There’s a war going on across our nation, and it’s nothing to do with Iraq. It’s to do with T-shirts. A handful of battles in various school districts nationwide have resulted in press conferences, lawsuits, flag-waving and sound-biting about the rights of students to express their First Amendment rights (in other words, to spout off about anything and everything) through T-shirt slogans. A high schooler in New York recently won $30,000 in a settlement after her school suspended her for wearing a T-shirt asserting “Barbie is a lesbian”. In a similar incident, students won the right to wear the anti-smoking slogan “Queers Kick Ash”. Other T-shirt incidents have involved images of the Confederate flag, anti-abortion slogans and “straight pride” messages. Free speech advocates cite the U.S. Supreme Court case Tinker v. Des Moines which allowed the wearing of black armbands to protest the Vietnam War, and gave the opinion that students do not “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech and expression at the schoolhouse gate.”

This week in San Diego County, however, the tables got turned. Our T-shirt philosopher of the week was a Poway High student named Tyler Chase Harper, who wore a slapped-together masking-tape sign (where are the “Queer Eye” guys when you need ’em) reading, “Homosexuality is shameful.” And he decided to wear this message on the national Day of Silence – a day set aside for GLBT students to observe the challenges and the lack of a voice that GLBT students often feel in their day-to-day school experiences.

So: Now how do we feel about those First Amendment rights we’re always championing?

Local attorney Bridget Wilson asserts, in a story on the incident by Senior Reporter Travis D. Bone in this issue, that the safety and security of GLBT students in their learning environment is simply more important than somebody’s T-shirt. As co-president of the local Tom Homann Law Association, Wilson has heard from a number of students from this very school district – Poway – experiencing harassment of the sort that makes them feel unsafe and becomes detrimental to their learning environment.

Good for Poway for enforcing their perfectly reasonable school policy which prohibits T-shirt messages that are “derogatory” toward anyone based on but “not limited to … gender, race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, or the mentally and physical challenged.” Good policy, Poway – and worth enforcing. For these reasons we applaud the Poway School District for stepping in, on such a symbolic day, and silencing Tyler’s icky message. Studies have shown that messages of intolerance promote hate crimes – and Poway High School had reportedly experienced harassment incidents aimed at previous observers of the Day of Silence. As Wilson and other GLBT student advocates know well, these are exactly the sort of incidences that are so often left unchallenged by high school administrations.

However, now that the issue has transcended the bounds of school policy and become an issue for the federal court, we have to admit that there’s a very fine line here. However hateful Tyler’s T-shirt comes across (and it looks pretty ugly – see the T-shirt on page 16), it is after all asserting a religious belief, even if it is twisted to suit his own prejudices. Existing legislation through AB 537 protects students from ongoing, pervasive discrimination, bias or harassment. Does Tyler’s T-shirt fit that bill?

Probably not. Either way, let’s not let Tyler’s message succeed in pulling us away from the strong, logical foundations protecting the free speech rights that our community also enjoys. Let’s accept that while Tyler’s message is a really hard one for our already-besieged GLBT students to take, it likely will not qualify in the courts as harassment. Out GLBT students are often met with actual hate and harassment incidents – let’s concentrate on those, and don’t let the religious conservatives succeed in distracting us from the real issues. It’s America after all – and Tyler has the right to be a dumb jerk if he wants to be.

With these incidents sprouting up across the country, schools will be increasingly faced with tough T-shirt questions: Are they disruptive, or do they encourage dialogue? As rough as it is to meet with discrimination on a T-shirt in high school, and as confusing and insecure as the high school years can be, perhaps there’s no better time for students to explore their ideas and confront each other with their beliefs head on, through words. Unlike that old “sticks and stones” song, we know that words do hurt – and literally lead to hate crimes in some cases. But let’s not let the T-shirt philosophers and their words distract from the real problems – the hate crimes themselves.

Let’s give Tyler his stupid T-shirt. But let’s also realize that the cost of his free speech is a much dearer one for us than our free speech is for him. His free speech is about exclusivity, while ours is about inclusivity. Our free speech asserts our right to be who we are; his free speech seeks to condemn us and who we are. Nevertheless, we choose the high road of defending any high schooler’s right to free speech, even if he is a dumb jerk.

And, while we’re speaking freely, he is.