Poster Wars
When Is Speech Offensive?
Miriam Schulman
Mary lives in a college dorm and displays a poster on her door with the text of California Proposition 8: “Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.” She supported the successful “Yes on 8” campaign. A constitutional challenge to the proposition is now working its way through the courts, and Mary is involved in the effort to prevent the proposition from being declared unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court.
James, her dorm neighbor, finds this poster offensive and demands Mary take it down. He worked to defeat the measure, which he feels is homophobic and discriminatory. To Mary, the poster is an expression of her beliefs and identity, and she does not think she should have to remove it.
What should happen now?
Here are some resources from different perspectives that might help you decide:
A Framework for Ethical Decision Making
Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE)
Responding to Bigotry and Intergroup Strife on Campus: Anti-Defamation League
Photo by Dana Rocks available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial License.