The Battle Over Marriage: Gay Rights Activism Through the Media by Leigh Moscowitz

Author:Leigh Moscowitz [Moscowitz, Leigh]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Gender Studies, Sociology, Marriage & Family, Media Studies
ISBN: 9780252079603
Google: -RmEmwEACAAJ
Amazon: 0252079604
Goodreads: 17885384
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Published: 2013-11-01T04:00:00+00:00

Gay Marriage Goes Prime-Time

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radicalize and criminalize the activist community. Because news stories are derived from a heterosexist vantage point, the prejudicial language used to label gays and lesbians in the press is plentiful (Alwood, 1996). Several activists pointed out how even the predominant labels the news media used inaccurately framed gay marriage as a separate institution. One informant expressed the challenges of having to contend with the terminology that

echoed throughout media and popular discourse: “‘Gay marriage’ sort of

sets it apart and makes it sound like this is marriage that is different from the marriage that everyone else knows and understands. And that’s in fact the antithesis of the point. The whole point is it’s not different, it’s not special, it’s not a new institution. It’s giving same-sex couples access to marriage”

(Michael, Human Rights Campaign).

Activists sought to frame the issue using their preferred labels like “marriage equality,” “equal marriage rights,” or “marriage for same-sex couples” so that the public would understand that gay rights activists were not attempting to reinvent the institution, but simply working to expand existing marriage laws to include same-sex couples.

The propensity of sensationalizing language not only contributed to framing “gay marriage” as different from “real marriage,” but from the perspective of my activist informants it also made it difficult to move beyond the “hype”

and present the “deeper story” of gay and lesbian lives and families. Activist and former Massachusetts state senator Cheryl Jacques explained her

struggle of being branded in the press as an openly gay politician, unable to escape the discursive labeling that Lisa Bennet (2000) writes has historically stigmatized gays and lesbians.

I think some reporters are really in the dark ages. I remember when I was campaigning, and that’s awhile ago, but it still happens: “Jaques, an avowed lesbian.” “Jaques, an admitted lesbian.” And I would call the reporter and say,

“‘An admitted lesbian’? Are you ‘an admitted straight person’? Will you look at those words? It sounds like I’m an alcoholic or an admitted tax felon. Or ‘an avowed lesbian.’ Do you take a vow to be straight? . . . That makes me sound radical or militant. I’m just who I am, guys, and I’m just being truthful about it. I didn’t take a vow!”

For many of my activist informants, the media frenzy that worked to

sensationalize gay marriage as a hot-button issue that would sell more newspapers and drive ratings also took attention away from their work on other causes. As an out-lesbian political figure, Jacques faced difficulties in receiving press attention on any issue other than gay marriage. The conflict sur-s

rounding the subject became so pervasive that it constrained her ability to nl

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shift press attention to a host of other important issues she represented, reducing her work in the legislature and her entire campaign to a single cause. She complained of newspaper coverage the morning after a campaign debate: “I would see headlines: ‘Jacques: Pro Gay Marriage.’ And that was some sort of tiny little thing we had talked about in a whole discussion about economic policy and education policy and health care .

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