Michigan Student Vindicated in Bold Stand Against School's Pro-Homosexual Agenda

by Jim Brown and Jody Brown
December 9, 2003

(AgapePress) - In Michigan, there has been a major First Amendment victory for Christian students, as well as a defeat for advocates of the homosexual agenda in public schools.

Detroit Federal Judge Gerald Rosen has ruled that Pioneer High School violated the constitutional rights of student Betsy Hansen by censoring her Christian views against homosexuality. Last year, during a so-called "Diversity Week" forum at the Ann Arbor school, officials only permitted pro-homosexual viewpoints to be expressed. Hansen, a Roman Catholic, had been asked to give a speech on the topic "What Diversity Means to Me" and to present it during a "Homosexuality and Religion" panel. But the school censored her speech, claiming her religious views toward the topic were "negative" and would "water-down" the "positive" message the school wanted to convey.

Ironically, the school did allow what it considered an approved viewpoint to be presented to students as religious doctrine when it permitted six handpicked religious leaders to sit on the panel and quote scripture supposedly in favor of homosexuality.

The Thomas More Law Center, based in Ann Arbor, filed a federal lawsuit on Hansen's behalf claiming that school officials had violated the student's constitutional rights to freedom of speech, free exercise of religion, and the equal protection of the law. In addition, the lawsuit alleged that school officials coerced students to accept the religious belief that homosexual activity is not immoral or sinful, in violation of the Constitution.

In his 70-page opinion, Judge Rosen stated the case "presents the ironic, and unfortunate, paradox of a public high school celebrating 'diversity' by refusing to permit the presentation to students of an 'unwelcome' viewpoint on the topic of homosexuality and religion, while actively promoting the competing view." He said the practice of such "one-way diversity" is both "unsettling" and "troubling," and that the exclusion of one viewpoint in favor of another "hardly seems to further the school's purported objective of 'celebrating diversity.'"

Hansen's attorney, Robert Muise with the Thomas More Law Center, says the ruling is a rare decision from a federal judge.

"I think where the impact [of the ruling] will truly be felt is that it will serve as an educational tool to other school administrations across the country that would like to hold similar 'Diversity Weeks' [and as] a warning to them that ... [treatment of opposing viewpoints in this manner] is a constitutional violation," Muise says. "And certainly you'll have other courts that will be pointing to this district court decision as at least persuasive authority for ruling in future matters."

The attorney adds that the school attempted to coerce his client and other students to accept the belief that homosexuality is not immoral.

"School officials and courts as well tend to want to characterize the Christian view of homosexuality as something akin to hate speech -- and they want to excise it from the public square," he says. "Here you have a federal judge who declared in really unequivocal terms that students have a First Amendment right -- such as my client -- to express views opposing homosexuality from a religious perspective."

According to Judge Rosen, school officials violated the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution by inviting only pro-homosexual clergy to hold a forum on homosexuality and religion. He also stated in his ruling that "in our system, state-operated schools may not be enclaves of totalitarianism...and students may not be regarded as closed-circuit recipients of that which the state chooses to communicate."

Rosen also instructed Thomas More attorneys to file with the court an application for attorney's fees, which could cost the Ann Arbor Public Schools up to $100,000.