We didn't lose the game; we just ran out of time. - Vince Lombardi

Wednesday, April 20, 2005

If there’s been a better example of the First Amendment in action recently, I can’t think of it.

A student-led effort to oppose homophobia at Homewood-Flossmoor High School may have backfired Tuesday when hundreds of students donned shirts with Christian and anti-gay slogans.

Student activists who wore shirts emblazoned with the words “gay? fine by me” said they were outnumbered by peers wearing hateful messages and were targeted for harassment.

The T-shirt drive was intended to create a safe place for gay students and to put a human face on gays, lesbians and their allies.

But student journalists covering the event described the atmosphere as “tense.”

“It was crazy. There were all these students with gay shirts and God shirts,” said student newspaper reporter Joe Maloney. “In my first-period class, debate class, there were way more God shirts.”

Chelsea Lavin, a broadcast student, was more pragmatic."People that you normally would say ‘Hi’ to in the halls were wearing shirts opposite of you, so you looked in the opposite direction,” she said.

Alissa Norby, one of the T-shirt day’s organizers, said she didn’t know whether to define the project as a success or failure.

“If I was still in the closet and came to school (Tuesday) and saw hundreds of kids wearing anti-gay shirts, I’d probably go home crying and begging my parents to let me transfer,” she said.

Students estimated more than 100 students wore anti-homophobia shirts, and more than 200 students wore shirts that listed “Crimes committed against God.” The crimes included the elimination of school prayer and separation of church and state, but did not include anything about homosexuality.

Other male students wrote slogans on white T-shirts such as “I hate gay people” and “Gay? Not fine by me (unless you’re a lesbian)” and “Gay? More chicks for me,” students said.

The anti-gay messages effectively canceled out the anti-homophobia shirts, said H-F senior and gay activist Jamison Liang.

Amazing how that freedom of speech works, isn’t it?  The solution to this problem is just to keep these kinds of organized displays of PC idiocy out of school.  But, like typical liberals, they’ve found a way around it.

The event’s organizers got permission Tuesday from the student council to recognize the school’s gay support group as a club. Club status will allow the group to hold the T-shirt day next year without opposition, Norby said.

In other words, the school has officially taken a position on this issue and is silencing all who disagree.  Pathetic, isn’t it?  It’s not that I agree with the anti-gay folks (I don’t) but this idea that they should have their rights to free speech silenced so that the liberal students don’t get their t-shirt day ruined is just beyond the pale.  You either allow all sides to state their opinion or you permit none, that’s how it works.