Who Frames the Message? Countermovements and Public Perception of Social Movements Legal Agendas

Abstract

Social conservatives have historically used populist rhetoric and activist judges framing to de-legitimate progressive social movements litigation strategies. In this paper, I show that opponents to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights have used these discursive resources to draw attention to same-sex marriage litigation-a tactic that constitutes only a small part of the LGBT movements legal docket. I argue that as a result of this resonant countermovement framing, the LGBT movement has become widely mischaracterized in the mainstream media, in academia, and within the movement itself as dominated by its focus on same-sex marriage. This paper therefore demonstrates how a social movements litigation strategy can be used to support countermovement rhetoric, which may in turn distort a movements message and its public identity.