Potential start:
Think about your social media bio. Just a box of information right below your profile where you can provide a brief, character limited introduction of yourself, maybe along with a cause or a message you support. Well, what if I told you there’s a way to help an ostracized community feel welcome, to make a meaningful statement of support to that community, and maybe even take the first step to ending an epidemic of hate and violence—and it all takes ten or fewer characters at the end of that social media bio. I’m talking about pronouns.
For my Unit 2 project, I’m going to address shifting attitudes toward gender identity and the use of the gender binary in the United States.
The above article is from The Standard, the official student-run newspaper of Missouri State University. It’s written by a cisgender female student, who explains a number of reasons it’s helpful for LGBTQ+ allies to include their pronouns in social media bios and other similar introductory places. I was thinking especially about this for the TED Talk; many of the most effective TED Talks begin and end with a specific idea that represents a small part of the overall topic they’re addressing (such as Ivan Coyote’s TED Talk which inspired me to start on the topic of gender identity). I think the use of pronouns in introductory places would be an excellent topic to address, as it’s also an action my eventual audience can take with just a few short clicks. I also intend to reference Ivan Coyote’s TED Talk as part of my paper, although it would feel silly to reference a TED Talk within a TED Talk.
https://www.transequality.org/sites/default/files/docs/USTS-Full-Report-FINAL.PDF
The above report by the Human Rights Campaign has a lot of valuable statistics from the 2015 Transgender Survey, which had 27,715 respondents from all fifty U.S. States and a number of U.S. territories. While it’s five years old, it should still provide valuable insight into the challenges transgender and non-binary people face. I’m going to keep looking around however, in case I can find some more current statistics to use in my project. This particular resource has promise, and I hope to look further into it soon: https://assets2.hrc.org/files/assets/resources/AntiTransViolence-2018Report-Final.pdf?_ga=2.37730208.1276562536.1603911998-460932212.1603911998
It seems to also be from the Human Rights Campaign, featuring data compiled in 2018, which is far more representative of our current climate than 2015 both chronologically and politically.
I really like this idea and I think that it is definitely something that you can write a lot about. I know that I am very interested in your topic as a reader. I think that you will be able to make a strong thesis and you already have acknowledged that it is an ongoing shift, but I do think that things in society have changed enough for you to make claims about it.
I think this is a super good topic that’s really relevant in society right now. It also seems like you’re very passionate about the subject and so it’s likely you won’t have trouble writing 7 pages on it.
I believe this topic will work well for these projects. I think your passion will be communicated making it even more interesting. I think what’s happening with the government right now could tie into this topic too.
In high school especially, I have started to notice the acceptance of “they/them” in place of the traditional. In fact, here you could probably draw from your own experiences as well as the sources you have here. This is a really good topic and there is so much you could cover and connect back to the bigger topic of gender identity.