Sexuality Discrimination Were Viewed and Analyzed Using

¶ … sexuality discrimination were viewed and analyzed using the Rhetorical Triangle. The first presentation was a councilman's address during the announcement portion of a city council meeting, and the subject was bullying of gay children and teens. The second presentation was a House Representative's address to the Defense Programs and Policy committee about repealing the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" law. The two presentations were quite different, but both were effective in communicating their respective points.

Video one was of a Joel Burns, and councilman for the city of Fort Worth in Texas (Burns, 2011). As a councilman speaking at a city council meeting, he carries authority which is effective in getting the audience to trust him and what he is speaking about. He is given further credibly by the fact that he is openly gay and discusses it in his speech. This reveals relevant information on his beliefs and values, as well as displays a level of expertise on the topic he is discussing since he has personal experience with being bullied as a gay teen.

It initially would seem that the audience is obviously those present at the council meeting. However, throughout the speech he makes it clear that his message is meant to meet a much larger audience. He is specifically targeting two groups with his message. The first and most important is gay teenagers that are struggling with bullying and alienation. He tells personal stories to relate to these teens, and tries to empower them with the knowledge that "it gets better." His secondary audience is that of parents and other adults in a position to prevent the bullying that goes on towards gay teens. He makes a call for action, so tragedies from bullying will cease.

He lays a very solid foundation for his speech by leading with examples of gay teens that have recently committed suicide because of bullying and alienation from their peers. He shows pictures, and tells emotion evoking stories about these teens so that he can establish the existence of a problem to the audience. This is important because before he try and solve the problem, the audience needs to believe that problem actually exists. His argument is mostly an emotional one, but it is effective. By telling a very personal story of his own, he makes the audience want to help him. The main drawback of this situation is that he is clearly reading from a piece of paper (he even mentions it in the speech), and becomes so emotional at certain times that it is difficult to understand him. While some emotion in a speech is important, this particular presentation would have been more effective if he had practiced enough times beforehand to be able to properly deliver the speech.

Video two is Congressman Steny Hoyer's address to the House during FY2011 Defense Programs and Policy session before a vote to repeal Don't Ask Don't Tell, a law which forbids gay Americans the right to serve in the armed forces. As a Congressman he obviously carries trust and respect because he was elected to the position by the people of the 5th District of Maryland (Hoyer, 2011). Though as is often the case with politics, he runs the risk of alienating some of his audience due to party associations. Unfortunately, there is little that can be done to prevent this. He establishes authority by dating himself, and showing that he has had first-hand experience with the topic he is discussing, in the instance it is the defense of civil rights.

Unlike video one, the audience of this presentation is much narrower. He is addressing the audience in front of him which is the people of the House who will vote on the policy he is discussing. He uses past evidence of discrimination to make his point, and tries to convince the audience that Don't Ask Don't Tell is a violation of civil liberties. Additionally, he tries to use a certain amount of fear to make his point. He asks the audience to focus on the safety of the nation, and not personal beliefs on the subject of homosexuality.