Zach Wahls goes before the House of Representatives in support of marriage equality. The nineteen year old University of Iowa student stands before a full room of people to discuss his personal experience of being raised by two women. Zach, a well-spoken young man, explains that he has a full blooded sibling that was conceived through in vitro fertilization. He goes on to reference his home life as being just as normal as someone who is raised by a heterosexual couple. Zach confidently speaks of his accomplishments and then bravely addresses chairman by saying “ If I was your son, Mr. Chairman, I believe I would make you very proud. ”
The issue of same sex marriage in regards to raising children is one that has gone on to raise controversy and produce legislation. Defining a family structure can be a challenging task because family units have changed. They consist of blended families, single parents, and gay or lesbian companions. During Zach’s speech, he is able to cleverly use ethos, pathos, and logos to persuade the House of Representatives how typical and stable his upbringing was with homosexual parents.
Wahls uses ethos to display his superior credibility during his speech on marriage equality. This made his proposal to the House of Representatives in Iowa more respectable. Wahls brings his credibility into the speech early as he address the chairman as “ Hello Mr. Chairman…” this establishes credibility for him from the start among the committee members. Wahls stood in front of everyone as a young 19 year old man and a sixth generation native of Iowa. He had remarkable presence which allowed his audience to be completely taken by him.
Scoring in the ninety nine percentile on the ACT test and attending the University of Iowa as a engineering major are just two facts that Wahls gives to show his credibility. He indicates his overwhelming responsible and leadership qualities by stating that he is an eagle scout and is a small business owner. Zach is able to describe that his parents were two women who raised him with good morals, traditional values and with a solid foundation. He is able to communicate that even though his parents were of the same sex he eceived a healthy and loving upbringing.
Wahls gave us his emotional appeal by giving specific examples of his life, such as telling them that his upbringing was no different than anybody else because people could not independently tell that he been raised by a gay couple. He expresses parenting is a personal commitment people whether they are gay or not. He appeals to many voters by explaining that are voting on a very important piece of legislation. He implores to the House of Representatives that voters have the right to be heard.
He explains that they are voting for the first time in history of Iowa that can change how the law views same sex marriages. They audience is able to hear that same sex marriages have a right to be heard and they have a right to be equal. He closes his speech with a powerful statement by saying the sexual orientation of his parents had zero effect of the content of his character. Wahls also mentions how normal his family is. They go to church. They have dinner. They go on vacation. They have disputes among each other and have hardships as well such as his mother having multiple sclerosis.
Zach stats that despite any struggle he faces, being an Iowan, he and his family try to solve their problems on their own. He is trying to show that his family is no different than the house of Representative’s family. Wahls also tries to appeal to them by saying that what they’re to vote for isn’t going to change their family but instead only to change how the law views same sex parenting. Zach uses logos, or a logic appeal, to also persuade the audience. Although he does use logos, you can’t really see it behind the ethos and pathos, but he stated facts about his childhood that gave you a good outlook into his life.
Zach made sure he let the audition know that being raised by two woman did not affect his life and how he raised and that it would not affect anyone else’s life either. He let them know that being raised by a gay couple does not alter your intelligence level or your accomplishments that you can achieve in life. Zach also gave us his credibility that he already has attained at such a young age. I do believe that Wahls could have strengthened his logos in his speech though. The logos were hidden behind the emotional; appeal and credibility of the speech as a whole.
We live in a society now where the government controls every aspect of our life and now they are trying to control who we should love and who is fit to raise children. This is the reason why Zach got in front of a whole room of congressman, most of which would disagree with him, to discuss what may not be politically correct is not exactly harmful. He made statements to like ” we go to church together.. We have our fights” to put out that the normality of his family is not that different from the normality of anybody else’s.
His goal was to get the House of Representatives, in which he gave his speech to, to understand that there is nothing wrong with gay parenting or any different from a heterosexual parenting relationship. Wahls effectiveness was something that was undeniable. He didn’t have a strong emotional appeal but yet just the words that he spoke were enough to draw the audition in and keep their attention. He had a goal before he gave the speech and that was to convince that gay parenting should be acknowledged just as well as the “ normal” family is.
He didn’t get up in front of everyone and try to persuade them but instead to stated facts of his accomplishments in life and how he was no different from your everyday person. His tone of voice, facts that were stated and calm demeanor were all enough to have your ears glued to what was going to come out of his mouth next. Zach’s impressive speech was very effective. He knew that they congressman might not be agreeing with what he was saying but he did know that his confident demeanor was good enough to get them to listen. He also uses the phase “ we’re Iowan’s… ” to show that they are all the same.
He is able to unite a group of people who appear divided because of their different beliefs but the same because each person believes in the foundation of the Constitution of the United States of America that tells us we are equal, we have rights and that we shall not be treated unjustly. Zach may not be able to change the outcome of the final legislation is regards to marriage equality for the state of Iowa but he is able to show a different perspective for those who believe only men and women who are married or in a heterosexual relationship would be the best candidates for raising children.
He is able to show that his character and beliefs were instilled by people not by laws proposed by our government. Zach did not speak for himself but for the numerous other children who were once raised by untraditional family units. Gay and lesbian couples are asking to be heard and they are asking to be treated fairly. These people are everyday people just like the House of Representative that Zach talked too. These people are people that pay their taxes, have rights, and that should be treated just as equal as people that are in heterosexual relationships.
Wahls is not asking for the congressman to do anything extreme. Zach just wants people to respected them and give them equality as they do deserve. Our government will continue to pass laws on same sex marriages but it will take more than Zach Wahls to say I’m just like you. The speech lasted less than fifteen minutes but Zach was able to leave a positive and powerful impact about such a controversial issue. Raising children isn’t about sexual orientation, it isn’t about heterosexual or gays, and it’s about taking a young man just like Zach and instilling good morals, good values, and about unconditional love.
