Family Feuds: The Relationships between Legal Changes and Media Framing Concerning the Family

ABSTRACT

How do legal changes affect discourse concerning family forms? The concept of the family is conventionally assumed to be stable and unchanging; yet, the idea of family is continuously defined and redefined by the law. I analyze the nature of media framing before and after federal legislative changes, specifically the passage of the Defense of Marriage Act (1996) and Windsor v. United States (2013). I investigate 156 articles about same-sex marriage legislation published in The New York Times. Results show that legislative events and court decisions influence the framing of family and family forms. DOMA influenced the discourse surrounding family composition by strictly defining the family unit, centering it on a heteronormative framework of one man and one woman. Windsor affected the discourse concerning the role of children by shifting the focus away from LGBT parents as unfit or dangerous to children and toward a structural and societal assessment of discrimination. Both DOMA and Windsor affected public discourse about morality. These findings support the idea that legal changes affect conceptions of the family and reveal how these conceptions can change in the broader public imagination.

KEYWORDS:

• Family
• law
• LGBT
• media framing
• policy

Acknowledgments

I would like to express gratitude to Dr. Amin Ghaziani for his valuable and constructive suggestions during the planning and development of this research work. I deeply appreciate his willingness to give his time so generously.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. In September 1996, the Defense of Marriage Act was enacted by the federal government. The law defined marriage as a union between one man and one woman and also allowed states to refuse to recognize same-sex marriages granted in other states. In this article, the passage of DOMA is categorized as a negative legal event for LGBT rights, as it restricted the federally-recognized definition of legal marriage to the exclusion of same-sex couples. In June 2013, the Supreme Court of the United States, in a 5–4 decision, found that restricting the definition of marriage to apply only to opposite-sex couples was unconstitutional. The ruling in Windsor is categorized as a positive legal event for LGBT rights, as it opened access to a multitude of federal benefits, rights and privileges that were previously withheld from legally married LGBT couples.

2. I included the search term of marriage because of its relevance to the legislative and legal debates surrounding same-sex marriage rights at the national level.

3. Cohen’s kappa is a particularly useful test because some portion of agreement must be considered due to chance, and this test takes that into account. Values of agreement can range from 0 to 1, with smaller values indicating lower levels of agreement. Values at .75 or greater indicate excellent agreement beyond chance, .40-.75 indicate fair to good agreement beyond chance; and below .40 indicates poor agreement beyond chance (Neuendorf, 2002).

4. “House Passes Bar to US Sanction of Gay Marriage,” by Jerry Gray. The New York Times, July 13, 1996.

5. “House Passes Bar to US Sanction of Gay Marriage,” by Jerry Gray. The New York Times, July 13, 1996.

6. “Pataki Defies Some Allies on Violence In the Home,” by Raymond Hernandez. The New York Times, October 2, 1996.

7. “Fearing a Toehold for Gay Marriages, Conservatives Rush to Bar the Door,” by David W. Dunlap. The New York Times, March 6, 1996.

8. “Fearing a Toehold for Gay Marriages, Conservatives Rush to Bar the Door,” by David W. Dunlap. The New York Times, March 6, 1996.

9. “Fearing a Toehold for Gay Marriages, Conservatives Rush to Bar the Door,” by David W. Dunlap. The New York Times, March 6, 1996.

10. “New Jersey Court Rejects Domestic Partner Benefits,” by Abby Goodnough. The New York Times, March 13, 1997.

11. “New Jersey Court Rejects Domestic Partner Benefits,” by Abby Goodnough. The New York Times, March 13, 1997.

12. “Fearing a Toehold for Gay Marriages, Conservatives Rush to Bar the Door,” by David W. Dunlap. The New York Times, March 6, 1996.

13. “Fearing a Toehold for Gay Marriages, Conservatives Rush to Bar the Door,” by David W. Dunlap. The New York Times, March 6, 1996.

14. “Atlanta Sued Over Its Law on Benefits to the Unwed,” by Ronald Smothers. The New York Times, September 15, 1996.

15. “House Passes Bar to US Sanction of Gay Marriage,” by Jerry Gray. The New York Times, July 13, 1996.

16. “House Passes Bar to US Sanction of Gay Marriage,” by Jerry Gray. The New York Times, July 13, 1996.

17. “Why Marry?” by Frank Browning. The New York Times, April 17, 1996.

18. Windsor, 570 U.S., at 25–26.

19. “About the Children,” by Bill Keller. The New York Times, April 8, 2013.

20. “U.S. Court Seems Split on Utah Marriage Ban,” by Jack Healy. The New York Times, April 11, 2014.

21. “About the Children,” by Bill Keller. The New York Times, April 8, 2013.

22. “Federal Panel Appears Split over Virginia’s Ban on Same-Sex Marriage,” by Erik Eckholm. The New York Times, May 14, 2014.

23. “Judge Strikes Down Pennsylvania’s Gay-Marriage Ban,” by Erik Eckholm. The New York Times, May 21, 2014.

24. “What the G.O.P. Platform Represents,” by The Editorial Board. The New York Times, August 22, 2012.

25. “House Vote Moves Washington State Closer to Gay Marriage,” by William Yardley. The New York Times, February 2, 2012.

26. “The Challenge to Marriage Equality,” by The Editorial Board. The New York Times, February 29, 2012.

27. “Judge Strikes Down Pennsylvania’s Gay-Marriage Ban,” by Erik Eckholm. The New York Times, May 21, 2014.

28. “About the Children,” by Bill Keller. The New York Times, April 8, 2013.

29. “With Bill, State Shifts Its Views on Marriage,” by William Yardley. The New York Times, January 17, 2012.

30. “Ideas & Trends: Fantasyland; Social Engineers Design at Right Angles,” by Janny Scott. The New York Times, June 4, 1995.

31. “Journal: Straight Bashing Season,” by Frank Rich. The New York Times, June 15, 1997.

32. “House Passes Bar to US Sanction of Gay Marriage,” by Jerry Gray. The New York Times, July 13, 1996.

33. “House Passes Bar to US Sanction of Gay Marriage,” by Jerry Gray. The New York Times, July 13, 1996.

34. “House Passes Bar to US Sanction of Gay Marriage,” by Jerry Gray. The New York Times, July 13, 1996.

35. “Mississippi Governor Bans Same-Sex Marriage,” by Ronald Smothers. The New York Times, August 24, 1996.

36. “Ideas & Trends: Fantasyland; Social Engineers Design at Right Angles,” by Janny Scott. The New York Times, June 4, 1995.

37. “Ideas & Trends: Fantasyland; Whose Family Values Are They, Anyway?,” by Elizabeth Kolbert. The New York Times, August 6, 1995.

38. “Iowa Justice Who Ruled for Gay Marriage Faces Test That Three Peers Failed,” by John Eligon. The New York Times, October 23, 2012.

39. “Openly Gay, and Openly Welcomed in Congress,” by Jeremy W. Peters. The New York Times, January 26, 2013.

40. Windsor, 570 U.S., at 25–26.

41. “A Leap for Equality,” by The Editorial Board. The New York Times, November 16, 2013.

42. “A Gay Pride March with Added Spring in Its Step,” by David W. Dunlap. The New York Times, July 1, 2013.

43. “‘Mr. President, How Can We Help You Evolve More Quickly?’” by Jo Becker. The New York Times, April 20, 2014.

44. “In North Carolina, Bloomberg Champions Gay Rights,” by Michael M. Grynbaum. The New York Times, May 14, 2012.

45. “Hillary Clinton Backs Same-Sex Marriage,” by Sheryl Gay Stolberg. The New York Times, March 19, 2013.

46. “Gov. Christie’s Misguided and Intolerant Veto,” by The Editorial Board. The New York Times, February 18, 2012.

47. “Marriage and the Supremes,” by Frank Bruni. The New York Times, March 24, 2013.

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Adriana Brodyn

Adriana Brodyn is currently a PhD candidate in the Department of Sociology at the University of British Columbia. Her research focuses on sexualities, family, social psychology, and urban sociology. She has published in City & Community, Contexts, Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, and You Are Here: The Journal of Creative Geography.