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African, Religious, and Tolerant? How Religious Diversity Shapes Attitudes Toward Sexual Minorities in Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 September 2019

Sarah K. Dreier ,
James D. Long  and
Stephen J. Winkler
Sarah K. Dreier
Affiliation:
University of Washington
James D. Long*
Affiliation:
University of Washington
Stephen J. Winkler
Affiliation:
University of Washington
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: James D. Long, Department of Political Science, University of Washington, 101 Gowen Hall Box 353530, Seattle, WA98195. E-mail: jdlong@uw.edu.
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Abstract

Despite trends towards greater LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer) rights in industrialized democracies, the rights of sexual minorities have become increasingly politicized and restricted throughout Africa. Recognizing religion's central role in shaping attitudes toward gays and lesbians, we hypothesize that local religious diversity could expose individuals to alternative religious perspectives, engender tolerance toward marginalized communities, and therefore dislodge dogmatic beliefs about social issues. Employing cross-national Afrobarometer survey data from 33 countries with an index of district-level religious concentration, we find that respondents living in religiously pluralistic communities are 4–5 points more likely to express tolerance of homosexual neighbors (50% increase) compared to those in homogeneous locales. This effect is not driven by outlier countries, the existence of specific religious affiliations within diverse communities, respondents' religiosity, or other observable and latent factors at the country, sub-national, district, and individual level. Further robustness checks address potential threats to validity. We conclude that religious diversity can foster inclusion of sexual minorities in Africa.

Type
Article
Information
Politics and Religion , Volume 13 , Issue 2 , June 2020 , pp. 273 - 303
Copyright
Copyright © Religion and Politics Section of the American Political Science Association 2019

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Footnotes

Long acknowledges financial support from the Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies; Winkler acknowledges financial support from the National Science Foundation (DGE-1256082). We thank the University of Washington's Center for Statistics and the Social Sciences, Center for Social Science Computation and Research, Christopher Adolph, Loren Collingwood, Jeff Arnold, Sam Payment, and Sophia Wallace for helpful comments. Replication data are publicly available from Afrobarometer at http://afrobarometer.org/data/merged-round-6-data-36-countries-2016; replication files used in this paper are posted at https://github.com/skdreier/religion_lgbtq.

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