Politics and Context: Public Opinion, Representation, and Group Consciousness
Situational contexts vary substantially across the country. This variation provides conditionswhere a subset of the American public may be exposed to situations that others arenot. How do contexts affect the politics of minority groups? In this dissertation, I examinehow the politics of lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) people are situated by differing contextsacross the United States. I examine how LGB presence aects and conditions the approvalof the mass public. I examine the mechanism this influence bears on representative behavior in Congress. I finally examine how varying contexts uniquely affects some LGBs over others. In total, I find that varying contexts situate the political positions of LGB peopledifferently. This results in unique conditions where LGB people are politically ininfluentialand cohesive.