Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Scholarly interest in opportunities for movement emergence and mobilization has tended to be limited to the realm of the political. However, more recent attention has turned to the unique role of culture in creating opportunities. This newer attention to culture has remained largely theoretical. Empirical evidence clarifying the distinctions between political and cultural opportunities is warranted. In this paper, I begin the task of unpacking the cultural from the political.
Data for this study are qualitative and come from the case of Cincinnati’s anti-gay ballot initiative. In November 1993 voters in Cincinnati, Ohio passed Issue 3, an amendment to the City Charter eliminating gay, lesbian and bisexual persons’ legal protection against discrimination and prohibiting their recognition as a group or class. This Christian right initiative emerged largely in response to the inclusion of ‘sexual orientation’ in the City’s newly enacted Human Rights Ordinance just one year earlier. The Christian right did not operate in isolation in their struggle to pass Issue 3. Rather, the gay, lesbian, and bisexual movement engaged with the right in efforts to thwart the initiative.
In this study I begin to separate the cultural opportunities present for the Christian right as they conflicted with the gay, lesbian, and bisexual movement over this initiative. Results show that movements are presented with cultural opportunities when they interpret-- events, especially suddenly imposed grievances, as contradictory to their core belief. Opportunities are also created when opponent movements are viewed as somehow weakened.