Blog 2

The issue regarding transgender bathrooms has recently gained more attention after President Trump withdrew federal protections on transgender bathrooms in schools, leaving the decision at a state or local level. There are many opposing opinions on the subject and I will be discussing two competing narratives: an article from TIME “Why LGBT Advocates Say Bathroom 'Predators' Argument Is a Red Herring” and an article from Breitbart “Public Support For Transgender Bathrooms Twirls Down the Drain”. Both articles are very factual in their arguments and use ethos to persuade readers.

The TIME article was written from an LGBTQ standpoint, dismissing many arguments about transgender bathrooms that they feel are not true. They do well explaining their viewpoint and can be looked at as being a credible source because the LGBTQ community is very involved with the bathroom issue. The article mentions a transgender woman who supports transgender bathrooms to back up their point that “transgender bathrooms are prejudice”. The transgender woman featured in the article expresses her opinion about the bathrooms and the article discusses some of the backlash she has received for stating her opinion. She received comments that she should be murdered or kill herself, which most readers would agree is a very harsh thing to say.

The article from Breitbart discusses a Reuters poll that found that support for mixed bathrooms has dropped this month. This article is very factual, mentioning different credible sources. This article also uses more belittling language than the article discussed above calling progressives hostile and contemptuous.

While both articles dispute the different arguments for whether transgender bathrooms are good or bad for society, neither article seems to focus on the actual act President Trump passed that removed protections from transgender students in schools. While the arguments and discussion about the topic in general can be helpful to make a decision about bathrooms in schools, the articles seemed to focus on other issues regarding transgender bathrooms rather than the equal rights of students in schools. The TIME article talked about the argument of male predators in womens’ and childrens’ bathrooms, which is one of the main arguments toward the topic. And while they addressed and shut down that issue, it still doesn’t seem to relate to the issue of transgender bathrooms in schools.

On the other hand, the Breitbart article uses statistics, which a good persuasive technique to use, but the reason they used the data and how they follow up their statistic seems off topic to me. They explain that only 1 in 2,500 adults are transgender so there should be no need for transgender bathrooms, and follow that argument that progressives are using the transgender bathroom argument as a way to stigmatize differences between males and females. They then say that Americans who agree that bathrooms should be separated by sex are viewed as racists because some people argue that separating bathrooms is segregation.
While both articles made good points towards arguments on both sides, I believe they both could have made more compelling arguments about the law that had been passed rather than the topic overall.

http://time.com/4314896/transgender-bathroom-bill-male-predators-argument/?iid=sr-link2

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/04/22/public-support-for-transgender-bathrooms-twirls-down-the-drain/

Blog Post 1

The Trump administration withdrew federal protections for transgender students on February 22, 2017. President Trump and his administration withdrew federal protections for transgender students to use the bathrooms and facilities that correspond with their gender identity. This created responses from all sides of the media and of course there are many standpoints on this recent issue. Two in particular will be examined in this post: CNN and TIME.

An article from CNN titled “Trump is right on transgender bathroom laws” is obviously for the revoke of the laws Obama had put in place during his presidency. The author of the article makes it clear that she does not support all that Trump says and does, but absolutely agrees with this specific decision. This article uses fear as the main objective- that grown men would be allowed in bathrooms with young girls. Being an opinion article, not much fact nor statistic was used as a persuasive technique. There was also no use of ethos because the writer of the article did not have much credibility on the topic other than her blatant opinion.

On the other side of things, an article from TIME discusses the “big step back” the Trump Administration has made regarding the decision. The author talks about the effect this decision has on LGBTQ members and whether or not this decision is against Title IX. This particular article uses pathos by adding quotes from a mother of a transgender student who committed suicide and an advocate from the Transgender Law Center. Another section of this article discussed Gavin Grimm, a 17 year old from Virginia who won a ruling from the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals last year when he sued his school board for banning him from the boys’ bathroom. This article did fairly well using emotion as its main factor to persuade readers whether or not this was a sound decision made by Trump and his administration.

The article from CNN gave the obvious reason for not allowing transgender bathrooms: safety. The article from TIME focused on why transgender bathrooms should be allowed: equal rights for students in schools. The CNN article was more concentrated on the idea of transgender bathrooms as a whole rather than what the Trump Administration had actually done which was take away the rights of transgender students in schools. The article from CNN also gave its opinion and did not try to appeal to any member of its audience other than those who already agree with the opinion being stated. The article from TIME gave more fact and tried to appeal to everyone with the fact that we all respect our rights as Americans and transgender students should feel the same amount of equality and respect we all feel when they are in their schools trying to get an education.

The demographics being targeted in this decision are not only transgender students, but all members of the LGBTQ community. Other demographics include school boards across the United States because it is now up to them, individually, to make their own decision on whether or not to allow transgender students to use the bathroom or facility of their choice. With it no longer being a federal law that schools must give students the right to choose the bathroom they feel comfortable in, this creates debates at the local and state level.