Abstract
Upwards of 80% of all Americans know LGBTQ people and those that do not likely see them on television. If these are the root causes of LGBTQ rights support, then why have gay rights advanced so little in Congress and the States? The explanation comes from the theory of motivated reasoning---those with a strongly held political ideology will resist attitudinal change if it contradicts that ideology. I show that strong conservatives are largely immune to the contact effects demonstrated in the last chapter and present an experiment that shows that exposure to Ellen DeGeneres, a lesbian comedienne, can lower support for gay rights among political conservatives if she is presented in context that makes politics and political ideology more salient for people. For the strongest ideologues, exposure to LGBTQs polarizes instead of liberalizes attitudes. Since most Republican policy-makers are strong conservatives, this explains why public policy now lags public opinion on LGBTQ rights.
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