Wow, what a day this has been! When the news of this decision broke this morning, the combined speech/forensics and GLBT communities swung into action. We called, we emailed, we organized, we communicated, locally and around the world -- and we got something very important accomplished in protecting not only this students freedom of speech, but also our rights to be recognized as free and equal citizens -- not the subjects of some agenda, but as human beings of equal value. When Rhonda Blanford-Green, executive director of the Nebraska School Activities Association, said people could have perceived that the NSAA endorsed the speech [poems] content and it would invite controversy, what she revealed was that she and/or her organization have an agenda to suppress anything that might speak to equal rights for GLBT people. No matter what her/their reasoning, it was censorship, plain and simple, and a violation of the students freedom of speech. Their reversal of the earlier decision was the only logical and legal outcome. Even if the decision was a matter of self-censorship by the organization in order to avoid controversy, they still must be held responsible for their decisions and the climate that led to them. Their actions were a disservice to the educational and school activities communities. I am very proud of our combined communities today. Activists were born, a new network of allies was established, and most importantly, we protected the rights of a young citizen to present an artistic work as he sees fit. I cant even imagine how today will change his young life. As a theatre artist who is especially interested in presenting works that might be considered edgy by some, protection of these rights is of special interest to me. As awful as today started out, it appears to me that as it ends, those rights are a little more secure in Nebraska -- at least for a little while.
Posted on: Thu, 03 Apr 2014 00:36:12 +0000
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