LZ Granderson is a homosexual male who works as a sports columnist for CNN and ESPN. In his TEDx Talk he addresses various misconceptions people have about the Lesbian, Gay, Bi, and Transgender (LGBT) community, such as discovering oneself and the difficulty of telling other people. Granderson presents himself as a member of the LGBT community as well as an activist for marriage equality. He shares multiple anecdotes and pictures in order to encourage his audience to see that members of the LGBT community are humans that deserve the same rights as everyone else.
In his segment, “The Myth of the Gay Agenda,” LZ Granderson describes a life changing experience he had with the movie “Torch Song Trilogy,” which is essentially about a drag queen
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looking for love. He goes on to explain a powerful scene in the movie where the main character exclaims, “There's one thing more -- there's just one more thing you better understand. I've taught myself to sew, cook, fix plumbing, build furniture, I can even pat myself on the back when necessary, all so I don't have to ask anyone for anything. There's nothing I need from anyone except for love and respect, and anyone who can't give me those two things has no place in my life.” Granderson effectively explains how closely he was able to relate by jokingly stating that the movie is essentially his life aside from being a drag queen. Granderson also shows his audience an emotional side of himself when he goes on to talk about how this particular scene brought him to tears when he was sixteen years old and has stuck with him for twenty five years of his life. While he is telling this story, the audience began to sympathize with Granderson because they were able to see see his inner struggle, which everyone has. There are many misconceptions about the “gay lifestyle” and how awful it is, some even going as far as comparing it to terrorism. Granderson gives examples of what he claims to be the things homosexuals do during their day. Throughout explaining the true “gay lifestyle” he shows pictures of common things people do throughout their day, such as drink coffee, getting stuck in “evil, evil” traffic, falling asleep with one’s partner, and sometimes even getting stuck in lines at airports. This earns a laugh from the audience because they begin to realize that people in the gay community do things that most people do with their lives. He talks about how much he cooks for his teenage son. He briefly interacts with the audience by asking how many of them have teenagers, he proceeds to joke about it seems as if all he does is cook for his son because he eats a lot. This also earns a laugh from the audience because they closely relate to the scenario. After he describes the “gay lifestyle,” he tells the audience they should run for their heterosexual lives because the gays are everywhere and there is no escaping it. The audience laughs at this joke, yet it goes deeper that just being a funny joke. It shows that gays are not any different that “normal” people. Showing a more sensitive side of himself, Granderson shares a story about his partner giving him a pebble because that is what penguins did when they wanted to mate for life with another penguin and Granderson’s partner said he wanted to spend the rest of his life with him. Granderson finishes describing how in love he is and asks his audience if any of them are in love. When a few members raise their hands he explains to them that they might be gay because he is in love and he knows other gay people who are in love. Then he jokes about how they might want to tell their spouses that they might be gay as well if they are also in love. He asks the crowd how many of them are single and if so they might also be gay because he know some gay people that single. Granderson exclaims, “ It's really scary, this gay lifestyle thing; it's super duper evil and there's no end to it! It goes and goes and engulfs!” By this, he means that everything is a part of the gay lifestyle. Granderson talks about how excited he is to have heard President Barack Obama say that he supports marriage equality.
When he says this, the audience to applaud quite loudly. Many people claim that this is just another item in the gay agenda. He acts as if he is upset because he has been openly gay for a while now and has participated in several pride parades and has yet to see this “gay agenda.” Granderson then says, “..something wonderful happened: I was shopping, as I tend to do, and I came across a bootleg copy of the official gay agenda.” He continues to explain how he has waited for so long for this day and he wants to share it with everybody so no one else has to be confused about it anymore. He warns the audience to be careful because it is evil which earns a delayed chuckle from the audience. Granderson shows a video with Star Wars music playing in the background. On screen, there is a notebook with a rainbow cover and the words, “GAY AGENDA,” written on it. As the notebook opens, it shows the United States Constitution. While this is going on, Granderson is running around on stage, with a lightsaber in hand, pretending to fight off people. When the video and music stops, Granderson exclaims that they should have told him that is was the Constitution all along so he would not have been so confused about …show more content…
it. Granderson then takes on a more serious tone showing maps of states where a person can be kicked out of their home and fired from their job solely based on the fact that they are a part of the LGBT community.
He points out the fourteenth amendment which clearly states that there should be no laws that alter the rights of any citizens. Granderson explains that he presented this version of the “gay agenda” to show that members of the LGBT community are not asking for new rights, they only want equal rights like everyone else. He states that the reason he made the majority of his speech funny is so his audience would not feel threatened by the severity of this topic. Granderson talks about how his son is a respectful young man. He says his son does very well in school, is a budding track star, and pray every night before eating his dinner. Granderson says that he would like to think that since his son lives him for the majority of the time, he would like to think that some of it could be attributed to him. Then points out the fact that even if he wanted to, there are some states where he cannot adopt a child due to the fact he is gay. The audiences faces look somewhat painstaking at this point because they are realizing how big of a problem this
is. Granderson very clearly explains the LGBT community is not trying to strip away the rights of other citizens or even add more rights on, they are solely trying to gain the ones that are already written into the constitution. He points out that this seems to be a popular trend in American history. It was there during the Civil Rights Movement dating all the back to the days of slavery. There has clearly always been this cycle of withholding rights from a certain group of citizen, they rebel and eventually gain their rights. Granderson encourages his audience to treat their neighbors like they would a brother or sister, with love and respect.
A short speech from a politician during the Civil Rights era is “For the Equal Rights Amendment”, delivered by Shirley Chisholm. In this speech, Chisholm uses ethos, pathos, and logos to argue her point of equal rights. An example of ethos that could be found in the speech is when Chisholm says “The Constitution they wrote was designed to protect the rights of white, male citizens. As there were no black Founding Fathers, there were no founding mothers -- a great pity, on both counts. It is not too late to complete the work they left undone. Today, here, we should start to do so.” This would serve as an example of ethos because Chisholm is showing creditably by mentioning why the Constitution was wrote. Additionally, she challenges what the
Furthermore, a few of his plays are written about drag queens and others about being gay. Mr. Fierstein grew up in a time when being gay was a very hard lifestyle to be open about. Over the decades the support group lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community or better known as LGBT, has supported the mass movement worldwide. Mr. Fierstein set out to illustrate to the world that it is ok to be yourself and that the LGBT community will not accept any more bigotry. His plays focus on the hardships faced by the oppressed and the tyrants.
“Run for your heterosexual lives!” Homosexuality, a topic that gains misperception, and alienates people in a world of easily made stereotypes. In the TED talk entitled “The Myth of The Gay Agenda” presented by LZ Granderson. , the speaker’s presentation is mostly expressed most successfully with pathos while also using ethos and logos concerning the topic of proving to dispel the myth that there is a gay agenda. The title alone “The Myth of the Gay Agenda” invites the audience to think, to feel, to question; quite possibly some may even take a position before the lecture begins. Some may even argue that the driving force in this lecture are the points made through logos, however, even though these points carry much weight, it is the the pathos that grabs the listener and then keeps them engaged throughout the talk, that wins over the audience. Logos would most certainly fall on deaf ears if not for the
Women’s rights pioneer, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, in her speech, The Destructive Male, expresses her feelings about Women's suffrage in 1868, and brought to light the misconception that women are not equal to man and imply that men bring more destruction than restoration.
Zakaria asks, “The Sochi Olympics have raised, as a controversy, an issue that you have also gotten embroiled in, which is this issue of gays and gay rights. What do you think of the law that was passed in Russia that internationally is read as being extremely hostile to gays?”. Gergiev responds with, “I myself question very much why the country needed something like this law. And I didn't even read it. Honestly, I only learned about this law when things started to happen that I heard about, people being against this happening in Russia.” Because of Gregiev’s response, Zakaria was able to use en...
Gay male, lesbian, and transsexual networks/communities, and cultural practices often had their own differences that coincided with meshing similarities. From the late 1940s to the 1960s, these identities were shaped through experiences of “the closet” and living a “double life,” among other factors. Alan Berubé explores the war’s impact on homosexual identity, speaking for both gay males and lesbians in “Marching to a Different Drummer: Lesbian and Gay GIs in World War II.” In “We Walk Alone,” Ann Aldrich helps identify the varying types of lesbians, addressing their intimate relationships with each other that are becoming more visible. Harry Benjamin touches more on the medical and scientific side of transsexualism and the obvious fact that
Shugart’s journal “Reinventing privilege: The New (Gay) Man in contemporary media” explores the many ideas ranging from the idea of blatant sexism being reinvented through the use of gay portrayal in the media to the concept of the gay male identity being defined in a way that re-establishes heteronormativity. The journal has another main argument, stating that the reason why stereotypes of the LGBT community exist is for the reason that many of the people behind the camera; play writes, directors, producers… are for the most part heterosexuals that are struggling with their own feelings and reaction about the community. This journal for the most part is fairly well rounded, the only disadvantages I see from this particular journal are that for one, the author is VERY opinionated. She’s very good at drilling an idea in the reader’s head, which isn’t always a bad thing however in this particular situation it’s going to be hard to stay grounded to my own particular viewings on the subject without being influenced by an idea the author had. Secondly, the journal is very poorly organized, all similar ideas aren’t grouped all together making it difficult to take out the good key arguments of the journal. The article makes some strong arguments pertaining to the heterosexual aspect of the gay identity, in the sense of how the emotions and feelings of the heterosexual individuals towards homosexual individuals. It goes in depth on how although media has attempted to
...n Duberman, and Martha Vicinus, eds. Hidden From History: Reclaiming the Gay & Lesbian past. New York: Penguin Group, 1990.
Richard Mohr believes that outing closeted homosexuals is morally justified. He argues that sexual orientation is not a private matter and therefore, does not violate a homosexual's right to privacy. He believes that outing will increase the homosexual community by creating positive role models. He argues that remaining in the closet is morally debasing and creates indignity to one's self. Claudia Card on the other hand, argues almost the complete opposite. She takes a utilitarian stance on outing "the big secret." The big secret is referring to one being a homosexual. She believes that outing is justified as long as it does no harm, which she believes is unlikely.
Last year, Andrew Hozier Byrne challenged an ongoing battle of human rights by creating a four minute music video of his first single, “Take Me To Church”. Hozier’s initial message of this song is to address that sexuality is natural, and is part of human life. The song alone denounces church principles and promotes a new form of worship, something that is tangible and real (Canon). This message found its way into the gay community and their struggle against public bigotry. Hozier created this video to display Russian abuse and torture of the gay community that still exist today. Due to a compelling demonstration of brutality and strong connection of faith, the video gained mass attention on YouTube. This video helps to communicate to the
1.Same sex classrooms have not been allowed in public schools as they prevent students from learning to work together with the opposite sex, raise governmental expenses on building same sex schools, and are made for a less diverse learning environment.
Throughout history LGBT literature has been growing and changing for the better. What was once something shadowed in ambiguity and covered up by society’s perception is now something that is overwhelming prevalent even celebrated. This literature can take a variety of forms such beautiful flowing poetry, as in the case of potential closeted writer Walt Whitman, outspoken activist Audre Lorde, or intense author Allen Ginsberg. It can be packaged tell all in a biography as it is for youtuber Tyler Oakley, AIDS activist Paul Monette, or songwriter Laura Jane Grace. It can be a novel related to their own identity as it is for authors Julie Ann Peters and David Levithan. Or it can in a variety of other literary mediums or reasons as it is for authors
Paragraph 12: Lakoff explains that because the word “gay” means deviant, and sexually irresponsible lifestyle to radical right, they prefer “gay marriage” instead of “same-sex marriage.” Moreover, Lakoff describes that many Americans are against “gay marriage” because of the stereotype of heterosexual
The 1990s saw a surge of gay characters in both television and movies. From Ellen Degeneres and her character Ellen Morgan coming out under much scrutiny on the TV show ‘Ellen,’ to Julia Roberts and Rupert Everett comedically playing off each other in the motion picture ‘My Best Friend’s Wedding.’ Sure, gays and lesbians have been around forever, especially in Hollywood. But never has there been a time to be more out. With the popularity of shows like Will and Grace, which feature leading gay characters, as well as Dawson’s Creek
ion. “For many if not most future homosexual adults, their childhood families are organized around compulsory heterosexuality, rendering homosexuality invisible or taboo.” Green makes several statements similar to this when he could have provided any evidence or statistical data reinforcing his findings. This section of the study is structured more like a short biography of each participant. This weakens the study and suggests a personal connection not only between Green and each participant, but also between each participant and the readers of Green’s study. Conveying the stories of these black, gay men’s lives to emote stories of desperation and a lack of perseverance is a subtle form of exploitation that Green clearly did not realize when he was conducting these interviews. Green does not realize this because his identity as a white, gay man is privileged with not having to have his story be one that is compared to other white, gay men and used as a standard for which all other stories as considered related to. Within the gay community, the white, gay man is shielded with the being the face for movement for all LGBTQ people and being represented more in mainstream media (television shows, movies, pornography). Without accusing Green, fetishisizing black, gay men is an inexcusable proclivity within the gay community especially within urban areas