Legal entrepreneurship and the evolution of multidimensional advocacy in social movements: the case of marriage equality

• Published in: Law & society review Vol. 58; no. 1; pp. 95 - 125
• Main Authors: Bailey, Christine M., Collins, Paul M., Rhodes, Jesse H., Rice, Douglas
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amherst Cambridge University Press 01.03.2024
• Subjects: Activism; Activists; Advocacy; Attorneys; Case studies; Community; Community research; Dissemination; Education; Entrepreneurs; Entrepreneurship; Equal rights; Equality; Gays & lesbians; Grass roots movement; Legal advocacy; LGBTQ community; LGBTQ people; Litigation; Marginality; Marriage; Mass media; Media coverage; Political activism; Political movements; Public schools; Rights; Same sex marriage; Sexual orientation; Social activism; Social movements; United States > US
• ISSN: 0023-9216; 1540-5893
• DOI: 10.1017/lsr.2023.2

Abstract The emergence and dissemination of new legal ideas can play an important role in sparking change in the way activists in marginalized communities understand their rights and pursue their objectives. How and why do the legal beliefs of such communities evolve? We argue that the vigorous advocacy of new legal ideas by entrepreneurs and the harnessing of specialized media to help disseminate those ideas are important mechanisms in this evolution. We use the rise of marriage equality as a central legal priority in the mainstream American LGBTQ+ rights movement as a case study to illustrate this phenomenon. Using a mixed-methods analysis of Evan Wolfson’s legal advocacy and an examination of The Advocate , we investigate how Wolfson developed and disseminated legal ideas about same-sex marriage. We show how this advocacy eventually dominated discussion of the issue among elite LGBTQ+ legal actors and the nation’s largest LGBTQ+ publication. However, Wolfson’s advocacy tended to emphasize LGBTQ+ integration into “mainstream” American culture and prioritized the interests and values of relatively privileged subgroups within the LGBTQ+ community. Our research informs our understanding of the interplay between legal advocacy and media reporting in the development of LGBTQ+ rights claims and the strategies adopted to achieve them.