The Path to Gay Rights

Why Tolerance Triumphed is the first accessible, data-driven account of how the LGBTQ movement achieved its most unexpected victory---the liberalization of mass opinion on gay rights. The current academic understanding of how social movements change mass opinion---through sympathetic media coverage and endorsements from political leaders---cannot provide an adequate explanation for the phenomenal success of the LGBTQ movement at changing the public’s views. The book argues that these factors were not the direct cause of changing attitudes, but contributed indirectly by signalling to other LGBTQ people across the United States that their lives were valued. The net result was a huge increase in the number of LGBTQ people who ‘came out’ and lived their lives openly. Building on recent breakthroughs in social and political psychology, the study introduces the theory of Affective Liberalization. This theory states that meeting and interacting with lesbians and gays in person---or by watching lesbian and gay characters via entertainment media---leads to more durable attitude change by subtly warming peoples’ subconscious reactions to lesbians and gays. Using expansive date-sets and cutting edge social science methods, the book finds that increased exposure to LGBTQ people, triggered by ACT-UP’s activism, provides a singular, compelling and complete explanation for the success of the LGBTQ movement in changing mass opinion.