Sexual Orientation Policy, Protest, and the State

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9623937 Amenta Many contemporary social movements, such as the pro-choice, civil rights, and New Left movements have engaged increasingly over the past twenty years in litigious tactics. These movements have also employed a moderate reformist rhetoric that has been paralleled by organizational shifts from radical grassroots groups to professional organizations. The impact of the social movements on public policies has varied greatly across the fifty American states. This study examines the American lesbian and gay movement in an attempt to explain generally changes in forms of collective action within social movements and the resulting policy outcomes. The first stage of the research examines two morality policies (the decriminalization of consensual sodomy between adults in private and the passage of lesbian and gay right ordinances) historically and quantitatively over time and across the fifty American states. Drawing on the welfare state and social movement literature, this research explores the impact of social movement activism, democratic politics and public opinion on these two policies. The second stage of the research, which includes examination of movement documents and interviews with activists and state actors, compares forms of collective action across three states (Vermont, Louisiana and New York) that vary on policy outcomes, Religious Right strength, and access to the polity. ***