For his anti-gay speech in a German studies class, a Texas high school student, Dakota Ary, a freshman at Fort Worth’s Western Hills High School, got detention, and subsequently a Liberty Counsel lawyer. Ary is claiming his “religious beliefs” allow him to make anti-gay comments in class. “I said, ‘I’m Christian and, to me, being homosexual is wrong,'” Ary said, according to NBC in Dallas/Ft. Worth. “And then he (the teacher) got mad, wrote me an infraction and sent me to the office.”
On the referral form, Ary is quoted as saying “no gays allowed in Christianity.” The form says the comment was unprovoked and out of context. The final sentence of the explanation on the referral reads, “It is wrong to make such a statement in public school.”
But Ary’s mother, Holly Pope, and attorney Matt Krause of the Liberty Counsel disagree. They said the referral, the two-day suspension and the teacher’s statement are wrong.
“Just because you walk through the school house doors doesn’t mean you shed your First Amendment rights,” Krause said. “And he wasn’t disrupting class, he wasn’t hurting or harassing anybody. He was just stating his religious beliefs in a benign, non-hostile way.”
… “I didn’t say it to be rude to anyone,” Ary said. “I said it like how I believe about it.”
Of course, that’s the common line of defense these days. “It’s my religious belief, so I have every right to it.” And of course, you have every right to your bigotry. But if the comments were racist, and not anti-gay, this wouldn’t even have been a story. The religious right is sticking with this idea, that they are being persecuted for their beliefs. If so, America has every right to challenge them, because their views, their so-called “religious beliefs” are wrong, and it’s not bigotry to say it’s bigotry. Bigots like Rick Santorum and NOM, the National Organization For Marriage, “are much more concerned about being perceived as bigots than whether they might actually be bigoted,” says Zinnia Jones:
“They are unable to conceive of any kind of moral progress that could be inconvenient to their positions or contrary to a particular faith. The sheer self-​absorption of this mindset is breathtaking. Imagine if any other prejudice were defended with such an argument. How seriously would we take the protests of white racists that they would be seen as bigots because of integration? How much would we care about the complaints of men that they would be considered bigoted if women are allowed to vote?â€
She also says,
And no, your religion does not have the power to legitimize bigotry. Bigoted beliefs do not become excusable just because a church or a book endorses them. You don’t get a pass on bigotry by claiming that a god agrees with you. People came up with the very same justifications for all kinds of prejudice. It changes nothing. Like it or not, your religion will evolve. It might deny this, it might lag behind, but religions are dragged along with the moral climate of society at large. The Catholic Church doesn’t hold trials of alleged witches anymore. Mormon leaders decided that God changed his mind about allowing black people to be ordained. And some day, you will have to face the reality that your 2,000 years of moral theology are helpless next to a moment of moral reflection.