Court Bars Middle Schooler From Wearing 'Two Genders' Shirt to School
Supreme Court decision in Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, noting that the shirt's message could be harmful to LGBTQ+ students and disrupt the educational environment.The Tinker case had upheld students' First Amendment rights but allowed for restrictions if the speech would cause substantial disruption or infringe on the rights of others.Newsweek has reached out to the Alliance Defending Freedom via email for comment.The ruling comes as transgender youth have been faced with hundreds of bills nationwide as conservative lawmakers have been moving to limit LGBTQ people's rights such as access to gender-affirming care, use of bathroom facilities, and participation in sports.
According to the ACLU, at least 510 anti-LGBTQ+ bills were introduced in state legislatures across the country in 2023.Newsweek has reached out to ACLU via email for comment."We think it was reasonable for Middleborough to forecast that a message displayed throughout the school day denying the existence of the gender identities of transgender and gender non-conforming students would have a serious negative impact on those students' ability to concentrate on their classroom work," the court said.According to Chief U.S.
Circuit Judge David Barron, the court could not conclude that educators acted unreasonably."The question here is not whether the t-shirts should have been barred.
The question is who should decide whether to bar them - educators or federal judges," Baron said.In response to the upheld ruling, Alliance Defending Freedom took to X, formerly Twitter, to condemn the ruling, saying: "This is a clear violation of Liam's free speech right," adding that it will explore all legal options, including an appeal."Our legal system is built on the truth that government can't censor speech it doesn't like," Alliance Defending Freedom wrote. "But unfortunately, the 1st Circuit disregarded this in their ruling for L.M.