Partisan values and gay rights: Public opinion about employment nondiscrimination
| Author | Tricia Gray,Laurie Rhodebeck,Jason Gainous |
| Date | 01 August 2019 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0263395718755295 |
| Published date | 01 August 2019 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
https://doi.org/10.1177/0263395718755295
Politics
2019, Vol. 39(3) 300 –314
© The Author(s) 2018
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DOI: 10.1177/0263395718755295
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Partisan values and gay
rights: Public opinion about
employment nondiscrimination
Laurie Rhodebeck, Jason Gainous
and Tricia Gray
University of Louisville, USA
Abstract
Partisan elites justify policy positions by invoking underlying values, and political parties are
associated with value reputations that connect particular values to specific policy positions.
Value recruitment theory explains the relationship between value framing and policy positions.
Newspaper content analysis and statistical analysis of survey data show that Democrats are
more likely to frame employment nondiscrimination against gay rights as an equality issue, while
Republicans are more likely to frame it as morality- and capitalism-based values. Surprisingly,
however, equality framing has a stronger effect on Republicans. The study extends research
on nondiscrimination in employment with an empirical test of value recruitment theory. The
results largely confirm expectations that the application of values can be shaped through citizen
attachment to parties, generate insights into value recruitment in policy debates, and point to
other questions for further analysis.
Keywords
framing, gay rights, LGBT rights, partisan value reputation, value recruitment, values
Received: 24th May 2017; Revised version received: 12th November 2017; Accepted: 22nd November 2017
Considerable research indicates that political elites help ordinary citizens form policy
opinions. One of the ways elites assist citizens is by signalling which values are at stake
in policy issues. In doing so, elites facilitate the formation of policy opinions that are
consistent with citizens’ deeply held values, thus bringing some coherence to what might
otherwise be inconsistent, unprincipled political thought. Political parties and their lead-
ers, candidates, and allies are prominent among the elites who could assist citizens in
forming value-consistent opinions. As organizers of policy debate, the parties typically
take opposing positions. They frequently justify these positions by invoking the values
Corresponding author:
Tricia Gray, Department of Political Science, University of Louisville, 2301 South Third Street, Louisville,
KY 40292, USA.
Email: tricia.gray@louisville.edu
755295POL0010.1177/0263395718755295PoliticsRhodebeck et al.
research-article2018
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