The Holocaust, Race, and LGBT Rights: Reconsidering Analogy Logic in the US and Mexico

• In Event: LGBTQ Around the World: Global Settings

Abstract

Using grounded theory and comparative studies, we investigate analogy discourse as it emerges in American campaigns for marriage equality and the Mexico-based awareness campaign against homophobia in recognition of the 2008 International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (IDAHOT). While the analogies in the U.S. focus on victims of oppression suggesting a shared experience of oppression among African Americans and LGBT Americans, analogies in Mexico focus on the perpetrators; in this case, KKK members and homophobic people are made equivalents. In an effort to better understand the divergent rhetorical strategies we ask: What are the rhetorical differences between analogizing victims and analogizing perpetrators? and What are the implications and consequences of using these different analogies? The divergent strategies are of particular interests as they interact with audiences, identities, and the historical and contemporary relationships each country has with both racism and homophobia. Implications of the divergent rhetorical strategies are considered.

Keywords: LGBT, Race, Holocaust, Analogy, Comparative Studies

Authors

• Michelle Kelsey Kearl, Indiana U – Purdue U Fort Wayne

• NADIA IVETTE MARTINEZ-CARRILLO, Indiana U – Purdue U Fort Wayne