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"Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily,
therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil."
Ecclesiastes 8:11

Federal Judge Takes on Tax-Funded Homo-Fascists
Report for November 29, 2003

The story below will have the homo-fascists raging. A federal judge has asked the right questions, and the officials of a Michigan high school are sweating profusely. The situation highlights how brazenly the advocates of Sodom use the tax-funded government school system to advance their political and religious agenda.

Judge: Excluding anti-gay view at school forum troubling 
By David Ashenfelter
Detroit Free Press, November 25, 2003 

Excluding a cleric opposed to homosexuality from a school-sponsored forum on gays and religion was akin to Nazi book burning of the 1930s, a federal judge said Monday. 

Hinting at how he might rule in a lawsuit filed by former Pioneer High School student Elizabeth Hansen, U.S. District Judge Gerald Rosen said during a two-hour hearing that he is troubled that school officials at the Ann Arbor high school allowed only pro-gay clergy to participate in the discussion during the school's Diversity Week program in March 2002. He said the panelists expressed only the view that school officials and the school's Gay/Straight Alliance wanted to project. 

"Isn't this cultural hegemony, where you're only going to present one view to the exclusion of others?" Rosen asked, demanding to know why school officials were afraid of letting students consider diverse viewpoints. 

"Don't you think that smacks of government and religious totalitarianism. Isn't that what this government was founded to get away from?" Rosen asked. "Isn't that how we got to book burning in Nazi Germany back in the 1930s?" 

"We're not for the equivalent of Nazi book burning," said Detroit lawyer Seth Lloyd who represents the high school and six school administrators and faculty members. He said the school was only interested in exerting some control over the theme and content of the diversity week program. 

Hansen, then a senior, sued last year saying teachers and school officials violated her rights by refusing her request to allow a clergyman to sit on the panel to present a view more in keeping with her traditional Catholic beliefs. She said school officials rejected the request because they wanted to present only one view: that religion and homosexual behavior are compatible. 

The lawsuit, filed by the Thomas More Law Center in Ann Arbor, said Hansen feels compelled by conscience to speak out on social issues and believes that homosexual behavior is immoral. 

Hansen, an honors graduate who now attends college, said the panel was organized by the school's Gay/Straight Alliance. 

She said school officials selected the panelists, pre-screened and approved questions and prohibited students from personally questioning panelists. 

School officials said Hansen failed to attend the required planning sessions or provide the name of a clergy member to represent her point of view. They said she was allowed to participate in other panel discussions, permitted to address the student assembly and that all three of the questions she submitted were asked of the clergy members. 

At one point, officials decided to cancel the panel discussion after one official said excluding an opposing viewpoint was illegal. But the Gay/Straight Alliance persuaded officials to relent and exclude anyone with an opposing point of view to sit on the panel. 

During Monday's court hearing, Lloyd said officials wanted to present a positive message to offset the views of the school's Pioneers for Christ club, of which Hansen was a member. Lloyd said officials also wanted to encourage tolerance and discourage violence and harassment inflicted on gay students at the high school. He also said the Pioneers for Christ were offered an opportunity to hold their own panel discussion but declined. 

Lloyd declined after court to predict how Rosen might rule. Robert Muise, who represents Hansen, said he was pleased with the hearing. 

Hansen wants Rosen to enjoin the school from holding similar panel discussions in the future. Rosen said he would decide the case in a week or two. 

Contact DAVID ASHENFELTER at 313-223-4490 or ashenf@freepress.com

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