This speech given to Iowa legislators by Zach Wahls in defense of same-sex marriage has been going around social media websites and I wanted to add my two cents to it. To start with, here is a link to the Huffington Post article and the video inserted below:
Okay 2 things: 1) This is awesome. I am not criticizing this guy’s kickass-edness. Bravo. He did a great job and gave a really poignant speech! That said, 2) he made his point (and perhaps the only way he could make his point) by proving that regardless of having been raised by two women, he was “American” enough. He depicts himself as hard-working, god-fearing and in pursuit of the anglo-saxon American dream. He goes to college, is an eagle scout, and owns his own small business. Is this not normalization? Further, its interesting how disability fits into his narrative… what role exactly is it playing? The Horatio Alger myth — overcoming adversity… only the adversity isn’t the sexual orientation of his parents, but rather his mothers’ disability…
By normalization I refer to his repeated emphasis on how he is just like every other Iowan. But he’s not. He goes to college, is an eagle scout, and owns his own small business. Instead, consider that women cannot be eagle scouts. A title that doubtless helped him get into college. The combination of education and social networking that the boy scouts provides (particularly to eagle scouts) probably facilitated his starting his own small business. All said, however, I think it is particularly interesting to recognize that here he is speaking from a position of privilege that his mothers do not have. He can say what he said, to the audience he did, in the way that he did because he has this status.
His speech illustrates the second-class status of not only non-heterosexuals in America, but also women and people with disabilities. I find it interesting that his argument effectively is that even though he was raised by second-class citizens, they prepared him to become a first-class citizen; one that the chairman would be proud to call his son. So they should therefore be recognized as full citizens… because they can produce…
