Coming from comparative research on morality politics in Europe, in this paper I will discuss the impact of religion on the decision-making around homosexual partnerships from a transatlantic perspective. Despite striking differences in terms of size, modernization, history or political culture we can find similarities between Poland and the US when it comes to decision-making-processes around morally sensitive issues. In both states, for the last decade, homophobia dominated the societal and political discourse about recognizing same-sex-partnership. Currently, we can observe a more liberal trend. Why is that the case? Common explanations refer to church-state-relations and confessional traditions. In that regard, however, Catholic Poland with its semi-established Church and Mixed-Protestant United States with its “wall-of-separation” clearly differ. Against this backdrop I suggest rather assessing, to what extent national identity is linked to religion, and, thus, is religion accepted to play a public role. Furthermore, instead of analyzing different confessional patterns one should take a cross-confessional/denominational perspective, asking whether religious positions are liberal or conservative. Both factors will shape the likeliness of political decision-makers to allow conservative views to influence moral-political decisions – or to refrain from it.
