Porn Use Linked to Gay Marriage Support, Researcher Finds
There is a correlation between watching porn and support for gay marriage among men, Dr. Mark Regnerus, associate professor of sociology at University of Texas at Austin, found. Exposure to diverse and graphic sex acts, he believes, may undermine a traditional view of marriage.
Using data from The New Family Structures Study, a project for which he was the principal investigator, Regnerus found statistically significant positive correlation between porn use and support for same-sex marriage among men, even after controlling for other predictors, such as political party, religiosity, marital status, age, education and sexual orientation.
In the full sample, 42 percent of men and 47 percent of women agreed or strongly agreed that gay marriage should be legal. Among men who view porn daily or almost daily, though, 54 percent strongly agreed (not just agreed) that gay marriage should be legal while only 13 percent who said they viewed porn monthly or less believed the same, Regnerus wrote for The Witherspoon Institute's "Public Discourse."
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Quoting Sherif Girgis, Dr. Robert P. George and Ryan T. Anderson, Regnerus notes that a view of marriage as a distinctive union of one man and one woman includes the notion that "it involves developing and sharing one's body and whole self in the way best suited for honorable parenthood -- among other things, permanently and exclusively."
Pornography undermines this view of marriage, Regnerus argues, because the sex that is portrayed in porn is the opposite of that view -- impermanent and non-exclusive.
"Gazers are treated to a veritable fire-hose dousing of sex-act diversity. (These are not your grandfather's Playboy,)" Regnerus wrote. "So, add to the sharing of bodies temporarily and nonexclusively a significant dose of alternative forms of sexual activity -- positions, roles, genders, and numbers --and that's basically where porn presses its consumers today: away from sex as having anything approaching a 'marital meaning' or structure of the sort outlined" by Girgis, George and Anderson.
Regnerus acknowledges that the correlation he found does not prove causation -- that viewing porn increases support for same-sex marriage -- but believes it unlikely that the path of causation flows in the opposite direction -- that support for same-sex marriage leads one to view porn.
"In the end, contrary to what we might wish to think, young adult men's support for redefining marriage may not be entirely the product of ideals about expansive freedoms, rights, liberties, and a noble commitment to fairness," Regnerus concludes. "It may be, at least in part, a byproduct of regular exposure to diverse and graphic sex acts."
