Speech Topics

Ok...

I have to give a 7-8 minute persuasive speech in my COMS class. I wanted to do something on LGBT issues. Something other than same sex marriages. I need specific examples. Something that i would be able to research easily and quickly. I'm giving my speech one week from today. Have to turn in my outline friday. I need ideas please!

 

marijuana is already taken. lol. adoption sounds interesting. I'm just panicking. I hate persuasive speeches and I don't know what to do. At all. I don't like persuading.

 

Biisme! Thank you thank you thank you!!! I have decided to do my persuasive speech over adoption. And those links are just what i needed! You're a doll!

 

Here's my speech guys. I pulled an all nighter writing it. Let me know what you think. I'm giving it wednesday. If you have any suggestions...give them to me. lol. (oh ya...i do have a works cited page as well...APA styling. Didn't think i needed to include it. if you want it though... let me know.)


Title of Speech: The Children are the Future

Specific Purpose: My audience will support the rights of the LGBT community to adopt children.

Proposition: The United States government should pass a law allowing LGBT/same sex couples in every state to adopt children.

INTRODUCTION
I. Attention Getter:
Close your eyes and imagine your future. You’ve graduated college and are now successful in you’re chosen profession. You have a solid career and own the home of your dreams. Next to you is the love of your life. You’ve never felt more strongly toward anyone. You want to start a family, but you aren’t able to conceive. But the government of the free country you live in….won’t let you adopt a child.

II. Audience Relevance Link:
Most of you won’t have that problem. Most of you will be able to conceive and if you can’t, you’d be able to adopt if you so chose. But this is not the case for same sex couples.

III. Credibility:
I am a strong ally of my community—the LGBT community. I am frequently found in the LGBT Center in Baker and at Open Doors. I am also a well known figure who offers support and advice on a message board to lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgenders and people questioning their sexuality. I have heard many complaints from the LGBT community about the government denying their rights. Especially the right to adopt children.

IV. Proposition:
The United States government should pass a law allowing same sex couples in every state to adopt children.

V. Preview:
The LGBT community has been fighting for our denied rights since 1969, adoption being just one of the rights we are demanding. Today’s society, though more accepting than previous years is the cause of our oppression because of homophobia. Same sex couple’s are capable of raising families.

Transition: The Stonewall Riots took place in late June of 1969. Police raided the Stonewall Inn for no reason except to stir up the gays and lesbians who frequented the bar. Members of my community barricaded themselves into the inn, in order to defend themselves against the brutality of the police attacks. Several people died because of the raid. The public was outraged and support rang through the city for the gays and rioting began.

BODY

I. The LGBT community has been actively fighting for their denied rights since these riots. (S.V.A., 2009)

A. More recently, marriage has been the top priority for activists.
1. Vermont and Connecticut were the first states to recognize civil unions in 1999.These are not the equivalent of a marriage and have far fewer rights. (Axel-Lute, 2008)

2. Massachusetts was the first state to recognize same sex marriages in 2004. Connecticut and California also allowed same sex marriages in 2008. (McFadden, 2008)

3. Shortly after California granted marriage rights, Proposition 8 was passed which revoked the marriages and only allowed civil unions. In response to the turmoil surrounding the issue, many southern states banned gay marriages.

B. Adoption of children has been another right that many same sex couples have been fighting for. There are only about twenty two states that allow two partners to adopt a child, called second parent adoption.
1. There are six states that are considering or have already placed bans on same sex couples adopting. (YouDebate)

2.Most states only permit one person to adopt and don’t recognize the other person as a parent or even a guardian. Ohio is one of these states. (Children's Voice Article, 2002)

3.These laws stem from the 1977 campaign “Save Our Children.” An anti-gay right program started by Anita Bryant. She was often quoted saying , “Gays don’t reproduce; they recruit! They are after our children!” (Miller)

Transition: Because of the law Bryant pushed into effect, the thought of same sex couple’s raising children has transformed into a fear and a misconception.

II. Homophobia is the only reason that many states do not allow both parents to adopt a child. It is most commonly caused by a misunderstanding of the gay community. Most homophobia originates in churches and other conservative groups.

A. They often quote a verse from Leviticus in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible that states “man shall not lie with man as with woman.” This is the only argument that they can find against homosexuality. It is no longer relevant as it was written over 2,000 years ago.

B. Church groups often feel that, like Anita Bryant, if a child has gay parents, then that child will be more apt to being homosexual. This is in fact not true. There are more gay children born to straight parents than there are raised by same sex couples.(play Gay Adoption Ad http://www.youtube.com)

C. Others against allowing gay couples to adopt state that the child will be raised in a less stable environment.
1. Many states allow single parents to raise children. How can two loving parents be a less stable environment than having only one parent or being tossed around from foster home to foster home as a ward of the state?

2. Homosexual relationships are just as likely to end as a married heterosexual couple. Divorce rates for straight couples are at roughly 40%. (Crouch)

3.George Tekei, an actor from the original Star Trek series, has been with his partner for 18 years (Metzke, 2005) and to my knowledge is still going strong. My parents on the other hand, divorced when I was roughly fifteen.

Transition: Same sex couples can produce stable environments for children and can easily provide for their needs just as any parent can. Nothing is going to stop two loving people from wanting to raise a child.

III. Despite all the oppression that same sex couple’s have faced when wanting to adopt children, they have still succeeded in doing so.

A. Lesbian couples will often have children through artificial insemination. While the child is legally only one of theirs, the other can apply for a legal guardianship over the child.

B. The CWLA has concluded that from the states that do allow same sex couples, between 200,000 and 400,000 children are being raised by parents of the same gender. (CWLA)

C. Allowing same sex couple’s to adopt, there will be fewer children who live in foster homes. In 2006, there were 510,000 children (between the ages of 3 and 18) considered “wards of the state” who weren’t adopted. (Child Trends, 2003)

Transition: People in the LGBT community are going to raise children whether or not the rest of America agrees with it. Why would you hinder a child’s experience of having two loving parents just because you can’t accept differences?

CONCLUSION

I. Review Main Points:
Many same sex couples are being refused their right to have children because of our homophobic society. Despite this, many couples have raised children together.

II. Restate Thesis:
It is discrimination against the LGBT community if the United States government does not pass a law allowing same sex couple’s to adopt children where both partners are considered the parent.

III. Decisive Closing:
The LGBT community is undergoing a revolution. We are fighting for our rights as a minority. In the future, this will be compared to the civil rights movement for African Americans . We don’t want to turn your children gay. We want to be parents. We want children of our own to love. Straight couples are abandoning their kids to the state. Is it too much to ask to want to love and care for them as their mothers or fathers? Who’s place is it to deny us that right? When the proposition shows up on Ohio’s ballot in the future, I urge you to vote for this community’s right to be parents. Don’t deny us our rights.