Texas School Punishes Boy for Opposing Homosexuality

[TJ in Oregon]

I was wondering when we'd get a story like this because with the increasing social acceptance of homosexuality people lose the ability to distinguish between personal morality and the politics of the situation (if we ever were able to do so in the first place). Once something is legal, you become a 'bigot' for personally opposing it in some circles and this appears to be one of them.

The teacher may be correct in saying this isn't a political battle social conservatives are going to win, but as long as we have the freedom of religion and speech we ought to be able to personally dissent from that. After all, the boy was quoted as saying homosexuality is sinful, not that it should be banned or that employment rights, etc. should not be protected on that basis. This may end up being what the discussion of homosexuality in is like in our political world in 20 years, more or less like porn or condoms are now.

Still, I wish we were able to hear the other side of the story because I question if the boy said something else we aren't hearing about. It's not good for someone that young to become a social "victim".

[TJ in Oregon]

Yes, the liberals are known for trying to mandate their beliefs.

The issue is that there is an explicit constitutional right to religious freedom and a part of that is to have the freedom to believe that something is morally wrong. If I for some reason happened to believe that since Sunday is the LORD's day, anyone who drinks coffee on Sundays deserves to burn in the deepest circle of hell, I have every right to believe that and express that opinion in a non-disruptive manner should the topic somehow come up. Now, if I went around calling people derogatory names or starting speaking out about this constantly in the middle of unrelated topics, that would be a problem.

The story is lacking any kind of response from the teacher and the school rescinded the punishment so we'll have to assume in this case that the student was not being disruptive or unnecessarily inflammatory.

[TJ in Oregon]

I think this story provides a rational basis.

[TJ in Oregon]

I think this story provides a rational basis.

...

The teacher attempted to have the student suspended. The school in this case did overturn that decision, but who's to say another school in a similar situation will do the same. It doesn't take the US to repeal the First Amendment for a teacher and a school who want to start enforcing this to do so haphazardly so long as the student involved either doesn't make a big issue or the parents don't sue.

The other issue is that there's quite a bit of subtlety in how this type of thing is enforced, for example, what constitutes "disruptive"? It's really up to the discretion of the teacher and school. I can see circumstances where what would be disruptive for a student who thinks homosexuality is immoral might not be the same as what would be disruptive for one with the opposite views. I have no doubt at all that someone somewhere will be punished along these lines.

To be honest, I'd suggest the right take a good long look at trying hardest to guarantee the right to dissent from popular sentiment on the morality of homosexuality rather than fighting over gay marriage. That ship has sailed; it really has. We need to make sure people are allowed to view homosexuality (I'm taking the definition as homosexual acts, relationships, and fantasies btw) as immoral.

[TJ in Oregon]

In the words of either my uncle's or my Dad's coach from back in the day "Dammit Dammit Dammit Dammit Dammit Dammit Dammit!" I'm glad they don't have this sh**t at my school, or I would have been shut up long ago for expressing my views.

I see nothing wrong with this. School is not the place for children to be spouting hate speech.

Jesus Christ. Seriously. My belief that something is wrong qualifies me as hating a certain class of people? Ah yes, I think that two men kissing each other in a sexual way is wrong, that means I hate all homosexuals and think they'll all go to Hell and in fact want them burned at the stake. Yes, that's what it means. "Doing drugs is wrong!" yes, that means I hate every last drug user including my stoner friends. This is bullsh**t.

But doing drugs, like the highly dangerous drug Alcohol, is a choice. On the other hand being gay is not.

It is most certainly a choice to act on it.

So they should just repress their feelings and live a depressing life? Why?

2000 year old book about magic and fairies says so.

People can be born with certain tendencies. Just because I'm born with some pre-disposition to steal sh**t doesn't mean that it suddenly becomes right.

And just because an old book says something is wrong doesn't make it wrong.

But people do still have a right to believe it's wrong.