The legalization of marriage between two people of the same sex has been pro- pelled to the forefront of public debate and political discourse in numerous coun- tries, including the United States. 1,2 Similar to other social issues, both supporters and opponents have employed different framing processes (Benford and Snow 2000) as a means of advancing their respective ideologies and agendas. One such framing process involves using different terminology to describe the subjects of the debate—that is, couples of the same sex. Opponents often employ the term “homo- sexual couples,” which arguably has a negative and medicalized tone (Armstrong 2002; Halperin 1989). In contrast, supporters employ more positive terms such as “gay couples” and “same-sex couples.” Supporters of the legalization also use FRAMING STRATEGIES AND PUBLIC SUPPORT FOR THE LEGALIZATION OF MARRIAGE BETWEEN TWO PEOPLE OF THE SAME SEX OREN PIZMONY-LEVY AARON PONCE Indiana University ABSTRACT: Over the past few decades, public debate about the legalization of marriage between people of the same sex has changed and intensified. Participants in the current debate have introduced new terms such as “same-sex couples” instead of “homosexual couples” to describe the subjects of this issue. Recently, this contentious issue has also been framed as a matter of “civil rights” rather than another case of “gay rights.” To date, however, scholars have overlooked these terminological changes and their potential effects on public support for marriage between two people of the same sex. The authors address this void using data from a 2009 national survey. An embedded survey experiment suggests that these frames have no significant impact on public opinion. Multivariate results provide additional evidence that gender, age, race/ethnicity, education, political party identification, and region shape public support for the legalization of marriage between two people of the same sex. The authors discuss the implications of these findings and offer possible explanations for the nonsignificant effects of the frames considered. Keywords: public opinion, same sex marriage, survey experiment, framings Sociological Perspectives, Vol. 56, Issue 2, pp. 169–190, ISSN 0731-1214, electronic ISSN 1533-8673. © 2013 by Pacific Sociological Association. All rights reserved. Please direct all requests for permission to photo- copy or reproduce article content through the University of California Press’s Rights and Permissions website, at http://www.ucpressjournals.com/reprintinfo.asp. DOI: 10.1525/sop.2013.56.2.169. Address correspondence to: Oren Pizmony-Levy, 744 Ballantine Hall, Bloomington, IN 47405; e-mail: opizmony@ indiana.edu. Sage is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve, and extend access to Sociological Perspectives www.jstor.org ® at INDIANA UNIV on June 29, 2015 spx.sagepub.com Downloaded from