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from Political News
The Free Speech And Academic Freedom in Massachusetts: The Influence of Gay Marriage
October 24, 2005 -
Boston College Law Professor Scott FitzGibbon appeared before
the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Property
Rights (October 20, 2005) to discuss the need for passage of a constitutional
Federal Marriage Amendment in wake of Massachusetts' Supreme Judicial Court
legalizing gay marriage in 2003.
Professor FitzGibbon told members of the committee that the immediate impact of
the Court's Goodridge v. Department of Public Health decision was to chill
freedom of speech and academic freedom on high school campuses throughout the
state.
Fitzgibbon noted that shortly after the decision was handed down, Thomas W.
Payzant, Superintendent of the Boston Public Schools, sent out a memorandum to
school officials urging them to report any person in the district who criticizes
or creates bias against others over their sexual orientation.
Payzant's memo said, in part: "Administrators, teachers, parents and students
are reminded that no action or speech will be tolerated that results in
harassment, discrimination, bias or intimidation toward any member of our
community for any reason, including his/her sexual orientation or perceived
sexual orientation."
In addition, according to FitzGibbon, Payzant's memo turns teachers and students
into whistleblowers against any person on campus who says negative things about
same-sex attractions or creates any sort of bias against a person because his
sexual orientation.
Professor FitzGibbon also points out that the promotion of homosexuality on
campuses also results in explicit sexual teachings to children. He quotes a
National Public Radio with a lesbian school teacher in Massachusetts who admits
that she's using the legalization of gay marriage to teach her children about
the use of sex toys by lesbians.
He notes that the Lexington Superintendent of Schools has notified parents that
the school has no obligation to notify them if the school is teaching anything
about homosexual conduct.
FitzGibbon concludes his testimony by expressing support for passage of a
constitutional amendment that defines marriage as a union of one man and one
woman. He observes:
When a state gets off the same page as the rest of the country as regards
fundamental marital and sexual morality and comes to indoctrinate children in
ways that are anathema elsewhere; when a state begins to exclude or even
prohibit the presentation of opinions which are not only acceptable but common
and commonsensical in the minds of the rest of the country; and when a state
goes even further along the road and develops a morality and jurisprudence of
marital relationships which is unstable and divergent from tradition, it is
appropriate to bring the matter forward for national discussion and common
resolution.
Additional Reading: Gender
Complementarity and Child-rearing: Where Tradition and Science Agree
Updated: 8 February 2008
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