title: Debating LGBT Workplace Protections in the Bible Belt: Social Identities in Legislative and Media Discourse.
abstract: This article reports a case study of the legislative and media discourse surrounding the addition of sexual orientation and gender identity language to the employment nondiscrimination ordinance of a city in the heart of the Bible Belt. The purpose of the study is to uncover how different identities were constructed and contested at city council meetings and in the news media on the way to passing legal protection for LGBT city employees in a region that is often characterized by anti-gay prejudice. This debate over the nondiscrimination ordinance centered on the question of whether LGBT identities are equivalent to identity categories based on race, gender, or religious belief, and it was shaped by various intergroup communication dynamics, specifically between members of the LGBT minority and the straight majority, between LGBT and Christian identities, and between "true" and "false" Christian identities.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Converged Communications , Florida State College of Jacksonville , Jacksonville , Florida , USA.
authors.forename: Claire D
authors.initials: CD
authors.lastname: Rhodes
authors.affiliation: b Department of Communication , University of Memphis , Memphis , Tennessee , USA.
authors.forename: Craig O
authors.initials: CO
authors.lastname: Stewart
mesh_terms: D002835:Christianity; D005260:Female; D005783:Gender Identity; D020010:Heterosexuality; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D008402:Mass Media; D011287:Prejudice; D044469:Racial Groups; D012725:Sexual Behavior; D000072339:Sexual and Gender Minorities; D012933:Social Identification; D014481:United States; D017132:Workplace
keywords: Christian; LGBT discrimination; critical discourse studies; employment; identity; intergroup communication; ordinance; race; religion