Score one for the good guys
Ann Arbor Schools found to have violated student’s Constitutional rights by censoring her due to her religious beliefs.
Quick summary: in March, 2002, Pioneer High School held “Diversity Week” to (along with the standard race/religion/multiculti stuff) promote “diversity” as relates to sexuality — in other words, a pro-gay agenda. (Diversity will not be achieved until all think alike, you know.) This included a panel “discussion” of “Homosexuality and Religion”, where the school approved six local clergy to all come and have a panel discussion regarding religiously postive views of homosexuality. (Two of the clergy were Episcopalian, of course.)
Student Betsy Hansen asked to be part of the panel in order to express a dissenting viewpoint. She was denied. She was then offered the opportunity to present a two-minute speech at a separate assembly, which school officials then censored because it didn’t promote “diversity” enough.
What’s really sad is that some of these people probably do not in fact “get it” that having a public school promote “good” religious views (pro-gay) and censor “ungood” religious views (2000 years of Christian teaching on morals, longer if you count Judaism) might, just maybe, be covered by the First Amendment’s prohibition on “establishment of religion.”
I’ve noticed some commentors take Mark Shea to task for his use of the phrase “gay brownshirts” to describe this kind of bullying tactics (and worse) to intimidate those who would dare to disagree with them. I will simply note that it was the judge who compared the school administration to Nazis this time:
“Isn’t this cultural hegemony, where you’re only going to present one view to the exclusion of others?” Rosen asked, demanding to know why school officials were afraid of letting students consider diverse viewpoints.“Don’t you think that smacks of government and religious totalitarianism. Isn’t that what this government was founded to get away from?” Rosen asked. “Isn’t that how we got to book burning in Nazi Germany back in the 1930s?”
Congratulations to Betsy Hansen, Rob Muise, and the Thomas More Law Center for this win.
UPDATE: Henry Dieterich (through the unfair advantage of knowing the principals of the case) did, in fact, blog on Betsy Hansen’s win first and has some good observations.
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