response

Reflect on a recent discussion you’ve had in which you tried to persuade others to accept your point of view. What type or types of reasoning did you use? How well did your reasoning work?
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We recently had elections, and one of the most controversial of the propositions was Prop 8, which if passed would deny the right of homosexuals to get same sex unions of marriages. One of the benefits of college is being able to be around a wide diversity of people, so while I am very liberal, a lot of the people i know are very conservative, something I didn't come into contact with often in Palo Alto, where I am from. When I talked with one of these people about how homosexuals should have the right to civil unions, they said they voted for prop 8 because their religion didn't agree with it. To this I responded that there is a seperation of church as state, to which they said that marriage was a religious rite. What I then told them was how civil unions are the same as marriage, and that they had voted against giving partners the rights to decide what to do if their spouses became unable to speak for themselves, or visitation rights for family members, or custody of a child that belong to the other in case something happened, or any of those rights that married couples have. They then said that the proposition said nothing about denying civil unions, which wasn't true, it did, it just didn't say that on the ballot, but it was part of the conditions of the prop that was not listed on the ballots. The person then agreed with me, because they hadn't done the research to know.
I find that being open minded, and doing research about issues makes for the best way to persuade people. If I had simply said that I didn't agree with their religious beliefs, they wouldn't have listened to me tell them how it was wrong. Having the facts and caring enough to explain it fully made all the difference, sadly for this case a little too late :(