Christian Nationalism is Unbounded by LGB Identity

Previous research has noted that those who hold Christian nationalist worldviews hew strongly toward anti-gay rights policy, among other hierarchical, discriminatory commitments. Thus far, no research has explored the extent of Christian nationalism and the consistency of its relationships with public policy across sexual orientations. Drawing on multiple datasets with appropriate questions from 2017 through 2023, we document that there are, in fact, LGB Americans with Christian nationalist views. And then we find only small gaps and many similar slopes in how they link Christian nationalism to their policy positions. Moreover, unlike the pattern among racial groups, the similarities do not stop at the ingroup door—we find Christian nationalist LGB Americans taking positions against anti-LGB-discrimination efforts and against same-sex marriage. We argue that LGB Christian nationalism is a response to acceptance threat and that religion plays an especially strong role in leading LGB Americans to advocate for a Christian America devoid of equality for LGB Americans.