Respectability Politics and Straight Support for LGB Rights

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/10659129211035834
• Published date: 01 December 2022
• Date: 01 December 2022
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/10659129211035834

Political Research Quarterly

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DOI: 10.1177/10659129211035834

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In mass democracies, marginalized communities must

typically find ways to appeal to majority opinion to secure

their rights. One common strategy is respectability poli-

tics, whereby groups portray themselves as adhering to

mainstream norms of “proper” behavior. The hope is that

dominant groups will then come to perceive similarities

with marginalized people and view them as deserving of

equal rights (Harris 2014; Higginbotham 1993; Kennedy

2015; Strolovitch and Crowder 2018). As such, move-

ments representing stigmatized groups frequently choose

to highlight their most respectable members and empha-

size how they exemplify dominant values (see, for exam-

ple, Fackler 2016; Miller 2004; Sharpless 2016).

This has certainly been the strategy adopted by the

lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ)

movement over the past several decades.1 To try and win

support from straight Americans, advocacy groups con-

sciously portrayed LGBTQ people as adhering to domi-

nant heteronormative values. While respectability can

take many forms, the movement has particularly focused

on relationship norms of exclusivity and monogamy

(Beam 2018; Hindman 2019; Hunter 2017; Levit 2010;

Moscowitz 2013; Pascar 2018; Woodly 2015). Activists

sought to “drive home the message that gay people are

essentially just like everybody else” by emphasizing

how their relationships fit “traditional American values”

of “stability, commitment, and family” (Carpenter 2012,

188, 193). Communication memos encouraged the use

of words like “long-term, lifelong, stable, permanent” to

portray same-gender relationships as similar to straight

ones (Freedom to Marry 2010; Harrison and Michelson

2017b). And groups scoured the country for “perfect

plaintiffs” and media figureheads whose relationships

exemplified these norms (Godsoe 2015; O’Neill 2018;

Robinson and Frost 2018).

This approach has had non-trivial costs for the LGBTQ

community. It sidelined those members who would not or

could not present themselves in respectable ways (Cohen

1997; Murib 2018), casting “other forms of gay identity

(not being part of a monogamous, married, child-rearing

couple) to the margins” (Moscowitz 2013, 133, italics in

original). It further stigmatized those whose relation-

ships were deemed less than proper, as declaring one

segment of the community respectable implicitly casts

judgment on others (Cohen 1999). And the interests of

1035834PRQXXX10.1177/10659129211035834Political Research QuarterlyJones

research-article2021

1University of Delaware, Newark, USA

Corresponding Author:

Philip Edward Jones, Department of Political Science and International

Relations, University of Delaware, 347 Smith Hall, Newark, DE

19716, USA.

Email: pejones@udel.edu

Respectability Politics and Straight

Support for LGB Rights

Philip Edward Jones1

Abstract

Marginalized groups frequently adopt a respectability politics strategy, presenting themselves as adhering to

dominant norms to gain public support. The LGBTQ movement, for example, has consciously portrayed same-

gender relationships as exemplifying heteronormative values to win over straight Americans. But how effective

is this strategy? Two survey experiments show that presenting LGB people as adhering to, or violating, norms of

monogamy and exclusivity has null to minimal effects on straight respondents’ views of them or support for their

rights. Furthermore, there is no evidence that the effects are moderated by (1) respondents’ political predispositions;

or (2) the race, ethnicity, or gender of the LGB people being highlighted. Emphasizing the respectability of same-

gender relationships is not as effective as the movement has assumed. More broadly, these results call into question

the assumption that highlighting “respectable” members of marginalized groups is an effective way to change public

opinion.

Keywords

respectability politics, LGB rights, public opinion

2022, Vol. 75(4) 935–949

Article