Media and scholastic accounts describe a strong public opinion backlash-a sharply negative and enduring opinion change-against attempts to advance gay rights. Academic research, however, increasingly questions backlash as an explanation for opposition to LGBT rights. Elite-Led Mobilization and Gay Rights argues that what appears to be public opinion backlash against gay rights is more consistent with elite-led mobilization-a strategy used by anti-gay elites, primarily white evangelicals, seeking to prevent the full incorporation of LGBT Americans in the polity in order to achieve political objectives and increase political power. This book defines and tests the theory of Mass Opinion Backlash and develops and tests the theory of Elite-Led Mobilization by employing a series of online and natural experiments, surrounding the U.S. Supreme Court rulings in Obergefell v. Hodges and United States v. Windsor, and President Obama's position change on gay marriage. To evaluate these theories, the authors employ extensive survey, voting behavior, and campaign finance data, and examine the history of the LGBT movement and its opposition by religious conservatives, from the Lavender Scare to the campaign against Trans Rights in the defeat of Houston's 2015 HERO ordinance. Their evidence shows that opposition to LGBT rights is a top-down process incited by anti-gay elites rather than a bottom-up reaction described by public opinion backlash.
Rezensionen / Stimmen
"This book pushes scholarship to more closely consider the link between rank-and-file movement actors and political elites, particularly as it relates to movement-countermovement dynamics within institutional politics. Moreover, as states introduce anti-trans and religious freedom laws, and the U.S. Supreme Court is poised (at this time) to challenge the right to privacy-an undergirding tenet of Obergefell v. Hodges (2015) and Lawrence v. Texas (2004)-this book serves as a call to action for academics, activists, and politicians to advocate and protect (LGBTQ + ) human rights."
-Political Science Quarterly -- Shawn Ratcliff * Political Science Quarterly *
Sprache
Verlagsort
Zielgruppe
Illustrationen
2 photos, 20 charts, 21 tables
Maße
Höhe: 229 mm
Breite: 152 mm
ISBN-13
978-0-472-13270-6 (9780472132706)
DOI
https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.11927173
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Klassifikation
Benjamin George Bishin is Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Riverside
Thomas J. Hayes is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Connecticut
Matthew B. Incantalupo is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Yeshiva University
Charles Anthony Smith is Professor of Political Science and Law at the University of California, Irvine
Preface
Chapter 1 Iowa's Irony
Chapter 2 Toward a Theory of Elite-Led Mobilization
Chapter 3 In Search of Backlash: The Experiments
Chapter 4 In Search of Backlash: Observational Evidence
Chapter 5 Institutions and Attitudes
Chapter 6 The History of Gay Rights: Backlash or Elite-Led Mobilization?
Chapter 7 Iowa's Judicial Retention Elections: Backlash or Elite-Led Mobilization?
Chapter 8 Organize, Mobilize, Legislate, and Litigate
Appendices
Notes
Bibliography
