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.
