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Extending Rights to Marginalized Minorities: Same-Sex Relationship Recognition in Mexico and the United States

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2021

Caroline Beer  and
Victor D. Cruz-Aceves
Caroline Beer*
Affiliation:
University of Vermont, Burlington, VT, USA
Victor D. Cruz-Aceves
Affiliation:
Kiel University, Kiel, Germany
*
Caroline Beer, University of Vermont, 94 University Place, Old Mill 533, Burlington, VT 05405, USA. Email: caroline.beer@uvm.edu
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Abstract

What explains the extension of greater rights to traditionally marginalized minorities? This article compares the extension of legal equality to lebian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in Mexico and the United States with a focus on the legal recognition of same-sex relationships. A national-level comparison of gay rights in Mexico and the United States presents a theoretical puzzle: most theories predict that the United States would have more egalitarian policies than Mexico, but in fact, Mexico has provided greater legal equality for LGBT people for a longer time than the United States. A subnational analysis of equal relationship rights in the United States and Mexico provides evidence to support social movement and partisan theories of minority rights. We find that religion plays a different role in Mexico than in the United States. The different findings at the national and subnational levels suggest the importance of subnational comparative analysis in heterogeneous federal systems.

Keywords

politics of sexualityidentity/group politicssocial movementsgender policypublic policysame-sex marriagecomparative federalismfederalism
Type
Research Article
Information
State Politics & Policy Quarterly , Volume 18 , Issue 1 , March 2018 , pp. 3 - 26
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2018

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