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Today is "Day of Silence"; 7th Circuit Allows "Day of Truth" T-Shirt

By Howard Friedman

Today is the 12th annual National Day of Silence sponsored by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN). A GLSEN news release says that students at 6,000 middle and high schools across the country are scheduled to participate in the event designed to call attention to bullying and harassment in schools directed at gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender students. The Day of Silence website says this year's event is dedicated to the memory of Lawrence King, a California 8th-grader who was shot and killed in class on Feb. 12 by a classmate because of his sexual orientation and gender expression. Generally participants remain silent during the day except when called on in class. Lambda Legal has issued a Q&A on student rights to participate in the Day of Silence.

For the past four years, the Alliance Defense Fund has sponsored a "Day of Truth" on the school day following Day of Silence. This year that is April 28. The Day of Truth website says the event "was established to counter the promotion of the homosexual agenda and express an opposing viewpoint from a Christian perspective." Sponsors encourage students to wear T-shirts and hand out cards in class with their counter-message.

Just in time for this year's dueling events, the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals decided Nuxoll v. Indian Prairie School District #204, (7th Cir., April 23, 2008), a case growing out of an Illinois high school's limits on messages that could be displayed on Day of Truth T-shirts. Messages could be positive ones, but not negative ones that impugned another group. The court approved a preliminary injunction limited to permitting plaintiff to stencil the slogan "Be Happy, Not Gay" on his T-shirt this year. Judge Posner's majority opinion said even this might be shown to be improper after a fuller record is developed in the case. Judge Rovner concurred, writing an opinion indicating that he had a broader view of permissible student speech. Alliance Defense Fund issued a release praising the decision, as did the ACLU of Illinois. (See prior posting.)

Full post as published by Religion Clause on April 25, 2008 (boomark / email).