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/
