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

What explains the extension of greater rights to traditionally marginalized minorities? This paper compares the extension of legal equality to 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 U.S. The different findings at the national and subnational levels suggest the importance of subnational comparative analysis in heterogeneous federal systems.