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Articulating Civil Rights Rhetoric PDF

247 Pages·2011·0.8 MB·English
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(Re)Articulating Civil Rights Rhetoric: A Critical Intersectional Approach to the No on 8 Campaign in California by Michelle L. Kelsey A Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy Approved April 2011 by the Graduate Supervisory Committee: Daniel Brouwer, Chair Adina Carlson Keith Miller ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY May 2011 ABSTRACT California's Proposition 8 revoked the right to marriage for that state's gay and lesbian population. Proposition 8 was a devastating defeat for gay marriage movements across the nation. The primary rhetorical strategy of the No on 8 campaign was a reliance on a Civil Rights analogy that constructed the gay and lesbian movement for marriage as a civil right akin to those fought for by African Americans in the 1950s and 1960s. Analogizing the gay and lesbian struggle for gay marriage with the racial struggles of the Civil Rights Movement exposed a complicated relationship between communities of color and gay and lesbian communities. This project reads critical rhetoric and intersectionality together to craft a critical intersectional rhetoric to better understand the potentialities and pitfalls of analogizing the gay rights with Civil Rights. I analyze television ads, communiqués of No on 8 leadership, as well as state level and national court decisions related to gay marriage to argue alternative frameworks that move away from analogizing and move towards coalition building. i DEDICATION To Ben, with all my love. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS There is a host of people without whom this project would have been impossible. Thank you first to my chair Daniel Brouwer. Thank you for working with me both at my most sluggish, and at my most feverish production. You provided me with amazing feedback and encouragement. Thank you for challenging me to be a scholar full of care and thoughtfulness in writing and teaching. The passion and care you put into your lectures, your feedback, and your relationship with students is inspiring. You are an exemplary mentor—I have been so lucky to work with you. I have also been very privileged to work with and take courses from Cheree Carlson and Keith Miller. Cheree: Taking your classes were such joyful experiences for me. You have an exceptional capacity for making otherwise inaccessible content understandable, and have a great time doing it. Graduate school was such an intimidating project as a first year, and taking your Rhetorical Theory course helped me to understand my place in both graduate school and the academy. Your exuberance and passion are unrivaled. Keith: Thank you for always, always being supportive. I knew throughout the course of this endeavor that no matter what news I had to report about the job application process you would always respond with encouragement. You have made this process less stressful through your support. Finally, I must thank my family and friends for tolerating my moments of frustration, and sharing in my moments of joy related to this project. I count myself lucky to have so many wonderful people in my life. I could not have iii completed this project without the loving support of my wonderful partner Ben, my mother Peggy, my sister Brooke, my dearest friends Nicole, Lydia, Karma, Joseph, Erik, Michael, my family at Desert Vista high school, and so very many more. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION AND LITERATURE REVIEW ............................. 1 Social Movements ............................................................................ 12 Religion, Sexuality, and Civil Rights ............................................... 20 LGBT and Civil Rights Intersections ............................................... 31 Whiteness .......................................................................................... 38 Coalitional Politics ........................................................................... 46 Intersectionality ................................................................................ 50 Method .............................................................................................. 52 Texts .................................................................................................. 57 Conclusion ........................................................................................ 60 2 CRITICAL INTERSECTIONAL RHETORIC .................................. 62 Critical Rhetoric ................................................................................ 62 Intersectionality ................................................................................ 77 A Conversation ................................................................................. 91 3 IS GAY THE NEW BLACK? ........................................................... 103 Television Ads ................................................................................ 104 The Advocate .................................................................................. 124 Media Coverage .............................................................................. 136 Litigation ......................................................................................... 162 Conclusion ...................................................................................... 176 v 4 ALTERNATIVE FRAMEWORKS AND CONCLUSIONS ........... 183 Limitations and Future Research .................................................... 215 REFERENCES ...................................................................................................... 221 vi Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION AND LITERATURE REVIEW We are in the midst of a major social change. Societies seldom make such changes smoothly. For some the process is frustratingly slow. For others it is jarringly fast. Justice Carol A. Corrigan, In re Marriages The November 2008 edition of The Advocate asks the question, “Is gay the new black?” Lamenting the passage of Proposition 8 in the state of California, a measure that revoked the right of marriage to gay and lesbian couples, the article simultaneously valorizes African Americans who opposed the proposition while articulating a frustration with celebrating the election of the first African-American president against the backdrop of anti-gay prejudice (Gross, 2008). This profound ambivalence was reflected in the blogosphere, some news media, and much of the public discussion of the breakdown of the No on 8 campaign. The news of statistical majorities of both black and Latino voters supporting Proposition 8 represented to many LGBT individuals a betrayal of a sort of symbolic, unstated coalition between African Americans and gays in their progressive support of Barack Obama. Reactions to the success of Proposition 8 ranged from sheer anger to patronizing insults that likened the LGBT movement to the civil rights movement with the enthymematic question: “How could you?” This question became explicit through blogs and television appearances that shamed the black voters who supported Proposition 8. Dan Savage, who in the immediate aftermath of the passage of Proposition 8 operated as a spokesperson for the LGBT activists on 1 that campaign, appeared on CNN with both D. L. Hughley and Anderson Cooper. While on screen with D. L. Hughley, Savage was careful to concede that while the African American civil rights movement is historically different from the LGBT civil rights movement, there is a central similarity: hate. He argued that if you are fired from a job because you are gay or because you are black, you are still fired. His equation assumes all hate manifests identically; the disparate histories of racial minorities prove the materiality of his claim wrong. Savage followed this up with an appearance with Anderson Cooper where he argued that the 1963 Loving v. Virginia Supreme Court decision that overturned bans on anti- miscegenation laws was “identical” to the question begged by the passage of Proposition 8. This was not the first that the public heard of the Civil Rights analogy; in fact, this rhetoric can be found throughout much of the “No on 8” television spots during the campaign featuring pictures of “white only” drinking fountains, interracial marriages, even Klan regalia. For many, the possibilities to discuss with sophistication and depth the divisions, both real and constructed, between African-American and GLBT communities was welcomed. This possibility, though, was quashed when many in the GLBT movement resisted any concessions. Savage, after his appearance on CNN, posted to his blog: I’m done pretending that the handful of racist gay white men out there— and they’re out there, and I think they’re scum—are a bigger problem for African Americans, gay and straight, than the huge numbers of 2 homophobic African Americans are for gay Americans, whatever their color. Savage’s comments uniquely foreclose productive public discussions concerning racism, homophobia, and those who experience the intersection of these ideologies. His decision to construct African-American communities as more homophobic than gay and lesbian communities are racist was largely in response to reports of verbal aggression towards African-Americans at protests immediately following the 2008 vote (Cannick 2008). Cannick reported narratives from African-American activists enduring racial slurs and other verbal accosting while attempting to support the marriage movement; including being called “nigger” and “the niggers better not come to West Hollywood if they know what is best for them,” “if your people want to call me a faggot, I will call you a nigger,” (Cannick, 2008). She also relays this extended narrative Three older men accosted my friend and shouted, "Black people did this, I hope you people are happy!" A young lesbian couple with mohawks and Obama buttons joined the shouting and said there were "very disappointed with black people" and "how could we" after the Obama victory. This was stupid for them to single us out because we were carrying those blue NO ON PROP 8 signs! I pointed that out and the one of the older men said it didn't matter because "most black people hated gays" and he was "wrong" to think we had compassion. That was the most insulting thing I had ever heard. I guess he never thought we were gay. 3

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gay marriage with the racial struggles of the Civil Rights Movement exposed a This project reads critical rhetoric and intersectionality together to that no matter what news I had to report about the job application process you . Virginia Supreme Court decision that overturned bans on anti-.
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