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Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons

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Theses/Dissertations

2014

Gay rights -- United States -- Public opinion

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

The Effect Of Social Media On Public Awareness And Extra-Judicial Effects: The Gay Marriage Cases And Litigating For New Rights, Sarahfina Aubrey Peterson Oct 2014

The Effect Of Social Media On Public Awareness And Extra-Judicial Effects: The Gay Marriage Cases And Litigating For New Rights, Sarahfina Aubrey Peterson

Dissertations and Theses

When the Supreme Court grants new rights, public awareness is a crucial part of enforcement. Gerald N. Rosenberg and Michael J. Klarman famously criticized minority rights organizations for attempting to gain new rights through the judiciary. The crux of their argument relied heavily on the American media's scanty coverage of Court issues and subsequent low public awareness of Court cases. Using the 2013 United States v. Windsor and Hollingsworth v. Perry rulings as a case study, I suggest that the media environment has changed so much since Rosenberg and Klarman were writing that their theories warrant reconsideration. Minority rights groups …


Exploring Connections Between Efforts To Restrict Same-Sex Marriage And Surging Public Opinion Support For Same-Sex Marriage Rights: Could Efforts To Restrict Gay Rights Help To Explain Increases In Public Opinion Support For Same-Sex Marriage?, Samuel Everett Christian Dunlop May 2014

Exploring Connections Between Efforts To Restrict Same-Sex Marriage And Surging Public Opinion Support For Same-Sex Marriage Rights: Could Efforts To Restrict Gay Rights Help To Explain Increases In Public Opinion Support For Same-Sex Marriage?, Samuel Everett Christian Dunlop

Dissertations and Theses

Scholarly research on the subject of the swift pace of change in support for same-sex marriage has evolved significantly over the last ten years. The shift has gone beyond the scholarship's initial description amongst demographic groups on how opinion has changed on gay rights issues, like same-sex marriage, to an examination of why the change has occurred. A great deal of the initial research on the topic seemed to focus on demographic traits that suggested a greater propensity toward support for same-sex marriage as time went on. Is the existent literature sufficient to explain why such a dramatic change in …