Migration Patterns and Marriage Equality: Evidence of Time’s Effect and Political Migration in the 1988 and the 2004 to 2014 General Social Survey

Attitudes toward marriage equality have gradually become more accepting as more and more states have passed legislation that acknowledged full or partial recognition of marriage equality. Given the traditionally conservative behavior of the South, this article analyzes how regional migration patterns and time affect attitudes toward marriage equality from the 1988 and the 2004 to 2014 General Social Survey data sets using a generalized linear mixed model. We find that migrant southerners, migrant northerners, and native northerners are more likely to support marriage equality than native southerners are. Furthermore, time seems to also play a significant role in understanding trends in attitudes toward marriage equality. We conclude by suggesting future research