Brokeback is In; Bible is Out

Bill Robinson: 9th Circuit Ruling: "Brokeback is In; Bible is Out"

In a 2-1 decision, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said that a T-shirt that proclaimed "Be Ashamed, Our School Embraced What God Has Condemned'' on the front and "Homosexuality Is Shameful'' on the back was "injurious to gay and lesbian students and interfered with their right to learn.'' The court said that the shirt can be barred on a public high school campus without violating the 1st Amendment. --Los Angeles Times

The two-judge majority criticized (dissenting Judge) Kozinski, suggesting that the majority could rely upon the motion pictures Brokeback Mountain or The Matthew Shepard Story as evidence of the harmful effects of anti-gay harassment.... The majority implied that Brokeback Mountain is in, and the Bible is out. What's really broken here is the majority's approach to the First Amendment. --Alliance Defense League Senior Legal Counsel Kevin Theriot.

Tyler Harper is the name of the bigoted little bastard who actually wore the t-shirt and then sued the school district for trying to "change his religious views." But it's hard to get worked up about Tyler. He's just another piece of white trash, blowing along the gutters of route 15, on the outskirts of the crystal meth and crystal cathedral capital of San Diego. His parents, of course, are instigators and accessories in this little hate-fest, clogging our courtrooms, and possibly en route to the newly renovated Supreme Court. But are the backwards Harpers and their moronic t-shirt campaign really the brainchildren behind a legal strategy designed to strip gays of "special protections" under the law? Who's backing them? And why the 9th circuit as a testing ground?

Enter The Alliance Defense Fund, a tax-free "charity" legal organization founded by extreme members of the Christian right, including televangelists. The ADF describes itself as "a legal alliance defending the right to hear and speak the Truth through strategy, training, funding, and litigation." On October 11, 2005, Bill O'Reilly spoke with a caller who asked "[h]ow do people like me ... fight people like" the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). O'Reilly replied: "Well, you fight them by giving money to the Alliance Defense Fund [ADF] out in Phoenix, Arizona. Allianc