Jose Villasenor

Jose Villasenor, 332 Words

For the sexuality section of the assigned readings I chose the article "Framing Strategies and Public Support for the Legalization of Marriage Between Two People of the Same Sex". This article is a study performed by Oren Pizmony-Levy and Aaron Ponce of the Indiana University. The study hoped to find whether the use of framing strategies by Social Movement Organizations (SMO) had any effect on public opinion over the legalization of same sex marriage. The researchers used data that was gathered in 2009 from a survey conducted by the Center for Survey Research at Indiana University. In order to see whether the use of framing strategies actually had an effect on public opinion, the researchers placed questions about the legalization of Marriage between people of the same sex but controlled the wording used.  The researchers used various words that Social Movement Organizations had previously used in order to frame same sex marriage as either positive or negative.  Once the data was collected, the researchers used Ordinary Least Squares regression modeling to examine it. The researchers found that the use of framing strategies by SMO's does not affect the public opinion on the legalization of same sex marriage but various sociodemographic variables do.

The "Race, Religion, and opposition to Same-Sex Marriage" article attempts to find whether religious factors are at the root of the opposition of same-sex marriage from black and white people. The researchers used data gathered from surveys from 1988 and 2004-2008. The findings demonstrated that in 1988 the support for same-sex marriage was similar between race groups. From 2004-2008 this changed and African Americans opposition increased while White opposition decreased. The researchers concluded that African Americans oppose same-sex marriage at a higher rate than other races and this is due to their religious commitment. African American people attend church at a higher rate than Whites. It is their religious values and beliefs that causes them to oppose same sex marriage because these beliefs are not accepting of same sex marriage.