High School Students Sue For Right To Wear Anti-Gay Shirts To School

[matcom]

<snip>

Two Neuqua Valley High School students are suing the school's board, principal and dean for the right to wear anti-gay clothing during school hours.

Heidi Zamecnik and Alexander Nuxoll are seeking a court injunction that prevents the Indian Prairie School District 204 Board of Education, Superintendent Howard Crouse, and Neuqua Valley High School officials from prohibiting them from wearing clothing expressing their displeasure with homosexuality a day after the school allows other students to display messages promoting homosexual behavior.

Neuqua Principal Michael Popp and Dean of Students Bryan Wells also are named in the federal lawsuit filed Wednesday by the students and their parents.

The lawsuit did not indicate what written messages the students planned to wear on their shirts.

During her first two years of high school, Zamecnik, a Naperville resident, did not outwardly object to the "Day of Silence" in which students wear pro-gay messages on T-shirts.

But the current senior was reprimanded during her junior year on April 20, 2006, a day after the national "Day of Silence," for wearing a self-made T-shirt that read "MY DAY OF SILENCE, STRAIGHT ALLIANCE," on the front and "BE HAPPY, NOT GAY" on the back, the suit says.

The "Day of Silence" is an annual event organized by the Gay/Straight Alliance that gives students and teachers nationwide the opportunity to remain quiet all day "to echo" the silence that gay students face all the time, while wearing written messages on shirts, buttons and stickers showing their support of gay lifestyles.

The suit alleges Wells told Zamecnik that her shirt "offended" some students and faculty members and that she must either remove it from her body or leave school. When she refused, her mother was called.

Linda Zamecnik and Wells agreed Wells could alter the shirt's message to read "Be Happy. Be Straight."

MUCH more.....

http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/napervillesun/news/308356,6_1_NA22_LAWSUIT_S1.article

[Miss_Strawberry]

1. I wear pro-gay shirts occaisionally

so....I guess I can't be a hypocrite...

[mainegreen]

2. This stuff is making me come around to my wife's view on school uniforms: bring them back.

Everybody dresses the same. No statements for or against any position about any topic on people's clothes, no freaking problems, no lawsuits about 'they wore this, why can't I where that?'.

[blondeatlast]

10. I tend to agree--at least ban t-shirts with writing, as my son's school has done.

Which, ironically, was because of those shorts the girls were wearing with writing across a place where pre-pubescent girls have no business wearing writing.

[Kutjara]

19. That's exactly what I was going to say.

These kids are in school to learn, not parade their personal agendas. If they want to be activists, they can do it after school. Uniforms are the best way to cut this crap out.

[sakabatou]

3. I have the right to be an intolerant a-hole!

[murielm99]

6. I have a right to use hate speech! nt

[Connonym]

4. I'm all in favor of assholes advertising their assholiness on a T shirt

Makes them easier to avoid.

[Debi]

5. *sigh* 'gay lifestyle'

Yep, it's a 'lifestyle choice' :eyes:

[Lil Missy]

11. What is the gay "lifestyle" anyway??

Or should I say "gay" lifestyle. ??

I still have not figured that out.

I am pretty normal, to the point of boring, with the only differece that I spend my private time with with another woman that I love dearly and want to spend my life with.

I suspect that people who are against the "lifestyle" think it is only about sex, which couldn't be further from the truth. Geeze!

But, I'll get off my soapbox before I get off on a rant. Afterall, I am just a newbie here ....

[Debi]

13. Welcome to DU Lil Missy

:hi:

Rant away!!

I don't understand the terminology any more than I would someone saying I live the 'straight' lifestyle. It's not like I go to Straight shopping malls and only eat Straight meals and drink Straigh wine :eyes:

As for sex...what is Straight sex anyway :blush:...seems there's quite a variety out there :evilgrin:

The wording of the article bugged me. :(

[Name removed]

20. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[unpossibles]

31. I am jealous

if I could get off on ranting, I'd probably be simultaneously angrier and happier...

;)

(sorry - just being a smartass. I know what you're saying and agree it's not only silly at best, but at worst a way to make people think that all gay people are the same, or to dehumanize the "enemy")

[Lil Missy]

7. Yep, let's welcome the KKK too. Afterall, that is "free speech"

What horseshit.

[Oeditpus Rex]

12. Yup — it is

Free speech and horseshit.

As many have said, one of the drawbacks to living in a free society is you gotta put up with crap you don't like.

[Fran Kubelik]

8. I want to know what these messages promoting homosexual behavior are

Are those kids wearing shirts that say: Hey straight guys! You should try sucking cock! Is that the homosexual behavior they are promoting? Or do their shirts say something about being proud? Because that is hardly promoting any behavior other than tolerance, and I did not think that was a strictly gay behavior. :grr:

[Debi]

14. Don't forget the gay lifestyle they are promoting as well

like being gay is equal to choosing which restaurant to eat at and what music you listen to! :eyes:

[Phillycat]

17. I hope so.

That would be a great shirt! :rofl:

[RetroLounge]

18. ...

:spray:

Nice t-shirt. I see a cafe press site in your future...

:rofl:

RL

[ThomCat]

9. I hope it gets thrown out quickly.

There is no right to promote hatred. x(

[Midlodemocrat]

15. And this, darling Heidi is why I carry pepper spray.

For fucking asswipes like you.

[Phillycat]

16. Aww, bless their little hearts.

:puke:

[bullwinkle428]

21. If they're using the "religious viewpoint" argument to justify this,

I would come to school wearing a "Just say NO to shellfish" T-shirt, complete with a picture of lobster inside of circle with a slash through it, along with the biblical quote, just to mock them!

[Unvanguard]

22. Bigotry and acceptance are not "equal" and should not be dealt with equivalently.

Prohibit the shirts.

[PVnRT]

23. If you want to grant legitimacy to a bunch of idiots

then ban the expression of their ideas, regardless of what they are. The school has turned these assholes from a small group of idiots that most students probably avoid into martyrs for a cause.

As someone else already said in the thread, free speech means you have to hear things you'll find disgusting and offensive. Flame away.

[Nicole]

24. Day of Truth

These kids are probably part of The Day of Truth that is being sponsored by the Bigots-R-Us aka The Alliance Defense Fund. The ADF is funding their defense in court.

[Nicole]

25. Info about The Day of Truth.

"The Day of Truth is scheduled for April 19, 2007. This is the day after GLSEN (The Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network) will sponsor the "Day of Silence." GLSEN’s Day of Silence encourages students to remain silent throughout the day. It is part of their overall strategy to change how our society perceives homosexual behavior. But the Day of Silence is a misnomer, because what is truly being silenced is the Truth."


Below are just a few of the organizations who are helping to spread the word about the Day of Truth.

Focus on the Family
Southern Baptist Convention
Family Research Council (FRC)
Concerned Women for America
Exodus International

http://www.dayoftruth.org/main/default.aspx

[crim son]

26. Hate speech should not be permitted.

I don't see the hypocrisy in wearing pro-gay shirts but opposing anti-gay shirts but then, I can't for the life of me understand what motivates people to advertise their intolerance.

[NMMNG]

27. Would "anti-religious" T-shirts also be acceptable then?

After all, fair is fair. :shrug:

[Nicole]

30. They should be, if they want to be fair. n/t

[formerrepuke]

28. I saw a kid wearing "silly faggot, dicks are for chicks" on a t-shirt recently..

..horrifying, to say the least. I was too paralyzed with mortification to say anything. (BTW- for those who don't remember, that's a spin on the old Trix breakfast cereal slogan "silly rabbit, Trix are for kids")

[madrchsod]

29. there is`t a "right" to free speech in public schools

school systems can set rules and regulations on dress and conduct.

[Bridget Burke]

32. Aha! Another project of the Alliance Defense Fund!

Leaping to the defense of students "oppressed" last April! www.alliancedefensefund.org/news/story.aspx?cid=4045

From Sourcewatch.

The Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) was founded in 1994 by more than 30 Christian ministries, as a response to the American Civil Liberties Union, to defend "family values." ADF's major focus is strategizing and coordinating with hundreds of lawyers and right-wing groups to defend what they define as "Christian legal issues." Examples include anti-gay cases like Boy Scouts of America v. Dale and Schenck v. Pro-Choice Network, and a national strategy to "protect marriage," following Vermont's decision to allow same-sex civil unions.

People for the American Way notes that ADF's founding groups "are influential members of the Right, they are pro-life and anti-gay and their ultimate goal is to see the law and government of the US enshrined with conservative Christian principles." In 2004, ADF's total revenue was $17,921,146 (fiscal year ended June 2004), with net assets of $20,581,560.

www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Alliance_Defense_Fund