The Stranger Next Door: The Story of a Small Community’s Battle over Sex, Faith, and Civil Rights. By Arlene  Stein. Boston: Beacon Press, 2001. Pp. 267. $27.50.

Voting to Ban Same-Sex Marriage: Interests, Values, and Communities

“…For example, Blankenhorn (2007:96-97) argues that acceptance of samesex marriage necessarily undermines marriage as a social institution, which is, he asserts, "not a 'bundle of rights,' but a pattern of rules and structures intended to meet societal needs." Stein's (2001) study of opposition to gay rights in a small Oregon town shows how conservatives use consequentialist arguments against same-sex marriage. Community activists opposed gay rights on religious grounds, but they recognized that to expand their base of support they would need to appeal to individuals leery of imposing one set of religious values on all citizens.…”

“…Persell and colleagues (2001), for example, argue that economic hardship can undermine civil society and trust and can decrease levels of social tolerance. Other research suggests that gay rights might be perceived as threatening in working-class and less prosperous communities where many residents may be receptive to arguments about how policies designed to protect or promote gay rights would lead to reverse discrimination (Bernstein et al 2003;Stein 2001). Theories of status politics and status substitution (Gusfield 1963;Lipset and Raab 1970) suggest that support for conservative values represents a form of low-status backlash.…”

Conservative and Right-Wing Movements

“…LGBT: Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender KKK: Ku Klux Klan for directing attention to how rightist movements originate with movement entrepreneurs, frame their messages, respond to external political opportunities, forge collective identity, develop strategies and tactics, and serve as a source of vision and voice (however destructive) for their adherents (Stein 2001).…”

“…Immigrants, liberals, working women, counterculturists, abortion providers, welfare recipients, secular humanists, feminists, and later, global jihadists and Muslim terrorists became its new targets. A particular focus was sexual minorities (Burack 2008, Fetner 2008, Richardson 2006, Stein 2001. To some in the NR, sexual minorities were similar to Nazis and communists of the past.…”

“…An antigay campaign in Cincinnati framed itself as opposing special rights for gays, while progay forces were bogged down in a confusing variety of symbols and rhetoric (Dugan 2005). In Oregon, a Citizen's Alliance stopped what it regarded as special status for gays, but ultimately widened public discussion of sexuality (Stein 2001). On a national level, the antigay movement won a number of legislative battles, especially to prevent same-sex marriage, but also stimulated dramatic growth in membership and resources and the development of sophisticated tactics and campaign strategies by LGBT countermovements (Fetner 2008).…”