Marriage equality ruling comes amid challenging climate for LGBT people

U.S. TV news, Jan 1, 2015 – June 24, 2015

New York, June 27, 2015. LGBT people in the U.S. have faced more negativity on international TV news than those in other countries due to political polarization in the lead up to yesterday’s Supreme Court decision legalizing marriage equality nationwide, according to new research from Media Tenor International

“Discrimination against LGBT people has been visible on U.S. TV news throughout 2015 prior to this decision,” says Racheline Maltese, a researcher at Media Tenor. “While most coverage was regarding the country as a whole, some states were particularly visible,” she added.

Indiana’s ‘religious freedom’ law, which was reported to legalize anti-LGBT discrimination put that state in the spotlight. Alabama also received significant coverage as the state tried to oppose a federal court ruling that legalized equal marriage there. Meanwhile, according to a recent Gallup poll, 60% of Americans supported equal marriage rights as of May 2015. Pew put the figure at 57%.

Media Tenor also found that the marriage equality case was the most visible of this year’s Supreme Court term, indicating that coverage of the issue and LGBT people will likely be ongoing in the wake of the decision being issued.

This research examined all 339,934 reports on 22 TV news programs, January 1, 2015 – June 24, 2015.

For over 20 years Media Tenor’s mission has been to contribute to objective, diverse and newsworthy media content by bringing together the diverse parties. Media Tenor’s global research projects include analyses of election campaigns, investor relations, public diplomacy, corporate communications and other topics critical to news makers and news audiences.

For more information, please contact Racheline Maltese at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or
+1 212-935-0210.