Homophobia, hate crimes, discrimination based on sexual orientation and gay and transgender rights have been the foci of ever-increasing legislative and public interest in recent years. There is, however, a discrepancy between the enforceable rights of these discriminated-against categories and the manner in which such rights are conveyed to the public. The issue of discrimination based on sexual orientation is of a particularly delicate nature as it comes up against non only legislative barriers, but also hurdles of a social, cultural, ethical and linguistic nature. This chapter will explore the way discrimination is dealt with and subsequently fought against in three different ambits: legislative, institutional and public. Our interest was initially triggered by a massive hard-hitting hoarding campaign which Stonewall, the UK LGBTQ lobbying organization, launched in the summer of 2009 and which had a series of repercussions, both positive and negative, upon the general public. Drawing on Bhatia's studies on genre theory, we have analyzed the lexico-grammatical, rhetorical and discoursal elements employed in the three ambits of study and observed how, in the context of legislative and institutional texts characterized by a consolidated generic integrity, the emergence of a new hybrid genre may progressively be evidenced in ways that reach and benefit the ultimate consumer, in this case the members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer community.

From Primary Legislation to Public Presence: The Language of Gay Rights from Legislation to Lobbying

Bronwen Hughes
;
2013-01-01

Abstract

Homophobia, hate crimes, discrimination based on sexual orientation and gay and transgender rights have been the foci of ever-increasing legislative and public interest in recent years. There is, however, a discrepancy between the enforceable rights of these discriminated-against categories and the manner in which such rights are conveyed to the public. The issue of discrimination based on sexual orientation is of a particularly delicate nature as it comes up against non only legislative barriers, but also hurdles of a social, cultural, ethical and linguistic nature. This chapter will explore the way discrimination is dealt with and subsequently fought against in three different ambits: legislative, institutional and public. Our interest was initially triggered by a massive hard-hitting hoarding campaign which Stonewall, the UK LGBTQ lobbying organization, launched in the summer of 2009 and which had a series of repercussions, both positive and negative, upon the general public. Drawing on Bhatia's studies on genre theory, we have analyzed the lexico-grammatical, rhetorical and discoursal elements employed in the three ambits of study and observed how, in the context of legislative and institutional texts characterized by a consolidated generic integrity, the emergence of a new hybrid genre may progressively be evidenced in ways that reach and benefit the ultimate consumer, in this case the members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer community.
2013
978-1-4094-3839-7
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11367/73179
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