LaDarius Doaks

Professor Reed
Composition I
Fall 2015
Rhetorical Analysis- Visual

The image above explicitly explains how tragic LGBT homelessness can be. In the
graphic, there is a member of the LGBT community holding a sign that says: 1 in 4 Americans
will be homeless the day they come out. This goes to show how dire it is that the importance of
LGBT homelessness needs to be addressed and a lot of action needs to happen. What is being
implicitly communicated is the actual problem of LGBT homelessness. There is more to LGBT
homelessness than homelessness. The rate of diseases and prostitution/escorting is higher in
LGBT homelessness than heterosexual homelessness.
The source of this picture is Fairbanks Youth Advocates. This is a program to help at risk
students around the Fairbanks area and the greater Interior Alaska community. Although its
based in Alaska, they want to spread this idea around the country and help cities surrounding
them. They provide assistance and support to move not only LGBT youth, but all youth into a
stable, healthy environment, and self-sufficiency. The image implies that every now and again
when a LGBT youth comes out to their family, they end up being put out on the street because of
it.
The graphic targeted audience is most likely the government. The government provides
the safety and shelter they need, so bringing it to their attention would be important. The

government already knows that homelessness is well and alive, but for some reason chooses to
overlook it as if its no big in both the non LGBT and the LGBT community.
In order to persuade the audience they used statistics. Statistics are a great way to show
what certain amount of people is being affected. 1 in 4 Americans out of millions of Americans is
a lot. The march itself is also a way to persuade the government. The march shows that there are
people who want change and are willing to protest until that change happens.
On the sign it says that 1 in 4 Americans It also looks like its a march, so it shows
that this is a movement and they have marches to raise awareness about it. In this march, there is
a protester holding the gay flag. The gay flag represents the union of everyone in the world. Not
just black and whites, but all races. It also has colors on the flag that represent certain areas of
the LGBT community. For example, the light blue and pink represent the Transgender
community.
The assumed values of the audience would be family. If they had a family member who
was put out on the street because of their sexuality, they would not be okay with that. With the
audience being the government, the goals should be cleaning up the streets of America.
No, I dont think this graphic is successful. As far as raising awareness, it does, but
solving the problem it does not. Getting the government to understand the importance of the
LGBT being homeless is going to take more than protesting. It is still taking them a while to fix
homelessness as a whole. The decreasing rate of homelessness, LGBT community or not, is
going very slow. There is no telling when this issue will be resolved.
The graphic itself is a great representation of how LGBT youth homelessness is
something people are passionate about changing.