One month after the Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, left three dead and many injured and arrested, another university faces a tough decision about whether to allow controversial alt-right leader, Richard Spencer, to speak on campus. What seems like a simple decision to allow or deny a speaking request becomes a much deeper conversation about leadership, the value of free speech, and the role of the university to facilitate debate and critical analysis of controversial ideas and viewpoints.
American states began passing legislation that would ban transgender girls from competing on sports teams that match their gender identity in 2020. During legislative debate, supporters of transgender athlete bans adopted rhetoric that framed their arguments in terms of commonly held values. ‘Value frames’ establish connections between people and spoken values and have a powerful effect on the way that opinions about public policy are formed. We conduct a discourse analysis of video and audio footage from committee testimony and chamber debate from 18 US states to identify the major discursive themes used by the bans’ supporters. Themes include gender simplicity, male advantage, protecting women and preventing change. Our discussion and analysis connects these themes to long-standing value frames used by political elites, namely tradition, fairness and equal opportunity. The conclusion addresses the implications of this discourse for shaping the public’s understanding of sex and gender.
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