ABSTRACT
Public relations research on activism has become increasingly associated with nonprofit public relations scholarship, as the difference between activist and nonprofit advocacy organizations may often be in name only. Just as more traditional organizations, activist groups require legitimacy to achieve their goals. However, for radical activist groups whose behavior often flouts social norms and values, legitimacy becomes an especially important consideration. Engaging in socially illegitimate activities creates "legitimacy dilemmas" for activist groups. This chapter determines how AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT-UP) representatives used rhetorical legitimation strategies in their testimony to Congress as part of their larger issues management goal of shaping public policy. It also makes the relationship between legitimacy and issues management clearer. Interpretive frameworks such as the image restoration typology have been applied in countless studies of organizational reactions to crises, yet we know very little about the legitimation strategies used by organizations-corporate and activist, for-profit, and nonprofit-as they engage in proactive issues management.
