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Running Head: LOVE
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Marguerite Gourley
English 102
Instructor Dewey
February 4, 2013
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Abstract
This paper was a Rhetorical Analysis of the article "Gay Marriage Should not be Legal" by Peter
Spriggs. Within, I analyzed the format in which he organized his argument. I specifically focused
on his use of the Rhetorical Devices: Ethos, Pathos and Logos. Although these devices can be
very effective and used to provide useful information for readers, Spriggs used these devices to
irrationally support his argument. By using many examples of words from his article, I break
down a few of his main points, and prove why they are irrational. He uses dramatic ethos to
persuade readers that his predicted future outcomes of something, that has not happened yet, are
indeed facts. He uses false logos that are based upon information that does not apply to this
argument. Spriggs also uses unrealistic logos that lead to the effect of pathos to scare the reader
into agreeing with him. In summary, Spriggs makes completely insane conclusions based off of
conspiracies that are not applicable.
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Imagine; a world where you didn't have the right to marry the person you love, where you
legally couldn't adopt children with the person you love and where you couldn't leave your loved
one with benefits if you were to pass away. In America we consider countries that have arranged
marriages "third-world" meaning we think they are far behind in the way society should be. Yet,
is it so different in our own country? Same-sex marriage is a very controversial topic in our
country. Both the defending and opposing sides of this argument have many supporters. In the
essay, "Gay Marriage Should not be Legal", Peter Sprigg states all of the reasons he believes that
it shouldn't be legalized. In his essay he states that; " Supporters of gay marriage claim it will not
hurt anyone, but there would be both immediate and long-term harms that would come from
legalizing same sex marriage. Among the immediate effects would be taxpayer subsidies to
homosexuals, including Social Security benefits, the teaching of homosexual values in public
schools, and threats to religious liberty when churches and religious institutions are challenged
not to discriminate against gays. Longer-term effects would include fewer people marrying,
fewer sexually faithful relationships, more divorces, fewer children being raised by both a
mother and a father, a falling birth rate, and demands for recognition of polygamy as a legitimate
form of marriage." (Sprigg, 2012, para 2). In the article "Gay Marriage Should not be Legal", by
Peter Sprigg, he uses unrealistic ethos, pathos and logos to lead readers to the false conclusion
that it would be societal suicide to legalize same-sex marriage.
One of the points he makes is that: "It is likely that the poor example set by homosexual
couples would, over time, lead to lower marriage rates among heterosexuals as well". (Sprigg,
2012, para. 22). In this point he uses ethos because he is an employee of the Family Research
Council, implying that he knows what's best for every family in America. How could this
statement be possible though, if same-sex marriage was legal, there would indeed be more
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couples, in turn more people wanting to get married that then legally could. To help support this
argument he also says that; "over 80% of the homosexual couples rejected "marriage" when it
was offered to them in 2008"(Sprigg, 2012, para. 23). This statistic may be a shocking fact to
some, but it is a false statement. Sprigg is simply bending the truth so that it seems as if he has
factual evidence, or logos. The information that led to this statistic was that when same-sex
marriage was legal in California for a few short months in 2008, because not all of the same-sex
couples jumped the gun and got married, obviously the rest of the couples don't ever want to get
married. While he uses this to back his argument up, he's actually contradicting himself because
this statistic shows that same-sex couples want to get married when it is appropriate, after
spending a significant amount of time with each other, not rush into it just because it became
legal. If anything the law staying in effect for a short amount of time increased the amount of
divorces in this country.
Another absurd argument that he makes is that by legalizing same-sex marriage, more
children will grow up fatherless. Sprigg continues to say, "Among homosexual couples, as
identified in the 2000 census, 34% of lesbian couples have children living at home, while only
22% of male couples were raising children. The encouragement of homosexual relationships that
is intrinsic in the legalization of same-sex "marriage" would thus result in an increase in the
number of children who suffer a specific set of negative consequences that are clearly associated
with fatherlessness."(Sprigg, 2012, para. 35). The study that was performed to make this statistic
was on opposite sex marriages/ relationships, not on households with children who have two
mothers or two fathers. Allowing same-sex couples to be married would encourage marriage
before conceiving/ adopting children, which is a issue in our country. He uses false logos
because these statistics do not in any way apply to the topic at hand. He also uses a huge amount
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of pathos because thinking about a child with no father is something that most people are
saddened by.
One other irrational argument he makes is that birth rates will go down if same-sex
marriage is legal. "a privileged social status to male-female sexual relationships—the only type
capable of resulting in natural procreation. This privileged social status is what we call
"marriage". The likely long-term result would be that fewer such relationships would be formed,
fewer such couples would choose to procreate, and fewer babies would be born"(Sprigg, 2012,
para. 39). Just because same-sex marriage isn't currently legal, doesn't mean there are no samesex couples, which means that these couples are already not having babies, so the birth rate is not
going to decline. If anything legalizing same sex marriage is going to help our population
because there will be more children adopted into healthy homes that can grow up and create their
own home and family as well. This is also a dramatized pathos because it scares our society to
think about our species/ population decreasing because it would make us less powerful, which is
a legitimate fear, but one that will not occur if same-sex marriage is legalized.
There may be some strong arguments in opposition to same-sex marriage, none of Peter
Spriggs' are. He uses false ethos, logos and pathos to mislead readers. His points are all excuses
to drag on the fight for equal marriage rights. His supposed logos are all completely inapplicable.
Sadly he effectively does use the traits of the rhetorical triangle, but all in false context, which
completely destroys the ethos he hoped to develop. One final argument that he makes is this:
"One of the goals of homosexual activists is to take part in the biggest government entitlement
program of all—Social Security." (Sprigg, 2012, para. 5). This is one of the most absurd
conspiracies that our society has heard! Same-sex activists want equal rights, which were already
given to them in the Constitution, not to suck money out of the government and peoples
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economy. It seems as if he wishes to take all the fear of being open minded and place it beside
some of Americas number one issues and blame "the gays", sounds logical, right? .
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Reference
Sprigg, P. (2012). Gay Marriage Should Not Be Legal. In D. A. Miller (Ed.), At Issue. Gay
Marriage. Detroit: Greenhaven Press. (Reprinted from The Top Ten Harms of Same-Sex
Marriage, 2011, Family Research Council) Retrieved from
http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/ovic/ViewpointsDetailsPage/ViewpointsDetailsWindow?query
=&prodId=OVIC&displayGroupName=Viewpoints&limiter=&source=&disableHighligh
ting=false&displayGroups=&sortBy=&search_within_results=&action=2&catId=&activi
tyType=&documentId=GALE%7CEJ3010014233&userGroupName=mcc_glendale&jsid
=05fcf4b2f5d6b2fbfbab385261bb70a7