation to offer evidence supporting an increase or decrease in likelihood for political participation after marriage legalization. The results showed that living in a legalized state does not necessarily increase the likelihood of participation in the LGBT community. Instead, education and income were significant factors in addressing the likelihood of participation among the LGBT community.