Homophobic = Hate Speech?
Is opposing same-sex marriage 'hate speech'?
Suit claims 'family values' not 'homophobic'

March 18, 2004

A U.S. District court ruled two employees of Oakland can go forward in their case against city supervisors after they were barred from advertising an informal group that respects "the natural family, marriage and family values."

The city contended the bulletin-board flyer was "homophobic," although it makes no mention of homosexuality.

The case is significant, because a decision against the employees could result in silencing debate about homosexuality and related issues in the state of California, says Richard Ackerman, whose public-interest law firm is representing the two women. "The court bordered on saying references to 'family values' could be hate speech if it were to be proved those words were disruptive," Ackerman said.

"If we are silenced on the issue of speaking out against same sex marriage, it's all over," said Ackerman of Lively and Ackerman. Regina Rederford and Robin Christy filed the suit in U.S. District Court in Oakland last July against the city of Oakland and two city supervisors who enforced a policy they insist is unconstitutional. The judge dismissed claims against the city of Oakland but allowed the claims to proceed against the supervisors, Joyce Hicks, deputy director of the Community and Economic Development Agency, and then-City Manager Robert Bobb.

On an employee bulletin board where a variety of political and sexually oriented causes are promoted, Rederford posted a flyer Jan. 3, 2003, titled, "Preserve Our Workplace With Integrity." The entire text said:

Good News Employee Associations is a forum for people of Faith to express their views on the contemporary issues of the day. With respect for the Natural Family, Marriage and Family values. If you would like to be a part of preserving integrity in the Workplace call Regina Rederford @xxx-xxxx or Robin Christy @xxx-xxxx

The flyer was removed the same day, however, by order of Hicks. In a Feb. 20 memo announcing a newly revised workplace anti-discrimination policy, Hicks noted recent incidents of employees "inappropriately posting materials" in violation of that policy. "Specifically," she wrote, "flyers were placed in public view which contained statements of a homophobic nature and were determined to promote sexual orientation-based harassment."

While a ruling against Rederford and Christy might restrict debate about homosexuality, a decision in their favor could set a precedent that would overturn anti-discrimination policies in the state.  Ackerman's firm said that could happen if the judge approaches this case as a contest between the First Amendment and the anti-discrimination policy.

"This is one of the cleanest examples of blatant free-speech discrimination that I've ever seen – the fact that the city actually acknowledged that they were discriminating, based on content, in their own memo," said attorney Scott Lively.

The state of California and many local jurisdictions have added sexual orientation as a protected category in areas such as housing and employment laws and school policies.

"Citizens should retain the right to criticize alternative sexual lifestyles without fear of retaliation or retribution," Lively contends.

The complaint charges Hicks and Bobb violated their clients' constitutional right to "to pray, associate, communicate religious ideas, and worship" according to the U.S. Constitution and the laws and regulations of the city of Oakland.

It just goes on and on.

Opinion:  What's to debate?  Gay/lesbian people are the same as you and I regardless of some peoples paranoia/belief that gay/lesbian lifestyles are/will destroy the world if they are allowed to marry,  or because it is against the Christian Gods word. (Which god, by the way,  will be used for the criteria of this particular witch hunt?)  Does Buddha have this belief of persecuting homosexuals?  How about Aphrodite? Zeus?  or Horus, or Ra, or Shu?   How about some Chinese gods if these don't fit your religious paranoias...Hou-chi, or Lei-Kung..heh..this one really fits - he is the Chinese god of retribution and thunder. Or Eros, the god of love of both heterosexual and homosexual.   Hey, how about American Indian gods?  Ockabewis, teacher of mankind.  Perhaps Ockabewis could teach mankind there is nothing to fear from gays and lesbians being legally married couples receiving the same benefits a hetero-couple receives.

The right to criticize a group of peoples lifestyles is one thing, to make laws discriminating against a certain group of people based on a persons love of another person of the same sex or based on an individual's religious beliefs is another. Gay couples and Lesbian couples that wish to be married and live the rest of their lives together as a couple deserve the same rights that heterosexuals couples receive if they live as husband and wife under a legal and binding contract when married.   I only see debating and hating..going on in the so-called Christian world, and amongst ignorant and homophobic individuals.

Voice of Freedom does not agree with the content of the speech in this story, but at the same time we believe all speech should be protected, whether we like the speech or not. If you do not have free speech, how will you know who the assholes of the world are, if you don't let them tell you!