Since marriage equality became the law of the land in the United States earlier this summer, I’ve been asked repeatedly what the “secret sauce” was: “How did you guys do it?”
There are, of course, many factors that went into same-sex marriage being legalized in fits and starts since 2004 through legislatures, ballot measures and the courts. But one of the most influential was the marriage movement’s investment in a strategic communications operation, both nationally and in dozens of states. It was this data-driven communications machine—which was always turned on—that caused support for marriage equality to skyrocket 20 points in just a decade.
It was this data-driven communications machine that caused support for marriage equality to skyrocket 20 points in just a decade. For decades, the gay rights movement emphasized the countless rights and benefits that came with marriage. But that legal frame, including the word “rights”, didn’t work. It was sterile, materialistic and unpersuasive. Just as Rachel Krys argues, the way that human rights are framed has an enormous impact on public support for a cause, especially if the cause is fairly disconnected from people’s daily lives. Knowing that data and research are the backbone of any serious communications undertaking, we dove deeply into qualitative and quantitative research in the late 2000s to fix our messaging problem. The purpose of this research was twofold: first, we wanted to understand what the conflicted middle’s reservations were to same-sex marriage; and second, we needed to figure out how to meet those folks—and onetime opponents—where they were in their own mental template and help get them on board.
