Political Correctness In Court
Some good points were made in this Daily Caller article that asks if America is starting to target thought crimes. Starting? We're past that point, imo. But maybe it's not as bad as I think?
I was pleased to read of this court decision from last year that confirmed a students right to say he doesn't "accept gays".
To summarize, a high school is participating in a campaign trying to raise awareness of bullying of gay and lesbian students. Support for the effort is shown by wearing purple clothing.
As students enter a class, the teacher notices a girl with a confederate flag belt buckle. He asks her to remove it. She does. Another student questions why she had to remove the buckle. After all, the teacher is wearing a purple shirt. The teacher explains the purple shirt is expressing support for good things and the confederate flag is a bad thing.
The student says he doesn't accept gays so and doesn't think the purple shirt is supporting a good thing. Then it got a bit ugly:
"In a written statement concerning what transpired in his classroom, McDowell indicated that he conveyed to Daniel that it was fine if Daniel’s religion was opposed to homosexuality but that saying such things was inappropriate in a classroom setting. McDowell admits that he became emotional during this discussion but tried to illustrate the statement’s inappropriate nature by analogy. McDowell explained that one cannot say “I don’t accept gays” any more than one can say “I don’t accept blacks.”
McDowell “then asked [Daniel] if he accepted gays or not. [Daniel] said he did not.” At this point, “[McDowell] threw [Daniel] out of class and wrote up a referral for unacceptable behavior.” At this point, another student asked, “I don’t accept gays either[,] can I leave[?]” McDowell said yes…."
I'm surprised the court upheld the student's right to say he doesn't accept gays, especially when you consider recent decisions that force people to serve someone or a group that they find offensive.
There must be a number of similar cases a year in this country. I wonder how many of them rule in favor of individual opinion and free speech, and how many rule to the contrary?
Hat tip to the Humboldt Center for Constitutional Rights that provided the link to the story.
posted by Fred Mangels @ 7:48 AM
2 comments
2 Comments:
How does one accept gays or not accept gays? They are here along with the racists, bigots, philanderers, fornicators, hypocrites and other forms of people. The word that the student was looking for is tolerate. He doesn't want to tolerate gays. That's his problem. Not any gays persons. Also, I had to chuckle at the use of the word accept in that concept since in my experience the men who are the most adamant about the fact that gays don't exist are the same men who would gladly accept another man in the butthole behind closed doors. The man who yells the loudest in protest is very very often a closeted gay man.
" The man who yells the loudest in protest is very very often a closeted gay man."
Agreed.
And probably a poor choice of words as far as "accept" goes.
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