Commentary by Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Students who disapprove of the LGBT lifestyle and have chosen to wear stickers representing their stand, have won the right to do so by authorities.
CBSLosAngeles.com is reporting on the controversy which started at Shadow Hills High School in Indio, California where stickers showing a rainbow with a line through it began showing up on ID badges and social media websites. As the number of stickers increased, so did the complaints by students and faculty who claimed they represented “hate speech”.
Michelle Bachman, the school’s vice president of the Gay Straight Alliance, said on Twitter that the stickers were “definitely hate speech, but legally, we can’t do anything until these students start to physically harass us, which I believe is an injustice.”
However, school district administrators saw things differently.
An email was sent to the staff of the school by the Desert Sands Unified School District in which administrators wrote: “After consulting with district level personnel and our legal counsel, it was determined that these students do have the protected right to freedom of speech, just as students portraying rainbows in support of the LGBT would.”
Only if the stickers led to verbal or physical harassment would there be a reason to claim otherwise.
“Every person can have an opinion, but if there’s harassment or bullying then it does cross the line,” DSUSD Assistant Superintendent Laura Fisher told KESQ.
“If at any point students are interrupting class time to express their beliefs, they are to be sent to the discipline office with a referral for disruption,” the email continued. “We all have a right to freedom of speech, but students also have a right to be educated without fear. This has always been our policy, and we will continue to enforce it.”
Bravo for the students who stood up for their rights!
However, there is still one more question that needs to be answered: why doesn’t anyone accuse people displaying pro-LGBT symbols of engaging in hate speech? There are just as many people who feel threatened by the spread of the gay, lesbian and transsexual movement because of the damage it causes to traditional family life as those who want to engage in same-sex relations in a predominantly heterosexual world. Why are only those who support the biblical view of marriage and family declared bigots?
After all, the definition of bigotry is “a person who is intolerant toward those holding different opinions.” Doesn’t that make people on both sides of the issue, who refuse to tolerate opposing opinions, bigots?
Of course it does. And for once, these wise school administrators recognized this and instead of caving to the inane PC police, acknowledged everyone’s right to an opinion.
This was the best civics class they could have given to their students!
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