House Bill 2, Transgender Rights, and Controversy: Framing Issues That Implicate Student Identities

• In Event: 56.075 - Affirming Diversity in the Social Studies

Abstract

This theoretical argument addresses how teachers should address the issue of transgender bathroom rights in the wake of the 2016 House Bill 2 law passed in North Carolina. I analyze the issue using the three most commonly cited criteria for determining the openness of controversial issues: the epistemic criterion, the political criterion, and the politically authentic criterion. I then discuss the challenges teachers face when confronted with issues that are epistemically settled but publicly open and implicate students’ identities. I conclude by arguing that in those cases in which there exists a clear empirical justification for teaching an issue that implicates students’ identities as settled, doing so may be prudent even if it limits democratic discourse.

Author

• Wayne Journell, University of North Carolina - Greensboro