A Massachusetts student fights a ban on “dual gender” T-shirts in the U.S. Court of Appeals

A U.S. appeals court on Thursday was skeptical of claims that a Massachusetts school violated a student’s right to free expression by asking him to stop wearing a T-shirt that read: “There are only two sexes.”

Thirteen-year-old Liam Morrison’s lawyer 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 that he disagreed with the school’s support of the “view that biology does not determine sex,” expressed by the school through pro-LGBTQ posters and LGBT pride celebrations. Day.

“What the school cannot do, even if it can share its opinions, is decide that only students who agree with those opinions speak, but anyone who disagrees must be silenced,” Cortman said.

An attorney 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 class that day, which he did.

Cortman claimed the same thing happened days later, when he wore a T-shirt that said, “There are genders (redacted).”

He also argued that a lower court judge got the case wrong when she refused to veto the school ban last year.

The case is part of 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 nonbinary students would not be justified. Judge Lara Montecalvo compared the T-shirt to a flyer that expresses a message, saying that a piece of paper can be thrown away.

“A T-shirt worn all day is worn all day,” he said. “You have to watch and you have to read,” she said.

Source: Terra

Rose

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