Court blasts district 'gay appeasement' policy

A federal court reinstated a lawsuit that claims a school district adopted a policy restricting free speech in order to appease a homosexual-rights agenda endorsed by the American Civil Liberties Union.

The case involves student Timothy Morrison, who complained he was barred from expressing his Christian beliefs under a policy adopted by the Boyd County, Ky., school district in an agreement with the ACLU.

The ACLU worked on the school's policies after officials refused to allow students to start a "Gay Straight Alliance" organization. In an agreement to end a lawsuit over the decision, the district adopted a speech code that defined harassment as "the use of language … in such manner as to be commonly understood to convey hatred, contempt, or prejudice or to have the effect of insulting or stigmatizing an individual," and prescribing punishment for such actions.

The speech code, however, triggered a lawsuit by the Alliance Defense Fund on behalf of Morrison, who feared punishment if he expressed his Christian-based disapproval of homosexuality.

The case had been dismissed at the district court level but was reinstated by a panel from 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

"We hold that an allegation of a past chill of First Amendment-protected activity is sufficient to confer standing to a plaintiff seeking retrospective relief, even when that relief comes in the form of nominal damages," the ruling said. "We reverse the district court's grant of summary judgment to the board … as it pertains to Morrison's free-speech claim seeking nominal damages."

Joel Oster, senior legal counsel with the ADF, told WND the speech restrictions came directly as a result of the ACLU's pursuit of a "gay" club at the school.

"The school district went overboard the other way," Oster told WND, "with three days of mandated diversity training."

The rule that students not talk about homosexual behavior followed.

"Christian students and other students who do not approve of homosexual behavior are not second-class simply because of their perspective," he said. "Silencing students because of their viewpoint is a clear violation of their constitutional rights.

"This student's free speech rights were certainly violated, and we're pleased the case will proceed to trial," he said.

Part of the diversity training program mandated by the school was a video that instructed students to withhold Christian viewpoints about homosexual behavior.

"Although a favorable decision cannot provide Morrison an opportunity to travel back in time and utter the speech he withheld, it can provide him with nominal damages. Even though these damages amount to little, they serve to vindicate his rights," the court ruling said.

The ban on Morrison's expression of his faith was contained in the school policy, the ADF noted, then stated explicitly in the video the school prepared and presented to students about diversity.

"We all get self-centered and start to think that our way is the right way and our way is the correct way. We all want to believe that we have evidence that our way is the correct way," a clinical psychologist appearing on the video states.

"So … no matter where you go, no matter what you do, no matter who you meet, you are going to find people that you don't like," the psychologist says. "You're going to find people that you disagree with. You're going to find people that you don't like the way they act. It can't be avoided, not, not anywhere in the world, it can't be avoided. You're going to find people that you believe are absolutely wrong. You're going to think … That is so wrong … But here is the kicker, just because you believe, just because you don't like them, just because you disagree with them, just because you believe they are wrong, wholeheartedly, absolutely, they are wrong. Just because you believe that does not give you permission to say anything about it. It doesn't require that you do anything. You just respect, you just exist, you continue, you leave it alone. There is not permission for you to point it out to them."

The district court also allowed students pursuing a "gay" club at the school to intervene in Morrison's speech constraint dispute. The court also alleged the plaintiff didn't suffer constitutional violations.

The school policy eventually was revised to allow "the civil exchange of opinions or debate."

But the appeals panel said Morrison still had standing to pursue a complaint for nominal damages, because testimony regarding "policies restricting speech" was uncontroverted and such damages are symbolic.

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