Employment Discrimination, Local School Boards, and LGBT Civil Rights: Reviewing 25 Years of Public Opinion Data

Abstract

Over the past few decades, scholars from a variety of disciplines have devoted considerable attention toward studying evolving public attitudes toward a whole range of LGBT civil rights issues including support for open service in the military, same-sex parent adoption, employment non-discrimination, civil unions, and marriage equality. In the last 10 years in particular, the emphasis has shifted toward studying the various factors that best explain variation in support for same-sex marriage including demographic considerations, religious and ideological predispositions, attitudes toward marriage and family, and social contact (Baunach, 2011, 2012; Becker, 2012a, 2012b; Becker & Scheufele, 2009, 2011; Becker & Todd, 2013; Brewer, 2008; Brewer & Wilcox, 2005; Lewis, 2005, 2011; Lewis & Gossett, 2008; Lewis & Oh, 2008). Interest in documenting what some have deemed ‘‘a sea change in public opinion’’ toward same-sex marriage has prevailed, leaving concerns about employment discrimination, military service, and other civil rights issues behind as vestiges of a bygone era. A corresponding, almost exclusive focus on efforts to legalize same-sex marriage at both the federal and state levels has dominated the activities of issue advocacy, legal, and grassroots organizations. In truth, these other LGBT civil rights issues that have been eclipsed by the singular focus on same-sex marriage remain important legal ‘‘matters.’’ For example, employment discrimination has actually long been a relevant LGBT civil rights concern, first attracting considerable attention in the 1970s and 1980s given efforts by Anita Bryant and others to strike down anti-discrimination laws at the state-level through grassroots activism campaigns (Brewer, 2008). At present writing, 29 US states still allow individuals to be fired because of their sexual orientation (Dowd, 2013). While the U.S. Senate recently voted in November of 2013 to support extending the Employment Nondiscrimination Act to protect gay, lesbian, bisexual, and