Beyond He and She - The They/Them Amendment
Welcome back to my blog, we're just finishing our unit Antithesis in our humanities class A People's Argument. In Antithesis, we have been studying logical fallacies, the time before the ratification of the Bill of Rights, the constitution's amendments (we took a particularly deep drive into the 13th amendment), and the parts of the U.S. government. We went on some FE's (Field experiences) which include; visiting the Illinois Immigration Court (USCIS), watching Ava DuVernay's documentary about the 13th amendment, 13th, talking to some of the various aldermen of Chicago, a public defender, a state attorney, and a Chicago police commander.
The main topic of the unit Antithesis is that the United States made an argument for life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness, however, the constitution serves as the very antithesis to this argument. Antithesis is a word that here means the direct opposite of the thesis of an argument. For the U.S. their fight for freedom was contradicted by the fact that most of the founding fathers owned people, people who under their thesis should be free. To show our understanding of our course our AP (Action Project), had us look into our school very own 'constitution', the GCE handbook.
Our AP asks us to focus on a 'law', written or not, in the handbook that is unjust or one that should exist. For my AP I chose to focus on the fact that GCE prides itself on being an open, safe, and adaptable community to all people while still using gender binary language in the laws that state those very words. As a nonbinary person, my proposed amendment hits close to home. I always say what my pronouns are wherever I go, but often people forget or ignore my pronouns or worse I am purposefully called the wrong pronouns. In the three years I have attended GCE I have felt safe and loved by my peers and staff, but my pronouns are often ignored or forgotten. I never expect people to get them right 100% of the time, but for an institution that prides itself on being open and safe for all people, when I am misgendered over and over again I feel rejected. What’s worse is being misgendered in text, like the handbook, which is looked over and carefully crafted. I know the path of change is an upward hike, one full of obstacles and detriments, but I know GCE is capable of truly becoming a safe environment for all students and staff. Now I present to you Beyond He and She - The They/Them Amendment.
An image I think represents my case very well is this one:
It beautifully illustrates the discomfort that comes from being misgendered and called the wrong pronouns. Fittingly the piece is called Language Matters, they very case I'm trying to make for GCE students and staff is that their language matters. My amendment will fight for the people who feel like they are always rejected or ignored, to make them feel comfortable and accepted. I will fight so that no other person who comes into GCE will ever feel what this picture depicts.
To conclude, this AP has been a very long and fascinating venture into the GCE handbook and the contradictions within it. It was a tedious process to look into every nook and cranny in the handbook to find its contradictions but luckily through another class, I was already fairly familiar with the handbook! I personally think this has been my best argument, comparing it to my previous, and that I have learned a lot about arguments from the beginning of the call up until now. If I were to redo this project I think the only thing I would change is the length, I am quite wordy sometimes and it could be a detriment to my argument!
Citations:
Hassanein, Rokia. “New Study Reveals Shocking Rates of Attempted Suicide Among Trans Adolescents”. Hrc.org. Sep. 12, 2018. Accessed March 9, 2020.
U.S. Constitution. Amend. XIII, Sec. 1.
The main topic of the unit Antithesis is that the United States made an argument for life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness, however, the constitution serves as the very antithesis to this argument. Antithesis is a word that here means the direct opposite of the thesis of an argument. For the U.S. their fight for freedom was contradicted by the fact that most of the founding fathers owned people, people who under their thesis should be free. To show our understanding of our course our AP (Action Project), had us look into our school very own 'constitution', the GCE handbook.
Our AP asks us to focus on a 'law', written or not, in the handbook that is unjust or one that should exist. For my AP I chose to focus on the fact that GCE prides itself on being an open, safe, and adaptable community to all people while still using gender binary language in the laws that state those very words. As a nonbinary person, my proposed amendment hits close to home. I always say what my pronouns are wherever I go, but often people forget or ignore my pronouns or worse I am purposefully called the wrong pronouns. In the three years I have attended GCE I have felt safe and loved by my peers and staff, but my pronouns are often ignored or forgotten. I never expect people to get them right 100% of the time, but for an institution that prides itself on being open and safe for all people, when I am misgendered over and over again I feel rejected. What’s worse is being misgendered in text, like the handbook, which is looked over and carefully crafted. I know the path of change is an upward hike, one full of obstacles and detriments, but I know GCE is capable of truly becoming a safe environment for all students and staff. Now I present to you Beyond He and She - The They/Them Amendment.
An image I think represents my case very well is this one:
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To conclude, this AP has been a very long and fascinating venture into the GCE handbook and the contradictions within it. It was a tedious process to look into every nook and cranny in the handbook to find its contradictions but luckily through another class, I was already fairly familiar with the handbook! I personally think this has been my best argument, comparing it to my previous, and that I have learned a lot about arguments from the beginning of the call up until now. If I were to redo this project I think the only thing I would change is the length, I am quite wordy sometimes and it could be a detriment to my argument!
Citations:
Hassanein, Rokia. “New Study Reveals Shocking Rates of Attempted Suicide Among Trans Adolescents”. Hrc.org. Sep. 12, 2018. Accessed March 9, 2020.
U.S. Constitution. Amend. XIII, Sec. 1.
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