Digital Commons Network^™

"Social" Movements: A Trend Analysis Of The Role Of Social Media In Social Movements, Courtney Nelson Stubbs

Theses and Dissertations

The gay rights movement has been very active on social media throughout the years. Using a trend analysis this study aimed to answer how social media is being used during a social movement, how a social movement evolves on social media, and how social media is being used by organizations as a public relations strategy to create change in social movements. Overall, the findings revealed 11 different ways social media is being used during a social movement, which shows how important opinion leaders are in helping a social movement gain traction and create the desired impact.

Where The Rainbow Ends: The Hidden Humanitarian Crisis For Members Of The Lgbtqia+ Community In International Business, John R. Krendel

Senior Honors Projects, 2020-current

Before pursuing an international career, members of the LGBTQIA+ community must be aware of the hardship that may be exacerbated by living and working abroad. This study addresses the trends in laws, including employment and anti-discrimination laws, that provide and restrict certain rights of members of the LGBTQIA+ community in eight countries. These nations, both progressive and discriminatory, include the United States, England, Switzerland, Germany, Taiwan, China, the Philippines and Kazakhstan. Eight LGBTQIA+ business professionals spoke on their experiences living and working in each of these countries and provided advice to members of the community wishing to pursue an international …

Assimilating Through Consumption: A Rhetorical History Of The Early Years Of The Advocate, Cora Beth Butcher-Spellman

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis uses analysis of constitutive rhetoric and queer archival methods to examines how The Advocate used assimilationist rhetoric and consumerist rhetoric in fundamentally anti-democratic ways to consolidate the form of ideal gay consumer-citizenship. Focusing on the first three years of the publication, I utilize queer theory and theories of citizenship and political economy to explain how The Advocate’s rhetoric and mainstream success allowed the publication to normalize a limited and politically weak gay identity. This thesis argues The Advocate’s rhetoric of exclusion, authority, and consumerism were three central features shaping ideal gay consumer-citizenship as most available to people who …

The Aids Virus And The Galvanization Of The Lgbtq Movement For Equality, Michael Ernest Wachowski

Graduate Theses

The LGBTQ community was greatly altered by the AIDS crisis and the organizations that were founded in the 1980s. AIDS would become associated with those of the gay community during the early years of the crisis. The government and leading health officials perpetuated the public’s ignorance about the relativity new disease leading to more misunderstandings and mishandlings of the HIV/AIDS crisis. The disease did not discriminate among people, however, and quickly spread throughout many of the communities in the U.S. Organizations with roots in the LGBTQ community established themselves during the 1980s to deal with not only the AIDS crisis, …

How The Climate Of Opinion In States And Countries Influences Gay Rights, John Poe

Theses and Dissertations--Political Science

This dissertation examines attitudes on same-sex marriage and how personal predispositions toward support and the climate of opinion interact to help create attitudes. Over the past few decades, support for gay rights has increased dramatically in the United States and many other countries around the world. I argue that, while the set of basic personal determinants of attitudes toward homosexuality and gay rights stays roughly the same, the impact of such determinants changes over time and space. The framework used in this dissertation draws on attitudinal and political psychology, political sociology and theories of contextual effects. I argue that over …

Lobbying To Lawsuits : Optimistic Biases And Tactical Transitions In The Movement For Lgbt Equality, Katherine Zuber

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This research examines the question of strategic choice in the context of the gay and lesbian rights movement. Although social movements often combine legislative, electoral and legal strategies to effect change, systematic legal efforts on behalf of gay rights did not emerge until well after a concerted lobbying and legislative campaign arose. Why did a politically powerless group seeking rights turn to litigation much later than we might have expected? A targeted case study of gay activism in Boston confirms that political opportunity is an important external factor that shapes strategic choice. However, the impact of these structural factors is …

A Comparative Analysis Between The Histories And Methods Of The Pro-Life And Lgbt Movements, Savanna B. Fox

Honors Theses

This thesis explores the connection between the elite theory and social movements by comparing the success of the pro-life and gay rights movements in America and investigating the effects that elite influence has had on these movements. The research is deductive in nature, investigating the elite theory in relation to social movements. The methodology of this project is organized as a comparative analysis between the gay rights and pro-life causes. The research discovers that elite influence, whether a social movement appeals to morality politics or interest group politics, and what kind of policy changes a movement seeks to affect all …

White Women Wanted? An Analysis Of Gender Diversity In Social Justice Magazines, Corey Lee Wrenn, Megan Lutz

Diversity and Social Movements Collection

The role of media in collective action repertoires has been extensively studied, but media as an agent of socialization in social movement identity is less understood. It could be that social movement media is normalizing a particular activist identity to the exclusion of other demographics. For instance, Harper has identified white-centrism in anti-speciesist media produced by the Nonhuman Animal rights movement and supposes that this lack of diversity stunts movement potential. Using the lesser-studied Nonhuman Animal rights movement as a starting point, this study investigates two prominent Nonhuman Animal rights magazines. We compare those findings with an analysis of comparable …

Free Religion Is Not Free Discrimination, Donald Roth

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"When Indiana Governor Mike Pence signed Indiana’s version of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) into law on March 26, it kicked up a firestorm of controversy and is already seeing a wave of backlash... and a variety of other public criticisms sounding the same general concern that this bill is creating a 'license to discriminate' or that it is blatantly 'anti-gay'. But is the rhetoric regarding the Indiana law and the Arkansas bill justified?”

Posting about legislative action and gay rights from In All Things - an online hub committed to the claim that the life, death, and resurrection …

Pluralism And Its Perils: Navigating The Tension Between Gay Rights And Religious Expression, Nan D. Hunter

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The conflict between gay equality claims and religious liberty claims permeates debates over marriage equality and LGBT civil rights. Using as its centerpiece a decision that forced Georgetown University to provide benefits for a gay student organization, this article examines both the doctrinal underpinnings of how courts resolve the tension between gay rights and religion and the principles of pluralism that are at stake.

The Georgetown case is rightly understood as an exemplar of judicial minimalism. This article argues that the values of learning things undecided, while real, may be outweighed by lost opportunities for advancing principles that also foster …

The Rhetoric Of Gay Christians: Matthew Vines And Reverend Nancy Wilson As Exemplars, Josu Miller

Graduate Research Symposium (2010 - 2017)

In the United States, there is a perception that the gay rights debate situates Christians against gay rights advocates. According to this perception, Christians oppose gay rights, because the Bible condemns homosexuality as a sin, and those who support gay rights do so using purely secular arguments. This perception of the gay rights debate is flawed and overly simplistic, because simply not all Christians oppose gay rights. In fact, there are multiple interpretations of biblical texts that support homosexuality and have caused a gay rights debate within the church that is as complex and intricate as gay rights debate outside …

Habermas, Same-Sex Marriage And The Problem Of Religion In Public Life, Darren R. Walhof

Peer Reviewed Articles

This article addresses the debate over religion in the public sphere by analysing the conception of ‘religion’ in the recent work of Habermas, who claims to mediate the divide between those who defend public appeals to religion without restriction and those who place limits on such appeals. I argue that Habermas’ translation requirement and his restriction on religious reasons in the institutional public sphere rest on a conception of religion as essentially apolitical in its origin. This conception, I argue, remains embedded in a standard secularization framework, despite Habermas’ claim to offer a new account of secularization. This approach betrays …

Exploring The Determinants Of Gay Rights Policies At The State Level: A Mixed Methods Approach, Daniel Elton Call

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Much of the literature on gay rights has focused broadly on identifying the causal factors that influence general public perceptions. To date, although scholars have conducted case studies at the state-level or looked at aggregate public opinion trends and their effects at the national level, no work has empirically examined state-level gay rights trends across numerous states. This study fills that gap by assessing the key relationships on the issue of same-sex marriage at the state-level, both systemically with aggregate data and across key states. Using 2007 data from the SurveyUSA polling firm, the American Community Survey (US Census Bureau …

Gay Marriage In The Utah And California Media: A Content Analysis Of Newspaper Frames Used In The Coverage Of Proposition 8, Michael Todd Hollingshead

Theses and Dissertations

This study is a content analysis of news frames used in the coverage of Proposition 8 by newspapers in Utah and California, spanning the three months prior to its passage in November 2008, to the three months after its passage. A total of 401 news stories from five newspapers were analyzed to examine which of five news frames (attribution of responsibility, human interest, conflict, morality, and economic consequence) were used most predominantly and if the use of those frames varied by newspaper. Conflict was the most predominantly used frame, followed by attribution of responsibility, morality, economic consequence and human interest. …

Why Did Californians Pass Proposition 8? Stability And Change In Public Support For Same-Sex Marriage, Gregory B. Lewis

PMAP Publications

Despite numerous public opinion polls indicating that California voters would defeat Proposition 8, a proposed constitutional amendment to limit marriage to one man and one woman, Election Day 2008 brought an end to six months of marriage equality for same-sex couples. This paper explores four possible explanations for why Californians passed Proposition 8 despite the polls: (1) poll respondents did not respond honestly to pollsters; (2) some respondents who opposed same-sex marriage were initially reluctant to amend the constitution for this purpose; (3) the campaign over the amendment changed people’s opinions about same-sex marriage; and (4) poll respondents did not …

The Supreme Court's "Maverick" Justice: John Paul Stevens And Same-Sex Marriage, Jamie Acree

Master's Theses

This thesis predicts how United States Supreme Court Associate Justice John Paul Stevens would have ruled on the constitutionality of same-sex marriage if the issue were to have come before him while he was on the Court. The hypothesis is that he would have found a constitutional right to same-sex marriage. The hypothesis is substantiated based on an analysis of Stevens‟ record in ten specific cases. The thesis puts forth the argument that these ten cases most accurately predict how Stevens would have voted on the constitutional issue. Stevens‟ opinions and dissents in these cases are examined. Additionally, included is …

Privacy Torts: Unreliable Remedies For Lgbt Plaintiffs, Anita L. Allen

All Faculty Scholarship

In the United States, both constitutional law and tort law recognize the right to privacy, understood as legal entitlement to an intimate life of one’s own free from undue interference by others and the state. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (“LGBT”) persons have defended their interests in dignity, equality, autonomy, and intimate relationships in the courts by appealing to that right. In the constitutional arena, LGBT Americans have claimed the protection of state and federal privacy rights with a modicum of well-known success. Holding that homosexuals have the same right to sexual privacy as heterosexuals, Lawrence v. Texas symbolizes the …

Marriage For Some: Explaining The Variation In Gay Rights And Marriage Policy And Opinion Among States And Individuals, Jeffrey Billman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research aims to answer a simple question: Why are some individuals, and some states, more willing to extend protections to same-sex couples than are others? Drawing from the literature, I perform a battery of quantitative tests on variables most commonly associated with gay rights and gay marriage policy development: liberalism, education, age, religiosity, authoritarianism, tolerance, urbanization, and moral traditionalism. While I find that all of these variables have a relationship with gay rights and gay marriage opinion, I argue that those associated with religiosity have the strongest pull. However, religiosity does not act alone; moral traditionalism, age, and ideology …

The One-Child Policy, Gay Rights, And Social Reorganization In China, Kody Gerkin

Human Rights & Human Welfare

China’s youth are becoming adults in an unprecedented era. The Chinese have achieved rapid, sustained economic growth under a Communist government that has simultaneously been initiating a wide range of social planning initiatives.

Don't Ask Don't Tell And The Uri Community, Justin Thames

Senior Honors Projects

When Bill Clinton and his staff introduced the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell Bill(US Code 10) it created quite a controversy. The bill was designed to replace the then current system of asking for an individual’s sexual orientation on a military application thus making homosexuality a barrier to service in the United States Armed Forces. The bill was finally passed in 1993 and is meant to keep people in power from discriminating on the basis of homosexuality. This new law requires that no investigations be launched to identify the sexual orientation of a service member nor will hearsay be allowed to …

Love, Change, Mari J. Matsuda

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This is morality: to include all as human and entitled to the deepest love and care. This is the distillation of everything the author fights for as a feminist, a critical race theorist, and a peace activist. Since we are at war, having sent to date 1,500 U.S. soldiers off to die, speaking against war and for peace is a current imperative. Then comes this invitation to speak as a critical race theorist on the subject of same-sex marriage.

Without marriage you can do everything that counts in marriage except that which requires the imprint of the state. What you …

The Complex Uses Of Sexual Orientation In Criminal Court, Abbe Smith

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Times may or may not be changing for gay people in the criminal justice system--and for the import of sexual orientation in criminal law. It depends on the nature of the case and, more importantly, exactly whose sexual orientation we are talking about.

Signs of positive change include the recent high profile Matthew Shepard and Diane Whipple cases, in which gay and lesbian homicide victims were mourned not only by the gay community, but also by the entire country. It was no doubt helpful that both Shepard and Whipple presented very appealing images of gay people: each was young, attractive, …

Attitude Functions And Political Behavior: The Issue Of Gay Civil Rights, Josephine Young

Dissertations and Theses

This study explored the relationship between voters' political behavior regarding the issue of gay rights and the underlying psychological needs served by their attitudes on this issue. A telephone survey of 100 randomly selected local voters was conducted, during which Herek's (1987) Attitude Functions Inventory (AFI) was administered. Three of the four attitude function subscales (Experiential- Schematic, Social-Expressive and Ego-Defensive) were confirmed using a LISREL confirmatory factor analysis. The Value-Expressive subscale was not confirmed and showed poor reliability. Pro- and anti-gay rights behavior was measured using a Political Behavior Index (PBI) developed for this study. Regression analyses and MANOVAs were …

Maine Statewide News Letter No. 80 (September 1986), Institute For Nonviolence, Education, Research, And Training Staff

Maine Women's Publications - All

No abstract provided.

Maine Statewide News Letter No. 79 (August 1986), Institute For Nonviolence, Education, Research, And Training Staff

Maine Women's Publications - All

No abstract provided.

Maine Statewide News Letter No. 78 (July 1986), Institute For Nonviolence, Education, Research, And Training Staff

Maine Women's Publications - All

No abstract provided.

Maine Statewide News Letter No. 77 (June 1986), Institute For Nonviolence, Education, Research, And Training Staff

Maine Women's Publications - All

No abstract provided.

Maine Statewide News Letter No. 76 (May 1986), Institute For Nonviolence, Education, Research, And Training Staff

Maine Women's Publications - All

No abstract provided.

Maine Statewide News Letter No. 75 (April 1986), Institute For Nonviolence, Education, Research, And Training Staff

Maine Women's Publications - All

No abstract provided.

Maine Statewide News Letter No. 74 (March 1986), Institute For Nonviolence, Education, Research, And Training Staff

Maine Women's Publications - All

No abstract provided.