UC Irvine UC Irvine Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title The Cultural Consequences of Social Movements: The LGBT Movement and the Transformation of Discourse About Homosexuality in Mainstream Newspapers Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7qv754h3 Author Elliott, Thomas Alan Publication Date 2015 License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ 4.0 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, IRVINE The Cultural Consequences of Social Movements: The LGBT Movement and the Transformation of Discourse About Homosexuality in Mainstream Newspapers DISSERTATION submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in Sociology by Thomas Alan Elliott Dissertation Committee: Professor Edwin Amenta, Chair Professor Francesca Polletta Professor Katherine Faust 2015 c 2015 Thomas Alan Elliott DEDICATION To Justin ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF FIGURES v LIST OF TABLES vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS vii CURRICULUM VITAE viii ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION ix 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Explanations for Coverage . 3 1.2 Data . 10 1.3 Summary of Dissertation . 11 2 A History of Gay and Lesbian Mobilization 13 2.1 Post World War II and the Homophile Movement . 13 2.2 Gay Liberation . 17 2.3 The AIDS Epidemic . 20 2.4 The Gay Nineties . 22 2.5 The Fight for Same-Sex Marriage . 24 3 Attention to the Issue 28 3.1 Hypotheses . 31 3.2 Regression Analysis . 42 3.3 fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis . 45 3.4 Conclusion . 55 4 Attention to the Movement 57 4.1 Hypotheses . 59 4.2 Data . 65 4.3 Regression Analysis . 70 4.4 fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis . 76 4.5 Conclusion . 82 iii 5 Discourses of Homosexuality 83 5.1 Hypotheses . 84 5.2 Measuring Culture . 87 5.3 Data . 89 5.4 Discourse Network Analysis . 102 5.5 Conclusion . 124 6 Conclusion 126 6.1 Evaluating Theories . 127 6.2 Limitations . 133 6.3 Next Steps . 134 Bibliography 136 iv LIST OF FIGURES Page 3.1 Newspaper Coverage of Homosexuality by Newspaper . 29 3.2 Coverage of Homosexuality and Public Opinion . 32 3.3 Coverage of Homosexuality and Policy Events . 34 3.4 Coverage of Homosexuality and Transformed DWNOMINATE Scores . 35 3.5 Coverage of Homosexuality and the Percentage of Articles Written by New Authors . 37 3.6 Coverage of Homosexuality and AIDS Deaths . 39 3.7 Coverage of Homosexuality and Protest Events . 41 3.8 Coverage of Homosexuality and Protest Events . 42 4.1 Articles Mentioning a LGBT Organization in Three National Newspapers, 1960-2010 . 58 4.2 Newspaper Coverage of Three LGBT Legal Organizations . 60 5.1 Histogram of Coded Articles . 90 5.2 Proportion of Positive and Negative Claims in Paragraphs Discussing Homo- sexuality . 101 5.3 Percent of Paragraphs by Speaker Type . 103 5.4 Percent of Paragraphs with Positive Claims by Speaker Type . 103 5.5 Network Graphs of Association Indices, 1950-1968 . 107 5.6 Network Graphs of Association Indices, 1969-1981 . 111 5.7 Network Graphs of Association Indices, 1982-1989 . 114 5.8 Network Graphs of Association Indices, 1990-2003 . 117 5.9 Network Graphs of Association Indices, 2004-2010 . 121 5.10 Eigenvector Centrality Scores for Bad, Respect, and Rights Over Time . 122 5.11 Eigenvector Centrality Scores for Criminal, Diseased, Immoral, and Mental Illness Over Time . 123 v LIST OF TABLES Page 2.1 Top Covered LGBT and AIDS SMOs by Year . 17 3.1 Descriptive Statistics . 43 3.2 ARMA Regression of Coverage of Homosexuality . 44 3.3 Truth Table for fsQCA Including Protest Events . 48 3.4 fsQCA Results for High Coverage, Protest Events . 51 3.5 Truth Table for fsQCA containing Public Opinion . 53 3.6 fsQCA Results with Public Opinion . 54 4.1 Policy Domains and Summary Statistics for Policy Scores . 67 4.2 Summary Statistics for . 71 4.3 Negative Binomial Regression Analysis . 72 4.4 Truth Table for Analysis of High Coverage of LGBT SMOs . 79 4.5 fsQCA of SMO Coverage with Protest Tactics . 80 5.1 Twelve Claims About Homosexuality . 91 5.2 Speaker Types . 102 5.3 Association Matrix of Claims for 1950-1968 . 105 5.4 Eigenvector Centrality Scores of Association Networks . 108 5.5 Association Matrix of Claims for 1969-1981 . 110 5.6 Association Matrix of Claims for 1982-1989 . 113 5.7 Association Matrix of Claims for 1990-2003 . 116 5.8 Association Matrix of Claims for 2004-2010 . 120 vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First, I would like to thank my advisor, Edwin Amenta, for his guidance and mentorship throughout my graduate career. He has been there since the very beginning of this project, when it was a vague idea for a second year paper. I've learned so much about the research process from him. I've had the opportunity to work on two large scale data projects under his mentorship, providing valuable lessons about how to direct a team of graduate students to code and analyze data. He brought me on as co-author to a number of papers, from which I learned a lot about the publishing process. He's provided support, guidance, and the occasional prompting I needed to finish this project. I will be forever grateful for his support throughout my graduate career. I would also like to thank my committee members, Francesca Polletta and Katie Faust, whose feedback has been invaluable and made the dissertation immeasurably better. A special thank you goes to Nina Bandelj and Francesca Polletta for their financial support when I needed it most, allowing me to focus my efforts on finishing my dissertation. Matt Rafalow and Pedro Morgado have endured endless conversations about this project and have provided moral and emotional support when I needed it most. They have celebrated my triumphs and commiserated my setbacks with me and I'll never be able to express how grateful I am to have them as friends. I must also thank Alex Ruiz, Luke Boso, and Evan Conaway for helping me get through the last stretch. Their friendship and support have been the highlight of these past few months. Last but not least, my husband, Justin O'Neill, who has had to endure me when I've been at my worst struggling through the most frustrating problems, has celebrated with me when I've been at my best, and has supported me the entire way. I cannot express how much his love means to me. vii CURRICULUM VITAE Thomas Alan Elliott Education University of California, Irvine Spring 2015 Ph.D. Sociology Dissertation: The Cultural Consequences of Social Movements: The LGBT Movement and the Transformation of the Discussion of Homosexuality in Mainstream Newspapers Areas of Interest: Social Movements, Sexualities, Culture, Quantitative Methodologies, Social Network Analysis University of California, Irvine Fall 2009 M.A. Sociology Thesis: The Queer Movement and the Media: New York Times Coverage of LGBT and AIDS Organizations 1969-2007 Areas of Interest: Social Movements, Sexualities, Quantitative Methodologies, Social Network Analysis University of Texas at Dallas May 2006 B.S. Interdisciplinary Studies - Physics & Chemistry Education Honors Thesis: Providing a Safe Space: Creating a safer school climate for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and questioning youth. Publications Under Review | Elliott, Thomas Alan, Edwin Amenta, and Neal Caren. \Recipes for Atten- tion: Policy Reforms, Crises, Organizational Characteristics, and the Newspaper Coverage of the LGBT Movement, 1969-2009." 2014 | Kane, Melinda, and Thomas Alan Elliott. \Turning to the Courts: A Quantitative Analysis of the Gay and Lesbian Movement's Use of Legal Mobilization." Sociological Focus 47:219-237. 2014 | Treas, Judith, and Thomas A. Elliott. \Sex, Family and Social Change." In Judith Treas, Jacqueline Scott, and Martin P.M. Richards. The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Sociology of Families (2nd edition). Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell Publishers. 2012 | Amenta, Edwin, Beth Gharrity Gardner, Amber Celina Teirney, Anaid Yerena, and Thomas Elliott. \A Story-Centered Approach to the Newspaper Coverage of High-Profile SMOs." Research in Social Movements, Conflicts, and Change 33:83-107 viii ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION The Cultural Consequences of Social Movements: The LGBT Movement and the Transformation of Discourse About Homosexuality in Mainstream Newspapers By Thomas Alan Elliott Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology University of California, Irvine, 2015 Professor Edwin Amenta, Chair How do movements change culture? This dissertation begins to answer this question by analyzing mainstream newspaper coverage of homosexuality since 1950. Using regression analysis, qualitative comparative analysis, and social network analysis, I explore what fac- tors explain the amount of attention paid to homosexuality generally, attention paid to gay and lesbian movement organizations specifically, and the association of claims about ho- mosexuality as they appear together in the same article. I find that the movement was instrumental in explaining each of these outcomes, but that exactly how the movement in- fluenced coverage was predicated on the political and social context in which the movement operated. Specifically, a legacy of policy successes set up large, well resourced movement organizations to be influential in coverage. However, during times of crisis, smaller, protest oriented organizations had the opportunity to become highly influential. ix Chapter 1 Introduction Sen. Andrew F. Schoeppel (R) Kan., was named to serve temporarily on the subcommittee in place of Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy (R) Wis., whose charges of perverts and subversives in the State Department touched off the inquiry. McCarthy suggested that he be replaced on the subcommittee during the inves- tigation. The inquiry stems form testimony by Washington police officials before a Sen- ate Appropriations Subcommittee that there are an estimated 5000 homosexuals in Washington and that 3750 of them work for the government.1 The above quote, appearing in the Los Angeles Times in the summer of 1950, marked the beginning of a witch hunt, led by Sen.