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Authors: Leigh Moscowitz
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opportunities, on the grounds
that the law would prohibit schools from teaching morality. Bryant’s antigay crusade won, as 70 percent of Dade County voters voted to repeal the ordinance. However, the increased press attention surrounding the controversy ultimately contributed to the growth of the gay identity movement.
“By recognizing and publicizing gay identity, Bryant participated in creating her enemy. In cultural struggles like this one, all press is, in a sense, good press. By generating media coverage the backlash further disseminated gay identity and the gay rights agenda” (Armstrong, 2002, p. 128).
Arguably, however, the contemporary gay rights movement is in a differ-
ent position. Its dependency on media attention has greatly diminished, as much of the movement’s political work does not necessitate “the media’s gaze”
(Carroll & Ratner, 1999). No longer requiring press attention to mobilize and attract members, many gay rights groups take a more cautious stance toward media publicity. As my interviews indicate, many within the movement are critical of those groups that “gain visibility by becoming the exotic objects of heterosexist media copy” (Carroll & Ratner, 1999, p. 20).
As a corrective to the media “freak show” in which groups like ACT UP
(AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) perform a “spectacle” for the television news cameras, many of today’s movement leaders craft communication strategies with straight allies, ones that are directed toward straight audiences, in an effort to normalize and mainstream gay and lesbian life. As this next section highlights, most activists were initial y resistant to even talking about the “m word” in the mainstream media.
The Struggle from Within: Making Marriage Matter
I was curious early on in this project about how social actors in identity politics come to organize around and highlight one particular goal—in this case, achieving equal marriage rights—over others. News reporting on the issue presented same-sex marriage as “the” gay interest—constructing a mass movement united by one homogenous goal, often reducing gay activism to
a single-issue cause. But the same media coverage that stressed marriage as emblematic of gay activism in general also worked to silence the internal struggle over marriage that has been at the center of debate within the gay snl
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community. As Roberta Sklar of the Task Force explained, “If we are forced by the dominant culture to deal with many of these family recognition issues under the umbrella of marriage, then we will . . . We as an organization have never put our eggs in any one basket, and we’re not putting it in the marriage basket. We wrangle at the fact that we’ve been pushed by societal pressures to look at all these things under that umbrella, but we won’t adhere to that in a rigid way.”
A relatively new issue, marriage equality was not a major goal of gay political activism until the mid-1990s, as groups failed to find consensus over the marriage issue and were focused on what many activists considered to be
more pressing concerns—namely, “HIV and health care, AIDS prevention,
the repeal of sodomy laws, anti-gay violence, job discrimination, immigration, media coverage, military antigay policy, sex inequality, and the saturation of everyday life by heterosexual privilege” (Warner, 1999, p. 84). Gay marriage was not a part of early political activist efforts, mostly because marriage laws by their very nature were opposed to the basic tenets of what the gay movement historical y stood for: the state regulation of sexuality.
Recognizing the historical tensions over the marriage issue from within the gay community, my analysis in this section shows how, for the most part, gay rights activists did not proactively pursue a battle over marriage rights. These informants ful y recognized the risks
that the law would prohibit schools from teaching morality. Bryant’s antigay crusade won, as 70 percent of Dade County voters voted to repeal the ordinance. However, the increased press attention surrounding the controversy ultimately contributed to the growth of the gay identity movement.
“By recognizing and publicizing gay identity, Bryant participated in creating her enemy. In cultural struggles like this one, all press is, in a sense, good press. By generating media coverage the backlash further disseminated gay identity and the gay rights agenda” (Armstrong, 2002, p. 128).
Arguably, however, the contemporary gay rights movement is in a differ-
ent position. Its dependency on media attention has greatly diminished, as much of the movement’s political work does not necessitate “the media’s gaze”
(Carroll & Ratner, 1999). No longer requiring press attention to mobilize and attract members, many gay rights groups take a more cautious stance toward media publicity. As my interviews indicate, many within the movement are critical of those groups that “gain visibility by becoming the exotic objects of heterosexist media copy” (Carroll & Ratner, 1999, p. 20).
As a corrective to the media “freak show” in which groups like ACT UP
(AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) perform a “spectacle” for the television news cameras, many of today’s movement leaders craft communication strategies with straight allies, ones that are directed toward straight audiences, in an effort to normalize and mainstream gay and lesbian life. As this next section highlights, most activists were initial y resistant to even talking about the “m word” in the mainstream media.
The Struggle from Within: Making Marriage Matter
I was curious early on in this project about how social actors in identity politics come to organize around and highlight one particular goal—in this case, achieving equal marriage rights—over others. News reporting on the issue presented same-sex marriage as “the” gay interest—constructing a mass movement united by one homogenous goal, often reducing gay activism to
a single-issue cause. But the same media coverage that stressed marriage as emblematic of gay activism in general also worked to silence the internal struggle over marriage that has been at the center of debate within the gay snl
LC
Moscowitz_BattleoverMarriage_text.indd 31
7/29/13 9:38 AM
32
chapter two
community. As Roberta Sklar of the Task Force explained, “If we are forced by the dominant culture to deal with many of these family recognition issues under the umbrella of marriage, then we will . . . We as an organization have never put our eggs in any one basket, and we’re not putting it in the marriage basket. We wrangle at the fact that we’ve been pushed by societal pressures to look at all these things under that umbrella, but we won’t adhere to that in a rigid way.”
A relatively new issue, marriage equality was not a major goal of gay political activism until the mid-1990s, as groups failed to find consensus over the marriage issue and were focused on what many activists considered to be
more pressing concerns—namely, “HIV and health care, AIDS prevention,
the repeal of sodomy laws, anti-gay violence, job discrimination, immigration, media coverage, military antigay policy, sex inequality, and the saturation of everyday life by heterosexual privilege” (Warner, 1999, p. 84). Gay marriage was not a part of early political activist efforts, mostly because marriage laws by their very nature were opposed to the basic tenets of what the gay movement historical y stood for: the state regulation of sexuality.
Recognizing the historical tensions over the marriage issue from within the gay community, my analysis in this section shows how, for the most part, gay rights activists did not proactively pursue a battle over marriage rights. These informants ful y recognized the risks
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