Judge Explains Limits of Free Speech

In Massachusetts, acting principal Heather Tucker and Middleborough Public Schools Superintendent Carolyn Lyons barred 12-year-old Liam Morrison from wearing a T-shirt with the words "there are only two genders." Since other T-shirts saying "celebrate gay pride" are permitted at the school, Morrison sought attorneys to help him defend his right to freedom of speech.

Lyons defended suppressing the shirt, saying “it targeted students of a protected class; namely in the area of gender identity. This is hate speech that cannot be permitted. Liam's return to school wearing a shirt saying 'there are censored genders' mocked our authority and also had to be banned.”

In court, US District Judge Indira Talwani sided with the school and affirmed its right to censor any message that "collides with the rights of others to be secure and be let alone. For some students the belief that there are many genders is a vital component of their perception of self. It is the school's obligation to protect this perception from assault."

Tyson Langhofer, director of the Center for Academic Freedom at Alliance Defending Freedom who is helping with Morrison's case, called the ruling "a gross violation of the First Amendment. What about Liam's right to be secure and be let alone? His shirts stated two facts--that there are only two genders and that the school was censoring him. If we allow government officials like school administrators to censor facts we are allowing tyranny and idiocy to pollute our culture."

Judge Talwani asserted that "it is the factual claim that deprives the shirt's words from First Amendment protection. Because there are people who would disagree that there are only two genders that proves it cannot truly be a 'fact.' If the shirt had said 'celebrate two genders' it would be a permissible expression of an opinion."

In related news, a 13-year-old girl was called “despicable” by her teacher at a Church of England school in the United Kingdom for asking a fellow student “How can you identify as a cat when you’re a girl?”

SEMI-NEWS/SEMI-SATIRE by John Semmens