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  • Gay Rights at the Ballot Box by Amy L. Stone
  • Heather E. Yates
Gay Rights at the Ballot Box. By Amy L. Stone. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. 2012.

In the wake of Supreme Court decisions that expanded civil rights for the LGBT community, Amy Stone’s book is a critical reminder of the social and political obstacles that underscore the victory. Stone’s examination reveals an embedded contradiction associated with social movements in the United States. Mobilization to achieve recognition of civil rights is often threatened by the same mechanisms of direct democracy that claim to celebrate social justice.

The book first presents a perplexing observation that anchors its analysis. The same evening the country celebrated the historic election of Barack Obama in 2008, gay rights activists were simultaneously confronted with the news that California voters had banned same-sex marriage with the passage of the ballot initiative Proposition 8. The campaign against what was commonly referred to as “Prop. 8” had mobilized one of the largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer canvasses in the country. Bewildered, the stunned LGBT community and activists had one question: how did the country elect its first African-American president, yet defeat gay rights?

The answer is revealed in the detailed analysis of gay rights ballot initiative campaigns. Stone’s examination of the politics associated with gay rights reveals how the anti-gay movement (and later ballot initiatives) engaged direct democracy to defeat early gay rights measures at the ballot box. Stone explains the strategies the anti-gay movement implemented in the marketplace of ideas to effectively marginalize the LGBT community. After a number of consecutive electoral losses in several battleground states, the LGBT community recognized the need to overcome internal fragmentation and recalibrate its campaign strategies. With the acquisition of necessary resources and organizational professionalization, the LGBT community was able to expand the social movement to have a presence in many key states to support the campaigns necessary to defeat and repeal anti-gay measures. [End Page 253]

Stone’s social movement framework is easily transferred to comparable case studies. Stone’s sociological approach is an effective application of social interpretation to political analysis. The sophisticated treatment of historical data for other LGBT ballot initiative campaigns that preceded California’s Proposition 8 aptly demonstrates that large-scale social movements can often sustain political mobilization. Further, this framework provides a utility that reaches across disciplines to expound upon the relationship between political campaigns and social movements. There is a distinction to be made clear between the characteristics of a social movement and those of a political campaign. Stone exemplifies that both are often mutually supportive, but the relationship can also be antagonistic. In this case, the LGBT ballot initiative campaigns aided the growth of the larger social movement. Campaigns, it is argued, can advance a social movement, but it’s also suggested that social movements rarely evolve from political campaigns. It is this distinction that clarifies the reasons for the successes and failures of gay rights at the ballot box. The author suggests there is sustainable LGBT social movement and inquires about how ballot initiative campaigns can strengthen the movement’s presence and nurture its mobilization toward wider political recognition and legal protection of civil rights.

Heather E. Yates
Illinois College
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