The Battle Over Marriage: Gay Rights Activism Through the Media - Softcover

Moscowitz, Leigh

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0252079604 ISBN 13: 9780252079603

Verlag: University of Illinois Press, 2013

Inhaltsangabe

Over the past decade, the controversial issue of gay marriage has emerged as a primary battle in the culture wars and a definitive social issue of our time. The subject moved to the forefront of mainstream public debate in 2004, when San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom began authorizing same-sex marriage licenses, and it has remained in the forefront through three presidential campaigns and numerous state ballot initiatives. In this thorough analysis, Leigh Moscowitz examines how prominent news outlets presented this issue from 2003 to 2012, a time when intense news coverage focused unprecedented attention on gay and lesbian life.

 

During this time, LGBT rights leaders sought to harness the power of media to advocate for marriage equality and to reform their community's public image. Building on in-depth interviews with activists and a comprehensive, longitudinal study of news stories, Moscowitz investigates these leaders' aims and how their frames, tactics, and messages evolved over time. In the end, media coverage of the gay marriage debate both aided and undermined the cause. Media exposure gave activists a platform to discuss gay and lesbian families. But it also triggered an upsurge in opposing responses and pressured activists to depict gay life in a way calculated to appeal to heterosexual audiences. Ultimately, The Battle over Marriage reveals both the promises and the limitations of commercial media as a route to social change.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Leigh Moscowitz is an assistant professor of communication at the College of Charleston.

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The Battle over Marriage

Gay Rights Activism through the Media

By LEIGH MOSCOWITZ

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS PRESS

Copyright © 2013 Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-0-252-07960-3

Contents

Acknowledgments, ix, 
1. Gay Marriage in an Era of Media Visibility, 1, 
2. Fighting the "Battle to Be Boring": Marriage as a Portal into the Mainstream, 25, 
3. "The Marrying Kind": The Face of Gay Marriage in the News, 53, 
4. Gay Marriage Goes Prime-Time: Journalistic Norms Frame the Debate, 77, 
5. Speaking Out: Representing Gay Perspectives in News Discourse, 99, 
6. Conclusion: The Trouble with Marriage, 125, 
Appendix: Studying Gay Marriage in the Media, 135, 
Notes, 149, 
References, 151, 
Index, 159, 

CHAPTER 1

Gay Marriage in an Era of Media Visibility

My marriage, it's my center. It's the core of who I am as a humanbeing. It's the base that you turn back to.

—Carol Adair, who married her lesbian partnerof 25 years in San Francisco in February 2004

There are millions of Americans angry and disgusted by what theysee on TV—two brides, two grooms, but not a man and a woman.This is the new civil war in America.

—Randy Thomasson, executive directorof the Campaign for California Families

For nearly a decade, longtime partners Davina Kotulski and Molly McKaycelebrated Valentine's Day by dressing up in traditional wedding garb: Davinain a tux, Molly in a white gown. They stood in line with hundreds of opposite-sexcouples at San Francisco's city hall to request a marriage license. Everyyear, they were denied one. As a committed lesbian couple and activists inthe movement for marriage equality, Davina and Molly rehearsed their annualfutile quest for a marriage license precisely so that they would be turneddown in front of local television news crews and newspaper photographers.With the goal of creating, as Davina put it, "a media stir," they came yearafter year to protest their exclusion to the institution of marriage, to "rendervisible the discrimination we face on a daily basis."

On February 16, 2004, Davina and Molly's desire for a state-sanctionedwedding was finally fulfilled. Capturing headlines around the globe, SanFrancisco mayor Gavin Newsom had begun issuing marriage licenses tosame-sex couples in defiance of California law. Approximately 1,400 gay andlesbian couples, many of whom had traveled hundreds of miles to wait in lineovernight in the cold rain, met in San Francisco to be a part of the media-dubbedsame-sex "marriage marathon." Millions of Americans who tunedin to national and local television news broadcasts witnessed somethingthey had not seen before, which for most was beyond their imagination: gayand lesbian couples getting married "legally"—at least what was consideredtemporarily legal. By the end of the week, more than 3,900 gay and lesbiancouples were married.

The matrimonial marathon that took place in San Francisco was one of themost visible moments in a series of legal and cultural events that catapultedthe issue of gay marriage to the center stage of mainstream cultural debate.In the 2000s same-sex marriage emerged not only as an important electionyear issue but also as a central battle waged in the culture wars. Homosexuals'bid for marriage rights quickly became a wedge issue, "one of the culturalfault lines dividing the two Americas" in what was already a contentiouspolitical climate (Rosenberg & Breslau, 2004, p. 23).

Moreover, the intense news coverage of the divisive issue in the U.S. mediafocused unprecedented attention on gay and lesbian life. Stories like those ofDavina and Molly were featured in national newsmagazines and on morningnews programs. The topic of gay marriage became a front-page storyin leading national newspapers like the Washington Post and the New YorkTimes. Local papers across the country, especially in conservative regions,gave the issue "dramatic play" (Jurkowitz, 2004, p. 1). Images of same-sexcouples waiting in line to obtain marriage licenses led the local and eveningnewscasts. Almost overnight, as USA Today reported, gay marriage replacedabortion as "the most volatile social issue" in the 2004 presidential election(Page, 2003). As lead anchor Tom Brokaw proclaimed to television news audienceson NBC Nightly News, "Never have the words 'I do' been so divisive"(Reiss, 2004, May 16).

Today, of course, these stories and images of same-sex nuptials are almostpassé. By 2013 thirteen states and the District of Columbia had legalized marriagefor same-sex couples, and think tanks and media outlets alike showeda sea-change in growing public support. In 2008 a Newsweek poll declareda "gay marriage surge," and surveys from the Pew Research Center showedthat by 2012 more American adults favored same-sex marriage (48 percent)than opposed it (43 percent) (Pew Forum, 2012). That figure represents a 17percent increase from 2004, when only 31 percent supported gay marriageand nearly twice as many Americans opposed it (Pew Research Center, 2012).

This shift in increasing public support for gay marriage is perhaps mostvisible in the arena of electoral politics. In 2004 the George W. Bush reelectioncampaign ran on, and many would argue won on, an anti–gay marriage platform.Eight years later, in a televised interview that attracted worldwide newsattention, President Barack Obama told ABC's Robin Roberts that same-sexmarriage should be legal. A mere four years earlier, support for gay marriageon the national stage was the equivalent of campaign suicide—a politicallyvolatile hot potato that no candidate wanted to touch. During the 2012 electionseason, however, gay marriage headlined at the Democratic National Convention,the first time ever that the issue of marriage equality was introduced ina major party platform. While pundits and strategists questioned the Obamacamp's motives during this election season, no one could ignore how the centerof gravity on the issue had shifted. As Geoff Garin, a Democratic pollster,told the New York Times, "The majority of voters are comfortable with theposition Obama has taken on [same-sex marriage]. The issue is a definingone for younger voters, who see it as a litmus test of whether someone is insync with modern times and their generation" (Baker, 2012).

But on the issue of same-sex-marriage rights, contradictions abound.President Obama's personal proclamation for marriage equality came theday after voters in North Carolina—also the site of the Democratic NationalConvention—passed an initiative to ban same-sex marriages (even thoughgay marriage was already illegal in the state). Consistently, gay marriagemeasures have been defeated at the ballot box, losing in total 32 statewidereferenda that have gone up for public vote. It wasn't until November 2012that voters approved gay marriage rights through the electoral process, makingsame-sex marriages legal in Maryland, Maine, and Washington State.

To date, battles continue over the legality of California's Proposition 8("Prop 8"), which in 2008 outlawed same-sex marriages, a crushing defeatfor the gay rights movement. After a dizzying number of legal twists andturns, in August 2010 U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn Walker struck downthe California voter initiative as unconstitutional, legalizing gay marriages inthe state once again. Prop 8 proponents appealed the decision, and the casenow awaits hearing by the U.S. Supreme Court.

This book is concerned with the media...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: University of Illinois Press
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2013
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0252079604
• ISBN 13: 9780252079603
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 163
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Buchpark GmbH; gpsr@buchpark.de; ; Krügerweg 1; Trebbin; Brandenburg; 14959; Deutschland