A United States appeals court was skeptical this Thursday (8) regarding the thesis that a school in the State of Massachusetts had violated a student's right to freedom of expression by asking him to stop wearing a t-shirt that said: “There are only two genders.”
The lawyer for 13-year-old Liam Morrison told the three-judge panel of the First Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston that officials at Nichols Middle School in Middleborough violated the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution by censoring him when he expressed his views opposite to those of the LGBTQ community.
David Cortman, the boy's attorney, said the boy wore the shirt in seventh grade to show he disagreed with the school's support of “views that biology does not determine sex,” which the school expressed via pro-LGBTQ posters and celebrations of the LGBT Pride Day.
“What the school cannot do, even though it may share its own views, is decide that only students who agree with those views speak, but anyone who disagrees must be silenced,” Cortman said.
A lawyer for the conservative Christian group Alliance Defending Freedom, he said that was the school's attitude in asking him to take off his shirt or leave classes that day, which he did.
Cortman claimed the same thing happened days later, when he wore a t-shirt that said, “There are (censored) genders.”
He further argued that a lower court judge got the case wrong when she refused to veto the school ban last year.
The case is one in a series of lawsuits filed by conservative groups challenging school policies that aim to protect LGBTQ students from harassment and respect their pronouns and gender identities.
The judges in the case, all appointed by Democratic presidents, questioned why the school's actions to ensure a safe school environment for non-binary students would not be justified.
Judge Lara Montecalvo compared the t-shirt to a leaflet expressing a message, saying that a piece of paper can be thrown away.
“A T-shirt that is worn all day is worn all day,” he said. “You have to look and you have to read,” she said.
Source: CNN Brasil
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