The Politics of Disgust: Public Opinion Toward LGBTQ People & Policies.

Abstract

I argue that the emotion of disgust has played a critical role in the history of LGBTQ politics in America and continues to do so today as an important and underappreciated source of continued opposition to LGBTQ people and issues. Using American National Election Studies data, I show that contact with gays and lesbians, long thought to be the primary determinant of support for LGBTQ policy issues, is not as influential or far-reaching as once thought. Then, using experiments, I illustrate the connection of disgust to contemporary opinions toward LGBTQ people and issues. I demonstrate that, for both Democrats and Republicans, the mere mention of LGBTQ policy issues triggers disgust, and that these disgust reactions lead to declines in support for LGBTQ policies. I also show that there are significantly different emotional and political responses to different subgroups of the LGBTQ community, namely that disgust reactions are significantly higher toward transgender people than toward gays and lesbians. I also show that the influence of disgust is significant even when controlling for contact with LGBTQ people, and more influential on policy support than the impact of contact itself. Overall, the implications of the project suggest that people who continue to feel disgust, even after (or perhaps because of) the attainment of legal marriage equality, may be much more difficult to persuade – in sharp contrast to the conventional wisdom that public opinion toward LGBTQ people will continue its rapid progress. In short, for LGBTQ politics, the influence of disgust means a very different and more difficult future than both activists and scholars currently imagine. At the same time, understanding how disgust affects beliefs and behaviors can help guide future efforts in understanding public opinion on LGBTQ issues, and can help advocates calibrate their strategies more effectively. The findings suggest that continued success for the LGBTQ movement – and any other movement that confronts disgust – will require the understanding that disgust influences many beliefs and opinions, even among presumed supporters, and that new strategies based on engaging this difficult emotion will be vital.