Taking a Moment to Discuss the First Amendment

If there's any Constitutional right of which I am quite fond, it's my First Amendment rights to free speech. Face it, I'm a loud mouth. What's more American than being able to wear a t-shirt that says something crude about boobs while listening to misogynistic rap music and bitching about what a fucking socialist douchebag Obama is?? Come on!! I LOVE it! Although I'm not exactly sure that's the scenario the Founders had in mind when crafting the Amendment.... Anyway, this week has provided me with many opportunities to have an internal debate about what exactly is included and protected in the First Amendment.

The Supreme Court recently ruled that the protests perpetrated by the Westboro Baptist Church are protected under the First Amendment guarantees to free speech. As described by one of my previous blogs, the Westboro BC protests the funerals of dead soldiers because Americans tolerate gay people and are henceforth doomed by God. While said protests are both wrong and inhumane, they are in my eyes protected speech. The protests really aren't aimed at a particular person and are actually a broader criticism of the American government's tolerance of gay folks (tolerance being quite broad here people...tolerance is not the same as being inclusive or supportive). Some of the funerals they protest aren't gay soldiers or gay Americans. I'm sure some are. The point is that Westboro BC uses funerals as a pulpit from which to protest because it stirs up lots of emotion and controversy. Plus, I can go to a Westboro BC protest and yell my ass off at them about what huge ass hats they all are and how whatever God is out there hates the shit out of them.

Another ruling came down today in regards to a high school student who wore an inappropriate t-shirt to school. Here's a little clip form HuffPost:

In 2006, Naperville's Neuqua Valley High School allowed students to participate in a nationwide "Day of Silence," which promotes tolerance of the gay community. While some students decided to wear shirts that expressed that tolerance, one student showed up in a shirt that read: "Be Happy, Not Gay."

The school made the student cover up the part of the shirt that said "not gay." The student was mad and sued.

The ACLU filed a brief supporting this student's right to wear said t-shirt to school citing that she was only exercising her First Amendment rights. This is where I say, "BULL SHIT!" Can I wear a shirt to school that says "Retards are Stupid" or "Christians are Assholes" ??? Can I wear a shirt to school that proclaims "Glad I'm White!" or maybe "Be Happy, Not Mexican!"??? No, I can't for a few reasons:

#1 The school has a dress code in place for a reason. They don't need crap like this interrupting the school day.

#2 Wearing a t-shirt directly states to each and every gay student in the school that "I don't like you". It isn't a broad criticism (the National Day of Silence, on the other hand, was a broad protest), it's pointing the finger. Now, if that student would've gotten an organized group together to voice opposition to the Day of Silence, I would say awesome. Do your thing. However, gay students have the right not to walk down the hallways and see a shirt that demeans them. No student should have to be exposed to that. I take issue with all those shirts out there that say stuff like Boys Suck and Boys Drool. It's one thing for a girl to wear a shirt that says Girls Rock and another thing entirely for a shirt to be demeaning to boys. Period.

#3 When I was in school there were these shirts that had stupid sexually suggestive sayings on them and were made by the brand Big Johnson. Remember those? We couldn't wear them. It's not really age appropriate for a middle/high schooler to wear a t-shirt that's suggestive of intercourse or boners or big boobs. Same issue here. We can't forget that high schools are full of children. It's not about being offensive, it's about being mature. There's a time and a place, and perhaps school isn't it.

Well, now that I've made my internal debate and external one, I hope someone has a different perspective on these issues, especially the anti-gay t-shirt, because I apparently don't even side with the ACLU on this one.