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Saturday, February 13, 2010
Labels Matter, or the Irrelevance of Law
A recent poll conducted by
CBS on the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell reveals some a fascinating
result. Support for repeal depends
substantially on whether you call “them” “homosexual” or “gay.” Fifty-nine percent support allowing
"homosexuals" to serve in the U.S. military while 70 percent support
allowing "gay men and lesbians" to serve in the military, a jump of
18 percent.
http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2010/02/11/politics/politicalhotsheet/entry6198284.shtml
(h/t Joe.My.God) I have
always been skeptical of the need to frame questions of fundamental rights
through a marketing lens, and even of the significance of polling data in
deciding such rights (in contrast to Nate Persily). But the results of this poll reveal that changing the label
from “homosexual” to “gay men and lesbians” carries far more weight than the
well-researched and indisputable constitutional arguments law professors have
produced over the past two decades.
I imagine that it’s sex-negativity that drives this shift - “homosexual”
is all about “sex,” while for most in this country “gay men” might evoke Will
and Grace, and “lesbian” brings the ever-popular Ellen DeGeneres to mind. Indeed, in the 17 years between Bowers
v. Hardwick and Lawrence v. Texas, “gay” made (at least part of) the difference. The 2003 Supreme Court addressed “gay
persons” and “gay men and lesbians,” and thus did not have to confront its own
sex fears to decide the meaning of privacy. For the law professor crowd, which spends its days
poring over theory, it is indeed humbling to think that our work would so
easily trumped by a label.
Posted by Darren Rosenblum on February 13, 2010 at 08:25 AM | Permalink
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