Sunday, October 5, 2014
Stasis Theory: Human Rights Day
In her 2011 Human Rights Day speech, then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton addressed the issue of LGBTQ rights and freedoms. There was (and still is) a huge debate on whether or not gay marriage should be legal. Members of the LGBTQ community had been rallying for the support of the US government to legalize gay marriage. People opposed to the idea of legalizing gay marriage believed that gay marriage goes against Christian beliefs, and that being gay is a "disease." This opposition leads to a reaction from the LGBTQ community. The idea behind their rallies, and behind Clinton's speech, is that gay people should have the same rights as straight people. Clinton and the LGBTQ community argue that sexual preferences don't determine a person's quality. Clinton argues that LGBTQ members are denied work opportunities and other opportunities to express themselves and prove their worth to society because of their sexual preferences. Clinton believes that the US government should change their laws in order to guarantee equal rights to all US citizens, no matter their personal preferences. The US government, led by president Barack Obama, had control over the law changes. Clinton's speech, as well as the LGBTQ community's rallies, had an effect on governments. In 2012, the year after Clinton's speech, President Obama announced his support of gay marriage. Since Clinton's speech, a number of local governments have legalized gay marriage. There are still campaigns for the federal government to declare restriction of marriage unconstitutional and illegal, but since Clinton's speech, progress has been made.
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I really like this post because I thought it was a very precise and clear analysis of the stasis theory of Hillary Clinton's speech. It was great how you unified Hillary Clinton's thoughts with the LGBTQ community's in your explanation of her argument to show how supportive they were of each other.
ReplyDeleteI though that you did a good job of explaining the main argument through stasis theory, and how Hillary Clinton's speech impacted gay rights.
ReplyDelete-Allyson
I liked how you made Clinton's argument very precise in your post. You were able to link the arguments of Clinton with the ideals of LGBTQ movement and showed how they supported each other.
ReplyDeleteIn your post you did a good job explaining the kairotic moment and why it was the right time for Clinton to make her speech. Like graham said, you did a good job in connecting Clinton's speech to kairos while making the speech a focal point.
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