Editorial Type:
Article Category: Research Article
| Online Publication Date: 21 Feb 2006
Social Movement Policy Success: Decriminalizing State Sodomy Laws, 1969–1998
Social Movement Policy Success: Decriminalizing State Sodomy Laws, 1969–1998
Page Range: 313 – 334
This study provides an event history analysis of the factors contributing to a social movement's ability to influence pubic policy. More specifically, the study presents a quantitative, historical examination of the influence of national, state, and local gay and lesbian movements on the decriminalization of state sodomy laws, an important goal of the movement, from 1969 to 1998. Drawing from political opportunity models, resource mobilization theory, and theories of cultural opportunity, the study explores the importance of political conditions, social movement characteristics, and the larger cultural context on the ability of the gay and lesbian movement to achieve its goals. The analyses demonstrate that all three factors have some influence on the likelihood of sodomy law decriminalization, but most importantly, political opportunity and movement characteristics work together to bring about success. During periods of political opportunity, the size and tactics of the lesbian and gay movement influenced the likelihood of success.
Klandermans, Bert. 1989. "Introduction: Organizational Effectiveness." Pp 383-94 in International Social Movement Research, v 2. Bert Klandermans (ed.) Connecticut: JAI Press.
Nice, David A. 1994. Policy Innovation in State Government. Ames: Iowa State University Press.
Piven, Frances Fox and Richard A. Cloward. 1977. Poor People's Movements: Why They Succeed, How They Fail. NY: Vintage Books.
Gamson, William A. 1990 [1975]. The Strategy of Social Protest. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Rubenfeld, Abby. 1998. Personal Interview with Abbey Rubenfeld, Nashville attorney and former Legal Director of the Lambda Legal and Education Defense Fund.
Rubenstein, William B. 1997. Cases and Materials on Sexual Orientation and the Law, 2nd ed. St. Paul: West Publishing Co.
Schroedel, Jean Reith. 1999. "Elite Attitudes Toward Homosexuals." Pp 89-145 in Gays and Lesbians in the Democratic Process: Public Policy, Public Opinion, and Political Representation, Ellen D.B. Riggle and Barry L. Tadlock, eds. New York: Columbia University Press.
Seltzer, Richard. 1992. "The Social Location of those Holding Antihomosexual Attitudes." Sex Roles. 26: 391-398.
Skocpol, Theda. 1992. Protecting Soldiers and Mothers: The Political Origins of Social Policy in the United States. Cambridge: Harvard University Press
Sherrill, Kenneth. 1993. "On Gay People as a Politically Powerless Group." Pp 84-120 in Gays and the Military: Joseph Steffan versus the United States, Marc Wolinsky and Kenneth Sherrill, eds. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Staggenborg, Suzanne. 1998. Gender, Family, and Social Movements. Thousand Oaks: Pine Forge Press.
Staggenborg, Suzanne.1995. "Can Feminist Organizations Be Effective?" Pp. 339-55 in Feminist Organizations: Harvest of the New Women's Movement, Myra Marx Ferree and Patricia Yancey Martin, eds. Philadelphia: University Press.
Vaid, Urvashi.1995. Virtual Equality: The Mainstreaming of Gay and Lesbian Liberation. New York: Anchor Books
Eskridge, Jr., William N. 1999. Gaylaw: Challenging the Apartheid of the Closet. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Stimson, James A., Michael A. Mackuen, and Robert S. Erkison. 1995. "Dynamic Representation." American Political Science Review 89(3): 543-65.
Tarrow, Sidney. 1996. "States and Opportunities: The Political Structuring of Social Movements." Pp. 41-61 in Comparative Perspectives on Social Movements, Doug McAdam, John D. McCarthy, and Mayer N. Zald, eds. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Taylor, Verta, and Nancy Wittier. 1992. "Collective Identity in Social Movement Communities: Lesbian Feminist Mobilization." Pp 104-129 in Frontiers in Social Movement Theory, Aldon D. Morris and Carol McClurg Mueller, eds. New Haven: Yale University Press.
U.S. Bureau of the Census. Statistical Abstract of the United States: 1968-1997. (90th-117th editions.) Washington, DC, 1969-1997
Vaid, Urvashi. 1998. Personal Communication with Urvashi Vaid, Director of the NGLTF Policy Institute.
Wald, Kenneth D. 2000. "The Context of Gay Politics." Pp. 1-28 in The Politics of Gay Rights, Craig A. Rimmerman, Kenneth D. Wald, and Clyde Wilcox, eds. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Plummer, Ken. 2000. "Mapping the Sociological Gay: Past, Presents, and Futures of a Sociology of Same-Sex Relations." Pp 46-60 in Lesbian and Gay Studies: An Interdisciplinary Approach, Theo Sandfort, Judith Schuyf, Jan Williem Duyvendak, and Jeffrey Weeks, eds. London: Sage Publications.
Rayside, David. 1998. On the Fringe: Gays and Lesbians in Politics. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Lambda Legal Education and Defense Fund. 2002a. "U.S. Supreme Court Will Hear Lambda Legal's Challenge To Texas 'Homosexual Conduct' Law."
Lambda Legal Education and Defense Fund.2002b. "Lawrence and Gamer v. Texas."
Lambda Legal Education and Defense Fund.2002c. "Status of Striking Down Sodomy Laws."
Lambda Legal Education and Defense Fund.1973-1999. "Docket Update." Various pages in The Lambda Update.
McAdam, Doug. 1982. Political Process and the Development of Black Insurgency, 1930-1970. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Quinn, Bernard, Herman Anderson, Martin Bradley, Paul Goetting, and Peggy Shriver. 1982. Churches and Church Membership in the United States 1980: An Enumeration by Region, State, and County Reported by 111 Church Bodies. Atlanta, GA: Glenmary Research Center.
McAdam, Doug, John D. McCarthy, and Mayer N. Zald. 1988. "Social Movements." Pp 695-737 in The Handbook of Sociology, Neil J. Smelser, ed. Sage Publications.
Bernstein, Mary. 1997a. "Celebration and Suppression: The Strategic Uses of Identity by the Lesbian and Gay Movement." American Journal of Sociology 103(3): 531-65.
McCammon, Holly J. 1998. "Using Event History Analysis in Historical Research: With Illustrations from a Study of the Passage of Women's Protective Legislation." International Review of Social History 43: 79-101.
McCammon, Holly J., Karen E. Campbell, Ellen M. Granberg, and Christine Mowery. 2001. "How Movements Win: Gendered Opportunity Structures and U.S. Women's Suffrage Movements, 1866-1919." American Sociological Review 66: 49-70.
Deane, Glenn, E.M. Beck, Stewart E. Tolnay. 1998. "Incorporating Space into Histories: How Spatial Processes Operate and How We Observe Them." International Review of Social History 43: 57-80.
D'Emilio, John.1983. Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities: The Making of a Homosexual Minority in the United States, 1940-1970. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
D'Emilio, John. 2000. "Cycles of Change, Questions of Strategy: The Gay and Lesbian Movement after Fifty Years." Pp 31-53 in The Politics of Gay Rights, Craig A. Rimmerman, Kenneth D. Wald, and Clyde Wilcox, eds. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Gamson, William A., and David S. Meyer. 1996. "Framing Political Opportunity." Pp 275-290 in Comparative Perspectives on Social Movements: Political Opportunities, Mobilizing Structures, and Cultural Framings, Doug McAdam, John D. McCarthy, and Mayer N. Zald, eds. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Giugni, Marco. 1999. "How Social Movements Matter: Past Research, Present Problems, Future Developments." Pp xiii-xxxiii in How Social Movements Matter, Marco Giugni, Doug McAdam, and Charles Tilly, eds. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Goodwin, Jeff, and James M. Jasper. 1999. "Caught in a Winding, Snarling Vine: The Structural Bias of Political Process Theory." Sociological Forum 14(1): 27-54.
Green, Frances. 1973-1999. The Gayellow Pages3-rd-23rd editions. New York, NY: Renaissance House.
Haider-Markel, Donald.1997. "From Bullhorns to PACS: Lesbian and Gay Politics, Interest Groups, and Policy." Ph.D. dissertation. The University of Wisconsin—Milwaukee.
Haider-Markel, Donald and Kenneth Meier. 1996. "The Politics of Gay and Lesbian Rights: Expanding the Scope of Conflict." The Journal of Politics 58(2): 332-349.
Bernstein, Mary.1997b. "Sexual Orientation Policy, Protest, and the State." Ph.D. Dissertation. New York University.
Haider-Markel, Donald. 2001. "Morality in Congress? Legislative Voting on Gay Issues." Pp 115-129 in The Public Class of Private Values, Christopher Z. Mooney ed. New York: Chatham House Publishers.
Jenkins, J. Craig. 1983. "Resource Mobilization Theory and the Study of Social Movements." Annual Review of Sociology 9: 527-53.
Apasu-Gbotsu, Yao, Robert J. Arnold, Paul DiBella, Kevin Dorse, Elisa L. Fuller, Steven H. Naturman, Dung Hong Pham, and James B. Putney. 1986. "Survey on the Constitutional Right to Privacy in the Context of Homosexual Activity." University of Miami Law Review 40: 521-638.
Banaszak, Lee Ann. 1996. Why Movements Succeed or Fail: Opportunity, Culture, and the Struggle for Women's Suffrage. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Press.
Amenta, Edwin, Bruce C. Carruthers, and Yvonne Zylan. 1992. "A Hero for the Aged? The Townsend Movement, the Political Mediation Model, and the U.S. Old-Age Policy, 1934-1950." American Journal of Sociology 98(2): 308-39.
Amenta, Edwin, Kathleen Dunleavy, and Mary Bernstein. 1994. "Stolen Thunder? Huey Long's 'Share Our Wealth,' Political Mediation, and the Second New Deal." American Sociological Review 59(October): 678-702.
American Law Institute, The. 1985. Model Penal Code and Commentaries. Philadelphia: The American Law Institute.
Andrews, Kenneth T. 2001. Social Movements and Policy Implementation: The Mississippi Civil Rights Movement and the War on Poverty, 1965-1971." American Sociological Review 66: 71-95.
Gallagher, John, and Chris Bull. 1996. Perfect Enemiss: The Religious Right, the Gay Movement, and the Politics of the 1990s. NY: Crown Publishers, Inc.
Johnson, Douglas J., Paul R. Picard, Bernard Quinn. 1974. Churches and Church Membership in the United States 1971: An Enumeration by Region, State, and County. Atlanta, GA: Glenmary Research Center.
Jones, Dale E., Sherry Doty, Clifford Grammich, James E. Horsch, Richard Houseal, Mac Lynn, John P. Marcum, Kenneth M. Sanchagrin, Richard A. Taylor. 2002. Religious Congregations and Membership in the United States. Atlanta: Glenmary Research Center.
Kitschelt, Herbert P. 1986. "Political Opportunity Structures and Political Protest: Anti-Nuclear Movements in Four Democracies." British Journal of Political Science 16: 57-85.
McCammon, Holly J. and Melinda D. Kane. 1997. "Shaping the Law: Class Actors, Class Conflict, and Judicial Decision Making, 1948-1990." Sociological Inquiry 67(3): 275-98.
McCann, Michael W. 1994. Rights at Work: Pay Equity Reform and the Politics of Legal Mobilization. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
McCarthy, John D. and Mayer N. Zald. 1977. "Resource Mobilization and Social Movements: A Partial Theory." American Journal of Sociology 82(6): 1212-41.
Mooney, Christopher Z. 2001. The Public Class of Private Values. New York: Chatham House Publishers.
National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. 1998. Capital Gains and Losses: A State by State Review of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and HIV/AIDS Related Legislation in 1998. Washington, DC: NGLTF Policy Institute.
National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. 1987. "Maryland Sodomy Reform—1987 Legislative Session." Box 153, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Records 1973-1995, #7301, Human Sexuality Collection, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY.
National Opinion Research Center. 2000. General Social Surveys Cumulative Codebook. Chicago: National Opinion Research Center.
Wald, Kenneth D., James W. Button, and Barbara A. Rienzo. 1996. "The Politics of Gay Rights in American Communities: Explaining Antidiscrimination Ordinances and Policies." American Journal of Political Science 40(4): 1152-78
Werum, Regina, and Bill Winders. 2001. "Who's 'In' and Who's 'Out': State Fragmentation and the Struggle over Gays Rights, 1974-1999." Social Problems 48(3): 386-410.
Whitham, Fredrick L. 1991. "From Sociology: Homophobia and Heterosexism in Sociology." Journal of Gay and Lesbian Psychotherapy 1(4): 31-44.
Yamaguchi, Kazuo. 1991. Event History Analysis. London: Sage Publications.
Bull, Chris, and Judy Wieder. 1998. "Scene of the Crime: Laws Against Everything We Want: Marriage, Adoption, and Equal Rights." The Advocate, Oct. 27, n771 p36.
Bradley, Martin B., Norman M. Green, Jr., Dale E. Jones, Mac Lynn, and Lou McNeil. 1992. Churches and Church Membership in the United States 1990: An Enumeration by Region, State, and County Based on Data Reported by 133 Church Groupings. Atlanta, GA: Glenmary Research Center.
Burstein, Paul. 1998. "Bringing the Public Back In: Should Sociologists Consider the Impact of Public Opinion on Public Policy?" Social Forces 77(1): 27-62.
Burstein, Paul.1991. "Legal Mobilization as a Social Movement Tactic: The Struggle for Equal Employment Opportunity. American Journal of Sociology 96(5): 1202-25.
Adam, Barry D. 1995. The Rise of a Gay and Lesbian Rights Movement, Revised Edition. NY: Twayne Publishers.
Allison, Paul D. 1984. Event History Analysis: Regression for Longitudinal Event Data. Sage Publications.
Cress, Daniel M., and David A. Snow. 2000. "The Outcomes of Homeless Mobilization: The Influence of Organization, Disruption, Political Mediation, and Framing." The American Journal of Sociology 105(4): 1063-1104.
Burstein, Paul, Rachel L. Einwohner, and Jocelyn A. Hollander. 1995. "The Success of Political Movements: A Bargaining Perspective." Pp 275-95 in The Politics of Social Protest: Comparative Perspectives on States and Social Movements, J. Craig Jenkins and Bert Klandermans, eds. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Cain, Patricia A. 2000. Rainbow Rights: The Role of Lawyers and Courts in the Lesbian and Gay Civil Rights Movement. Colorado: Westview Press.
Clendinen, Dudley, and Adam Nagouney. 1999. Out for Good: The Struggle to Build a Gay Rights Movement in America. New York: Simon and Shuster.
Council of State Governments. 1968-1998 The Book of States, Vols. 17-32. Lexington, KY: Council of State Governments