Effects Of The Media And Backlash

The Media & Backlash Effects Throughout history, minority or marginalized groups have struggled for equal rights which have resulted in heated debates across different domains. The current struggle for the LGBTQ community can be compared to what African Americans went through in their fight for equality in the 1950s and 1960s. As marches and sit-ins were organized across the country, the media broadcasted the events. As more people became aware of all of the events unfolding, multiple reactions arose. In 1954, the Supreme Court made a landmark decision regarding discrimination in the school system known as, Brown v Board of Education (Keck, 2009). Immediately following this decision, backlash erupted in the Southern states. Some reactions were beneficial for the civil rights activists and helped them move forward, but similar to what we are seeing today with the LGBTQ community, some reactions were detrimental to the group and caused more harm than good.
In June of 2015, the Supreme Court made another landmark decision that could change the lives of many individuals. They ruled that same-sex couples could marry in every state and that states …show more content…
Societal sexual stigma derives from the structure of how our society is set up. This can refer to the different restrictions put on these stigmatized individuals at both private and government levels. Different policies and laws that are in place put this marginalized group at a disadvantage compared to the rest of the society. Structural sexual stigma, or heterosexism, engulfs mainly religion and other societal institutions (Herek, 2004). Through heterosexism, harsh discrimination is justified based on the belief systems that many of these religion and other societal institutions hold. Overall, the backlash that the LGBTQ community has received has been fueled by the media highlighting the sexual stigma on this