Tolerable Inequality: Understanding Public Policy and LGBTQ+ Politics

Pepin-Neff coins the term ‘Tolerable Inequality’ to examine the ways in which politicians and political actors use the policy process as a tool to make inequality acceptable as a way of keeping power and avoiding penalties.

Power is built on the illusion of differences. The public policy process is used to reinforce the illusions of inferiority and superiority that help to keep power in the hands of the powerful. Tolerable Inequality reinforces these differences by diverting attention away from issues that would give marginalized people power, reducing differences between public expectations and reality, and policy reactions that fortify existing social status. The three tactics of Tolerable Inequality include: focused inattention and inaction, deviation harmonization of differences between expectations and perceived reality, and equality governance, where equality is distributed in the policy process relative to conditional compliance and comparative identity. The book explores this concept within the context of LGBTQ+ policy and presents a framework that allows the public to engage in the policy process in ways that highlight the role of expected political penalties in order to reclaim policymaking in the public interest.

A comprehensive text for researchers and students in LGBTQ studies, American Studies, Policy Studies, and Legislative Studies.