Homophobia

Pink Triangles

It was clear from watching Pink Triangles that the main argument was that gay and lesbian individuals deserve to be treated fairly and equally. Homosexuals believe that they are being treated unfairly, and they want to see a change in the attitude of the American people as a whole. The most prominent start of this discrimination stems from a long time ago shortly before the Holocaust began in Europe. The Nazis forced homosexuals to wear pink triangles on their clothing to identify the kind of lifestyle these victims chose to live. These pink triangles have struck back with a vengeance. Homosexuals are now wearing these simple shapes to show their stand for solidarity. This video used rhetorical appeal to present its argument for equality among all people, most importantly homosexuals.

The ethos provided in the film was fairly strong, but it could have been stronger. The most credible source of ethos would have to be Professor Richard Plant who told the story about the history of the pink triangles. Plant is a fairly well known German history writer. Along with Plant, the filmmakers interviewed several different credible people both straight and homosexual. Each person interviewed told personal opinions, which were drawn from personal life experiences. Lastly, there were psychiatrists interviewed giving medical facts and opinions. Doctors are normally viewed as very credible sources.

The logos appeal in the film is very strong. There are several specific quantitative statistics mentioned along with the historical overview of Nazi Germany and the treatment of homosexuals. For example, one of the interviewees mentioned that, at the time this film was created, assault complaints had increased to 10-20 per week. Statistics such as these support the logos of the film.

The use of pathos in the film was the weakest rhetorical strategy presented. Though there were interviewees who appeared sad or upset about the present state of the treatment of homosexuals, there were not enough of these ‘sob stories’ to really effect the emotions of a viewer. If someone views pathos in a different light, it is possible that it can manifest itself through courageous behavior. These victims showed how badly they want to fight back, how badly they want to see change in the American people.

Coming Out in Middle School

When I first think of homophobia, one situation in particular comes to mind. I knew a boy who had been very popular all throughout school. Unlike the boy in the article, this popular boy did not receive the same warm acceptance after he came out. He was rejected by all of his previous male friends, though the female friends still accepted him. This boy lost the majority of the close friends he had had for years because of the homophobia his friends exhibited. Because of the loss of his closest friends, he has now decided to change the entire path of his life. He dropped out of high school and has started working at a local grocery store. He has just recently received his GED and I believe he has decided to skip college. Had he stayed in high school, I believe that he would have gone to college. The homophobia of his friends has changed his life forever.

In another situation, a friend of mine had always been homophobic, and he made sure people close to him knew this. He, like most other high school students, referred to things being ‘gay,’ in a negative sense of the word. Though this is common in high school students, he would go beyond the norm and use this language around openly gay students. He knew this was offensive to them, but he continued to use this to show his homophobia. However, our senior year in high school, this friend met a gay boy who was in a class with us. This boy had been openly gay for a while and was still able to remain friends with his straight male friends. First of all, this was impressive, because of the previous story I just assumed that all males would flee from newly gay friends. This boy was different. The homophobic boy from the beginning shocked me. After very little interaction, he became friends with the gay boy. They constantly joked with each other about everything, even being gay and being straight. Their friendship was very interesting to me, and I enjoyed watching it grow and even becoming a part of it. This was a situation in which homophobia was overcome due to the true personality of the people involved.

The third situation involving homophobia is about a boy who was on my swim team in high school. He was very openly gay by the time I had met him. Like most of the gay males I had met, all of his friends were female. The problem with homophobia in this situation is the changing rooms for the swimmers. This boy was obviously supposed to use the male locker room. It did not go over well with the boys on the team. They isolated him and avoided changing at the same time as this boy. He had been out for so long that he was used to this behavior, but it still did not solve the changing room problems. He approached the swim team coach, which ended up being a futile attempt. The boys on the team simply ignored him for the remainder of the season. It was very sad to watch and know that there was nothing I could do.

AIDS Walk Atlanta

After reading through all of the information provided on the AIDS Quilt Website, I found a lot of the facts to be very interesting. One of the most amazing things I read was the story of the start of the AIDS Quilt tradition. The story says that everyone put the names of their loved ones on a placard, and then they placed all of the placards on a wall in columns and rows. The rectangle that was created by all of the placards resembled a quilt. The next year, the first ever square of the AIDS Quilt was created. There were sewing machines and other materials donated in support of the making of the quilt. In 1987 the entire quilt was displayed as a whole! I couldn’t imagine seeing all 1,920 panels together for the first time! The first showing was such a success that the quilt got its own tour of the major cities that had been affected by AIDS. The most mind-blowing thing about the whole story is the Nobel Prize nomination the quilt received. Not only is it a work of art but also a memorial to AIDS victims everywhere created by the loved ones they have left behind.



Jeffrey M. Pitts’ quilt square grabbed my attention immediately. My first reaction to this particular quilt square was ‘wow’. Not only the design and layout, but the pictures, the colors, and the actual written content made me very interested to stop and investigate further. The border around the quilt, though at first glance it may seem like simply a pretty pattern seems to have more meaning. It has stars and moons and suns. To me, this suggests the importance of Mr. Pitts to his family and friends; one could almost infer that their worlds revolved around him. He must have been a very special person to attract the kind of people that created this square for him. The layout of the square makes it apparent that his spirit will still be around for his loved ones to remember him. They have the memories portrayed in the pictures, which act as stars in the night sky that the quilt resembles. After the border pattern and the layout, I focused on the pictures. The life this man led was, simply put, great. All of the pictures show fun and friends and love. There is no mistaking the heart and spirit this man put into his life and the life of those around him. One picture shows Jeffrey in what looks like a restaurant having a meal with close friends. It is evident in this simple picture that he was important to their lives, and that he was an excellent friend to have. The most shocking part of the square is the written content. It reads that Jeffrey Pitts was only twenty-eight years old when he fell to AIDS. The thought that I am a whole ten years younger than he was shows the true horror behind the AIDS epidemic in Atlanta.

This panel struck me as one of the more somber pictures. I believe the dark, solemn colors create this effect. However, I don’t believe the somberness takes anything away from the quilt square at all. The creation of the square alone is meant to be a memorial, a way to remember the person with whom the creator spent all of those good times. It is also a celebration. The pictures are clearly a celebration of those good times, and a celebration of the person that was able to be there to make them so special. The feeling of love that is radiating from the quilt immediately impacts anyone who sees this square. I could feel the sadness that the creators of the square feel now that Jeffery is gone.

The main use of pathos in the square would be from the pictures. The pictures hit heart very hard. They allow viewers to see into the great life of this young man, and see how much love was in his life. In a way, the date can also been seen as pathos. I looked from the pictures, showing Jeffery having fun and loving life, and then I moved to the date. It almost negated everything I had seen, and made the square a sad story.

Service Learning

My recent experience with the Safe Girls, Strong Girls organization has been very interesting. I have had the opportunity to meet some very cool people. My group members have been hard working, and our supervisor has been helpful. We have been working on creating a board packet and a brochure. The board packet is supposed to be used as both a recruiting tool and as an informative package. The brochure is going to be used to promote and inform possible participants of the exciting events and purpose of Camp Cadi. We have worked on three brochure prototypes collectively as a group.

The purpose of the Safe Girls, Strong Girls group is focused on giving a voice to sexually abused women and girls. It is used as a support group, helping abused individuals connect with each other and reconnect with their families. Our course material has related very closely to this subject matter. There are two videos that most closely relate to our service learning projects, but a few of the other topics we have discussed are also fairly relevant. Breaking our Silence was definitely focused on the sexual abuse topic. This was a really informative movie that shared a lot of insight to our group about sexual abuse. The brochures we have board packets we have started to create will include information about the male role in the Safe Girls, Strong Girls organization. Our supervisor hopes to gain more active male board members to grow as an organization to help a wider audience. This will work to show that this problem is not only female oriented, it can also involve males. The other film that we have watched in class that relates to our service project is Defending Our Lives. Though the organization focuses mainly on childhood abuse, it also works to help more adult age women. Defending Our Lives portrayed several difference victims of sexual assault and the struggles they had to endure throughout their entire lives because of this. We hope to send this message out in the board packet as well. This will serve as a way to inform the board members or potential board members of the good work they are doing by being a productive part of the organization. Other films we have watched also relate to our projects. Rape is… has helped us to understand more the traumatic, life altering aspect of Safe Girls, Strong Girls. It has made me personally appreciate the work that the organization does to improve and help the lives of those effected by such terrible events.

The information that I have learned by working on the service project with Safe Girls, Strong Girls has taught me several valuable lessons. It has first and foremost taught me to be a much more understanding person. I know that not everyone has had the same great opportunities I have had, from simply going on vacation, to going to college, to even something as simple as having two parents live together. The after effects of those people that go through traumatic events are not always visible to people who meet them every day on the street. It makes me to be nicer to people I might disagree with. I find out why they disagree. I am also more in support of non-profit organizations after watching Voices from the Front. It shows the heart and spirit behind both those affected and those in support of those affected. I have seen this in person now that I have had the chance to get to know the supervisor for our group project. Amy has showed me that you can be in support of something no matter how awkward it may seem to other people. Your goal has to be to make them understand that it may be awkward, but it is also very important to the children and adults who have been sexually abused. This has brought out a more active, supportive side in me. I hope to one day be able to find a cause that I support as strongly as Amy has shown us her support. She has such heart and drive that it makes me wish I cared as strongly for something that helps so many people as much as she does. The teamwork side of this project has also taught me patience and leadership. I have really gotten to know my group members, and I enjoy their company. They are a great group of students and have a lot of diligence.

Shelby Knox Against the World

The Education of Shelby Knox used first hand accounts from the citizens of the small Baptist town of Lubbock, Texas. Shelby became known as the “Sex Ed Girl” because of the hard work and dedication she showed supporting her cause through all odds, no matter who was against her. As an advocate for preventative sex education in her school system, Shelby argues against abstinence-only sex education. She uses the Lubbock Youth Commission as her voice, and got a lot of attention drawn to the issue with her persistency. The film assists her in arguing her point, but it also hints at supporting a ‘one voice can make a difference’ philosophy. The rhetorical appeals presented in the film help both of the arguments effectively, and there are several examples that can be used to prove this.

The ethos, or the credibility, of the documentary was a fairly well supported. It showed the actual school board President giving his testimony against the preventative sex education proposal. They also interviewed the students directly involved in the fight for sex education reform. Corey Nichols from the Lubbock Youth Commission was a very reliable source, because of his direct link with the problem at hand. He helped Shelby with her argument and showed his one voice making a difference. Similarly, students from the gay-straight alliance group were interviewed, and they were able to voice how unfair they believed the school system was treating them and the club. Most importantly, the interviewing of Shelby Knox herself proved to be the most useful example of ethos in the documentary. She was knowledgeable on her subject of interest, even when it wavered from sex education to the gay-straight alliance. She was also straightforwardly connected to both of the arguments. The fact that the video was even made proves that her voice has made a difference to someone.

The logos, or logical appeal, in the documentary was strong, but could have been improved upon. There were very few statistics, but the few that were presented were very powerful. Perhaps the most dominating statistic mentioned was directly related to the problem Shelby believed was evident in Lubbock, Texas. It stated that “an estimated 60 percent of the students are sexually active” in the Lubbock school system. This grabs the attention of viewers and definitely helps strengthen the case against abstinence-only sex education. There weren’t many other quantitative statistics offered as evidence in the film. There were many solely opinionated interviews and information. It could be argued that the small amount of statistics serves to emphasize the individual importance of each in the film.

The use of pathos, or emotional appeal, in the documentary was very strong. They used an excessive amount of emotion, mostly radiating from Shelby Knox at every turn. She was constantly crying about her issues with her faith, her family, and her cause. Her tears kept the audience on her side, producing sympathy for her. The film also used emotional appeal to gain support for Shelby after she failed to get the school board’s approval. Her disappointment, combined with her confidence to keep going allowed for even more support from the audience. The use of pathos in the documentary was perhaps the most effective rhetorical strategy out of all three. It brought the audience to Shelby’s side and held them there.

The film, for the most part, effectively counter-argues against the abstinence-only side. It could use more statistics against abstinence-only sex education, because as it stands, there are mainly just opinions dealing with the topic. While Shelby would not be considered the best public speaker, she did have strong heart and confidence which is advantageous to the emotional appeal of her cause. The ethos was very effective as well.