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.
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