Core Values, Value Conflict, and Citizens’ Ambivalence about Gay Rights

• Author: Stephen C. Craig,Michael D. Martinez,James G. Kane,Jason Gainous
• DOI: 10.1177/106591290505800101
• Date: 01 March 2005
• Published date: 01 March 2005
• Subject Matter: Articles

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“I’m kind of two ways on that.”

—Survey respondent in media poll, quoted in

the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, July 1, 2002.

Although it is clear that even today, homosexuals

“remain disliked by a large share of the public at a

very visceral level” (Wald 2000: 13), the opinion cli-

mate with respect to lesbians and gay men does not appear

to be nearly as negative or as intolerant as it once was. Most

citizens continue to question the morality of homosexual

behavior: According to the 2002 General Social Survey

(GSS), roughly 60 percent indicated that sexual relations

between two adults of the same sex was “always” or “almost

always” wrong—a majority to be sure, but down noticeably

from the 82 percent who felt that way in 1987. Support for

the civil rights and liberties of homosexuals has risen as

well: Most Americans now believe that gays should be per-

mitted to teach in colleges and universities, to serve in the

military, and that there should be laws banning discrimina-

tion against gays in hiring and firing, while over 40 percent

are willing to allow gay and lesbian couples to adopt chil-

dren (Wilcox and Norrander 2002: 137-38; also Wilcox and

Wolpert 2000; Sherrill and Yang 2000; Haeberle 1999;

Lewis and Rogers 1999). On a personal level, only one in

three respondents in a 2000 survey admitted to being

uncomfortable around homosexuals, and just 38 percent

said they would be very upset to learn that their child was

gay (down from 65 percent 15 years earlier; Wilcox and

Norrander 2002: 140-41).

Among the explanations offered for these changes is that

many Americans have discovered they have gay and lesbian

friends, relatives, or workmates (Wilcox and Wolpert 2000;

Herek and Capitanio 1996) and been exposed to popular

films such as Philadelphia and television shows such as Will

& Grace that portray gay and lesbian characters in a mostly

favorable light (Wilcox and Norrander 2002). In addition,

polls show that an increasing number of people now believe

that an individual’s sexual orientation is fixed at birth—and

those who share this belief are more inclined to support

homosexual rights (Tygart 2000) and, in all probability, less

concerned that “gays or lesbians will try to seduce young,

impressionable heterosexuals” (Wilcox and Norrander

2002: 140).

Our research is not intended to explain the public’s shift-

ing views about homosexuality, though it provides what we

believe to be new insight into the nature and meaning of

that shift. Consider, for example, the majority support

expressed for two seemingly contradictory propositions,

i.e., that homosexuality is “morally wrong” and that it is

based, at least in part, on genetic inheritance and therefore

not entirely a matter of personal choice. While this may

simply be another example of people giving top-of-the-head

answers to survey questions dealing with topics to which

they have given little thought (Converse 1964), it is possi-

ble that the opinion change that has taken place over the

past 15-20 years reflects something else as well; that is,

while some citizens undoubtedly have become more toler-

ant of homosexuals, others may have made that journey

only part of the way—by adopting positive orientations

without necessarily abandoning all of the negative ones pre-

viously held. Such ambivalence could help to account for the

fact that the American public appears to be, on average,

both supportive of and hostile to homosexuals and gay

rights, depending upon the specific question being asked.

Although the data used here are cross-sectional in nature

and cannot be used to look at opinion change directly, our

results leave little doubt that ambivalence is fairly common

with regard to homosexual and gay rights issues. We also

will present evidence that sheds light on both the origins

Core Values, Value Conflict, and

Citizens’ Ambivalence about Gay Rights

STEPHEN C. CRAIG, MICHAEL D. MARTINEZ, JAMES G. KANE, JASON GAINOUS

UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA

Recent research has recognized that many people simultaneously hold positive and negative attitudes about

important political issues. In this article, we review the concept of attitudinal ambivalence and propose a

survey-based measure of ambivalence adapted from the experimental literature. Extending our earlier work on

abortion, analysis of a statewide telephone survey of Florida residents reveals that (1) many people have

ambivalent attitudes about issues related to gay and lesbian rights; (2) the amount of ambivalence varies

according to the specific rights in question (military service, gay marriage and adoption, membership in youth

organizations such as Boy Scouts, and others); (3) ambivalence on gay rights is to some extent a function of

conflict among citizens’ underlying core values; and (4) under certain circumstances, ambivalence appears to

mediate the relationship between a person’s issue preferences with regard to gay rights and his or her evalua-

tion of political leaders and institutions.

NOTE: An earlier version of this article was presented at the 2002 Annual

Meetings of the American Political Science Association, Boston.

Political Research Quarterly, Vol. 58, No. 1 (March 2005): pp. 5-17

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