Elephant in the Room: Organizational Framing and Personal and Collective Identity Conflict Resolution Among Log Cabin Republicans

Abstract

This dissertation focuses on a largely unexplored area of social movement research - the relationship between organizational framing and personal and collective identity conflict resolution among social movement participants. The Log Cabin Republicans (LCR) offers a rich environment for studying the processes involved in resolving conflicts between personal and collective identities. Examination of this movement group allowed me to better understand the relationships between organizational framing, individual-level identity management processes and movement participation. Based on in-depth interviews with LCR members, I show that LCR framing plays a critical role in reducing its constituents' identity conflicts. In the end, I demonstrate that the success of organizational framing efforts is reflected in the degree to which these frames are emphasized by individual members in order to reduce identity conflicts and thus to continue their participation in the LCR. This dissertation contributes to the renewed interest in individual-level processes occurring in social movements and thus informs the social movements literature by bridging the discussions of organizational framing and identity.