* Mr. Rondeau has been a senior sales and marketing management professional with industry leaders for over 25 years; MA Management with a specialty in persuasive communication, Regent University; BA Marketing Management, Concordia University. Currently, he is a doctoral student in communications studies with a focus in rhetoric and persuasion and works as Director of Development for Regent University. [Back]
1. Barry Brummett, Reading Rhetorical Theory 817 (2000) (describing Michel Foucault's theories on power and sexuality). Foucault was a noted French scholar who died of complications from AIDS in 1984. Id. “Foucault's own homosexuality and his discovery that sexuality has been an issue of power throughout much of history led him to write a series of works on the history of sexuality.” Sonja K. Foss et al., Contemporary Perspectives on Rhetoric 214 (2d ed. 1991). [Back]
2. Gene Edward Veith, Jr., Postmodern Times: A Christian Guide to Contemporary Thought and Culture 57 (1994). [Back]
3. The very use of the phrase "gay rights" illustrates both the rhetorical success of pro-gay activists and the rhetorical problem facing those opposing the homosexual movement's campaign to legitimize homosexuality as a protected class status. While the origins of the term "gay" to substitute for homosexual are debated, the term itself is a preferred euphemistic construct because it de-emphasizes sex and make more palatable the basic idea of homo-sex-uality. Likewise, use of the term "rights" presumes, or at least frames any discussion with, a pro-gay bias; homosexuals either are entitled to or are being deprived of something. In either case, the opposition is already at a linguistic disadvantage and put on the defensive. For that reason, homosexual or homosexuality, are most often used in this text as correct, unloaded nomenclature. [Back]
4. Anthony R. Pratkanis & Elliot Aronson, Age of Propaganda: The Everyday Use and Abuse of Persuasion 51 (rev. ed. 2001). [Back]
6. The relationship between education and marketing can not be overemphasized. That the institution of education is a prime marketing communications channel is demonstrated by companies like Apple Computer which hopes to create lifelong consumers by making Apple products the first computers children use. Channel One Communications gave schools a satellite dish, a cable hookup, a television monitor for each classroom, and an agreement to service the equipment for three years in exchange for just two minutes of age appropriate ads delivered into the classroom. While some state school systems originally said no to Channel One, the Consumers Union Education Services (CUES) notes that Channel One Communications reports that its program is viewed in 350,000 classrooms." Amy Adiman, “Advertising in the Schools” (1995), ERIC Digest 389473, available at http://www.ed.gov/databases/ERIC_Digests/ed389473.html (last visited Apr. 10, 2002). [Back]
7. Tammy Bruce, The New Thought Police 196 (2001). Ms. Bruce is an example of a credible voice within the gay rights ranks who believes the far left has taken war for gay rights over the line into a war against free speech. Why—"not letting the public know how it is done"—is important is discussed later in this article. [Back]
9. David Hawkins, “Psychotherapy for Gay and Lesbian Clients”, Psychiatric Times, Jan. 1998, available at http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/p980142.html (last visited Apr. 8, 2002). [Back]
10. Kinsey actually claimed that sexuality was a continuum from strictly heterosexual to strictly homosexual. Neither category made up the majority. See Judith A. Reisman, Kinsey: Crimes and Consequences 31 (1998). There is significant evidence that these publications were marketing masterpieces of seriously flawed, possibly even fraudulent, research that had a predetermined goal of engineering a social-sexual revolution in America. A division of the Rockefeller Foundation underwrote the studies. Many salient results have never been corroborated by independent research and the raw data has never been released to other researchers for verification. Many meta-studies of peer-reviewed research have run counter to Kinsey's reported findings especially as to the prevalence of homosexuality. See, e.g., L. Jones & Mark A. Yarhouse, Homosexuality: The Use of Scientific Research in Today's Moral Debate 2 (2000).
In fact, Kirk and Madsen themselves as much as admitted in their 1989 work that the "10% of the population is gay" fact is actually propaganda. Marshall Kirk & Hunter Madsen, After the ball: How America Will Conquer Its Fear and Hatred of Gays in the 90s 15 (1989). Researchers who are critical of the validity of the studies suggest that Kinsey may have had a personal stake in what his "research" revealed since it appears that he was an omnisexual, i.e. a bisexual and pederast (homosexual pedophile) who engaged in group sexual orgies with the other researchers as part of the "research." See generally , Judith A. Reisman, Kinsey: Crimes and Consequences (1998). See id. at 33-34 in particular for an in-depth discussion of problems of methodology, commission, and omission and complaints of "absolutely basic fault" regarding statistical integrity raised by The Rockefeller Foundation staff at the time. [Back]
11. See “Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry, Homosexuality and the Mental Health Profession: The Impact of Bias” (2000), available at http://www.groupadpsych.org/publications.html (last visited Apr. 10, 2002) These descriptions are included in this current Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry (GAP) monograph. The tone of the authors seems to be a group mea culpa for their previous findings regarding homosexuality. GAP notes that in the middle of the century, “scientists, scholars, and researchers…began the process of advancing new models of homosexuality, opened up new knowledge and raised new questions that were not considered by psychiatrists in 1955.” Id . The verbiage suggests a movement in attitudinal and bias shift in interpretation rather than scientific discovery occurring. Meanwhile, although both of Kinsey's so-called "landmark" sexuality studies had already been published years before the group's position paper in 1955, the GAP states "new knowledge, models, and new questions that were not considered by psychiatrists in 1955" explains the difference in their position then and now. Id . This contradiction would seem to leave open the possible criticism of political revisionism in GAP's explanation of its own change of position. [Back]
12. Jeffrey Satinover, Homosexuality and the Politics of Truth 32 (1998). [Back]
13. Tony Marco, What does the Bible REALLY say about Homosexual issues? (1995), Leadership University, available at http://www.stonewallrevisited.com/issues/marco2.html (last visited Apr. 10, 2002). [Back]
14. Satinover, supra note, at 35. [Back]
15. Charles W. Socarides, “Thought Reform and the Psychology of Homosexual Advocacy” , NARTH 1995 Collected Papers (NARTH, Encino, Cal.), Saturday, 29 July 1995, available at http://www.narth.com/docs/1995papers/socarides.html. [Back]
16. Kirk & Madsen, supra note 10, at 163. [Back]
20. It is important to remember that the national leaders and organizations of the "gay rights" movement do not necessarily speak for all or even necessarily the majority of homosexuals, just as the National Organization of Women does not speak for all feminists or all women. The "Gay rights movement" in the context of this article refers to the loudest and most public voices that propel the national debate. [Back]
21. Note the powerful complexity of this assertion: if one is against homosexual behavior, it is because that person is in fact homosexual and homophobic simultaneously. That is, such a person has internalized their own homophobia to hide their own homosexuality from themselves. Although perhaps with merit in some cases, it certainly is a difficult accusation for anyone to counter. Protestations of heterosexual behavior by the accused simply validate the accusation of self-delusion. This is an example of what is known as a double bind in psychology or self-reflective paradox (communication theory) that can require a quite sophisticated defense which is often beyond the capabilities of the average person. [Back]
22. Kirk & Madsen, supra note 10, at 127. [Back]
23. George Orwell, 1984: A Novel (1949). [Back]
24. Kirk & Madsen, supra note 10, at 129. [Back]
28. Michael Warren, Seeing Through the Media: A Religious View of Communication and Cultural Analysis 182 (1997). [Back]
29. Kirk & Madsen,supra note 10, at 152-53. [Back]
30. Bruce, supra note 7, at 2 (2001) (discussing the campaign by homosexual advocates to harass Dr. Laura Schlessinger and to keep her new television show from airing). See also discussion infra Part V.A. [Back]
31. Kirk & Madsen, supra note 10, at 155. [Back]
35. See Em Griffen, A First Look at Communication Theory 53-63 (4th ed. 2000). [Back]
36. Kirk & Madsen, supra note 10, at 221. [Back]
37. Id. (emphasis added). [Back]
39. Brummet, supra note 1, at 22-23. [Back]
40. The republic represented the powerful families and businesses, not the average person. [Back]
41. Brummet, supra note 1, at 193. [Back]
45. Ralph T. Eubanks, Richard M. Weaver, “Friend of Traditional Rhetoric: An Appreciation”, in Language is Sermonic: Richard M. Weaver on the Nature of Rhetoric 3 (Richard L. Johannesen et al. eds., 1970) (quoting Reinhold Niebuhr). [Back]
46. Richard M. Weaver, “Language is Sermonic”, Language is Sermonic, supra note 45, at 209 (1970). [Back]
47. Kirk & Madsen, supra note 10, at 129; see infra text accompanying note 24. [Back]
48. Terence A. Shimp, “Promotion Mgmt & Marketing” Communications 96 (3d ed. 1993). [Back]
49. Editor's Note, “Specifying the ELM”, 3 Comm. Theory 50 (1993). [Back]
50. Duane T. Wegener & Heather M. Claypool, “The Elaboration Continuum by Any Other Name Does Not Smell as Sweet”, 10 Psychol. Inquiry 178 (1999). [Back]
51. Richard E. Petty & John T. Cacioppo, Communication and Persuasion: Central and Peripheral Routes to Attitude Change, at vii-viii (1986). [Back]
56. Griffen, supra note 35, at 198. [Back]
57. Petty & Cacioppo, supra note 51, at 173. [Back]
60. Richard E. Petty et al., “Conceptual and Methodological Issues in the Elaboration Likelihood Model of Persuasion: A Reply to the Michigan State Critics”, 3 Comm. Theory 336, 337 (1993). [Back]
61. Monique A. Fleming & Richard E. Petty, “Identity and Persuasion: An Elaboration Likelihood Approach in Attitudes”, Behavior, and Social Context: The Role of Norms and Group Membership 171, 181 (Deborah J. Terry et al eds., 2000). [Back]
62. Richard E. Petty et al., supra note 60, at 344-45. [Back]
63. Wegener & Claypool, supra note 50, at 178. [Back]
64. This is one reason why Tammy Bruce stated that it is important not to let the public know how "it's done." See supra text accompanying note 7. Hearing about the need for gay rights from a presumably neutral newscaster, educator or clergy is far more credible and therefore persuasive. "News" is more persuasive than "advertising." The same message delivered via one of the "elite priesthood" such as (so-called) unbiased journalists, educators, or a professional guild like the APA, may be accepted and become a cognition (belief or attitude) without giving it any thought whatsoever. Gay rights opponents are often assigned a negative label such as ignorant or hateful to undermine source credibility. Extremists on the "traditional values" side who think that labeling all homosexuals as faggots, evil incarnate or some other extremely pejorative term is productive are grossly mistaken. Such labeling immediately screams lack of source credibility and only validates in the undecided segment of public psyche the much more sophisticated labeling used by many (not all) prominent gay rights activists. [Back]
65. Including inundation of information, specious arguments, communication "noise," attaching other issues and messages. [Back]
66. Including facts, figures, science, quality of presentation and logic. [Back]
67. Meaning how important or relevant the subject or issue is to the listener. For example WWII was not relevant to many Americans until Pearl Harbor. [Back]
68. Including education level, familiarity with the issue, access to other sources of information, and the amount of time or desire to actually "think" about the issue would be examples of ability and motivation. [Back]
69. Richard E. Petty et. al, supra note 60, at 354. [Back]
70. Pratkanis & Aronson, supra note 4, at 42. [Back]
71. Leon Festinger, A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance 3 (Stanford Univ. Press 1962) (1957). [Back]
74. A sales professional would recognize this process in the way they are trained to overcome customers' objections: (1) Persuade the perspective customer that the particular objection about the product is not that important; "Do you really want to pay more just to get it in blue?" (2) Introduce additional positive benefits to outweigh the objection; "Sure the price is higher but the guarantee is better, has more accessories, and my product will last longer." (3) Change the perception of the customer; "It's not price you should be concerned about. It's value." [Back]
75. Festinger supra note 71, at 95. [Back]
77. This is analogous to rhetoric, which once applied only to the few that were in hearing distance. With technological advances, rhetoric is now applied on a societal scale via marketing communications. [Back]
78. Festinger, supra note 71, at 31. [Back]
Next Page: End Notes (Cont'd)
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