The Fight For Equality Among Gay And Lesbians Essays Examples

Essay 1

The Supreme Court and Gay Marriage, an article by The New York Times’ editorial board, focuses on discussing the current position of the United States of America regarding gay, other known as same sex, marriages. The article was published earlier this year, on January 16th of 2015, making it relatively recent. According to the article, the dispute between whether to legalize same sex marriage or not had been ongoing for several years, and “both sides’ positions have been aired out thoroughly and repeatedly” through this period of time. The article openly supports gay rights, thus, drew several examples from recent court decisions supporting those opinions. There is Justice Anthony Kennedy, who had upheld gay rights in several previously cases and wrote “eloquently of the dignity and equality of gay people”; Justice Antonin Scalia, who previously voted against gay rights but then changed his own opinion; case Lawrence V. Texas, which legalized gay sexual conducts; and several more. The article points out the main justifications and reasoning behind what these cases stand for in the acceptance of same-sex marriage, summing up with a positive note towards the gay community- that “For same-sex couples and their families, friends and communities, this moment has been a long time coming”, and that the constitution should include protection for the equality of the gay and lesbian population in America.
As an advocator of legalizing same-sex marriages, I found this article soothing and upholding many rightful opinions. In all, it was convincing, and the claims made in the articles are largely persuasive. A supporter of gay and lesbian rights would no doubt find this article agreeable and assuring, knowing that a large portion of America are fighting for the equality of such rights. Thus, I think the targeted audience for this article is either of the supporter, families and people who are gay or lesbian, or unbiased readers who simply want to get a clearer picture of what is going on regarding this topic. This article is also a good source for readers who would like to evaluate different opinions regarding the subject. One of the most convincing tactics that the editors used in drafting this article is that they referred frequently to big-name court cases and well-known court Justices and their opinions. This, in my perspective, is the best way to persuade an audience of your opinion. Since these people are professionals in their field, the reader will be easier convinced when they are quoted, thinking that these experienced people have credentials, which means that they actually know what is going on. Court cases and Justice papers are also hyperlinked throughout the article, helping the reader access relevant sources regarding the subject.
For Justice Kennedy’s example, the editor wrote that, “In each case, Mr. Kennedy wrote eloquently of the dignity and equality of gay people.” Then, the editor wondered aloud what, given all these reasons, could possibly be holding the constitutional legalization of gay and lesbian rights, which would be “one of the most important civil-rights decisions in a generation.” There are no flaws behind this reasoning. After an online search of Justice Kennedy’s decision papers, which some readers who come across this article would do, I would say that Justice Kennedy basically summarized every possible gay and lesbian rights and made appealing counter-arguments against most possible opposing opinions well. The editor probably brought attention to Justice Kennedy’s paper in the sense that it allows people to dig deeper in the subject and covers up many substantial facts and arguments that the article did not have a chance to introduce. Therefore, introducing Justice Kennedy, along with his credentials and his eloquently drafted papers, is a smart move.
Then, the writer introduced an actual court case, Lawrence V. Texas, where a link is once more given for readers to discern. I have noticed that throughout this article, the writer repeatedly used and quoted credible authorities. I would say that the article mostly uses ethos, from all the credentials, and logos, reasoning the standpoint behind their point of view. These two ways of argument works best in essays that needs a lot of reasoning, therefore, makes this article convincing to its readers. The ethos is further manipulated in the additional Justice papers. I believe that the use of pathos would prove to be affective in this writing too, particularly to appeal to gays, lesbians, and their family and friends. People who actually know people that are going through this fight of justice perhaps would be easily convinced by the use of real-life inspiring stories or emotionally supportive claims.
When trying to convince people by your writings, the essential parts are the credentials and the knowledge in how to move the readers the way you want them to be moved. This paper clearly exemplifies both parts, with reliable sources and the use of different writing techniques. The word choice of this paper adapted a more serious tone, yet it isn’t dull. All in all, this is an effective article.

Response:

After reading your essay, I can make a conclusion, that it is well-written. The title of this essay is “The Fight for Equality among Gay and Lesbians” and for a well-written essay it supposed to have both supporters and anti-supporters of gay rights. You gave a good example of supporter, but had struggled a little bit with anti-supporter. Kennedy Scalia is not a good example, as you provide, because he didn’t approve gay rights but then “reversed its own precedent and banned state anti-sodomy laws”. Anti-sodomy laws can be related with gay rights but not certainly close, anti-sodomy laws can be approved in any normal community, any kind of person can get pleasure by doing sodomy, not only the gay right supporters. Banning anti-sodomy laws can’t actually keep track of gay right supporters as you say. To make this essay sound good, I would actually ask the reader the question if gay or lesbians are really discriminated as they are. Living in a community, where gay rights are banned and going against those rights isn’t a good idea, is it? Showing an abnormal situation to a normal community isn’t a solution, because the community is not ready to accept this and have strong believes against it. The other good thing to consider would be asking if gay right supporters or lesbians are allowed to have families and adopt kids. How life of those kids are going to be affected by both parents. Will it change the kids life believes, as he has been raised by both father parents? How these kids are going to feel and community, which is not ready accept the fact of gay marriages? These are the questions, which might be concerned, when writing an argumentative essay.

Citations

THE EDITORIAL BOARD. "The Supreme Court and Gay Marriage." The New York Times. The New York Times, 16 Jan. 2015. Web. 24 Jan. 2015.