The queer liberation started in the 1960’s and in recent days, it is common knowledge this cultural movement is been out there for years, in action to advocate for human rights who identify with the cause. I decided to pick LGBTQA+ liberation social movement because the young generation like me, we feel identify with any part of it. Also, we have seen how things can change so quickly regarding decisions that affect our community, like health care, rights, housing, etc.
Nowadays, the movement has become so strong over the years because the community fought hard for it, and it seems we keep working [including myself] to improve every day the conditions for our community and advocate for what we won. However, we saw how some States across the country are running campaigns/bills to keep us or go back to the closet. In the State of Florida where Governor De Santis supported the bill “Don’t say gay”, it is causing distractions of the reality that young generations live today. Since this bill came out, it become very political and controversial, because do not protect the right of someone feeling in any to speak up about their beliefs or much less sex orientation.
The reaction to the bill created a feeling of fair and caused protests in Florida, as we see if campaign like in the photograph [used by ABC news website portal]. This picture went viral on social media because of the post that the lady is holding in hands the sign that contains “It’s ok to say, GAY!”. This rhetorical device worked pretty well, in a few days it become a huge fundraising campaign by Human Rights Campaign (HRC). The speaker is clear, she is a supporter of the queer movement or she identifies herself with it, but in fact, what we know is she is a woman with short hair. The message of the poster that she holds in her hands, it is very good and effective. The sentence in the poster expresses her arguments, supports her beliefs and likes. Also, reaffirms the argument and idea of the queer movement about anyone is free to come out of the closet. The intended audience here is the young populations, teenagers, adolescent, or even adults, anyone is the target here specially whose shares the same beliefs that goes with the LGBTQA+ community. The purpose of it is to speak up, against the Bill “Don’t say gay” and boot it with the idea you should stand up for your beliefs.
The rhetorical device used here could be a humor appeal, she is trying to criticize and dismiss the bill by just changing a few words of the original campaign, creating a sense of humor against it. Also, the protestor does not realize the use of gender appeal, and this opportunity is attacking both genders by the use of the term “gay” which refers to anyone whose use it to identify as someone that likes their same sex. Also, another rhetoric device used it is antithesis and it used a as argument of the protestor. Finally, the name’s bill “Don’t say gay” together with the poster “It’s ok to say gay” can be study as a rhetorical litotes device. The use of difference rhetorical devices is makes it very effective and supportive to the cause.
In this case, we studied the opposite. The protestors are holding posters with “don’t say gay” campaign. The context of this picture works pretty the rhetorical triangle, the speaker is promoting their idea with the support of a well-established entertainment corporation as it is Disney. The message can be a confusing, you must read it carefully to understand the message, but maybe is the role play that the speaker decided to play. The audience oriented is to the LGBTQA+ community but involved everyone because the bill became a public interest. The rhetorical device used in the poster is gender appeal because, one more time accused the one intended to be gay. Also, Litotes rhetoric device is present but the ideal message isn’t clear.
The rhetoric is not fully effective, I will try to change the colors for the post and probably will remove the name of Disney, can be distracted even the protestors were Disney workers it is unnecessary to mention it. The bill “Don’t say gay” become a public interest around the country and bringing consequences the indisputable debate about human rights or trans and adult healthcare.
