Family Research Council reports through their Washington Update (you can sign up to receive your own daily e-mail edition right here) on a couple of very, very disturbing assaults on free speech. They are just two examples of many showing how far reaching is the intolerance of the homosexual movement. What's next, removing Romans 1 from hotel drawer Bibles?1) Almost a month after her editorial on homosexuality appeared in the Toledo Free Press, Crystal Dixon was fired from her job as an associate vice president at the University of Toledo. Just days ago, Dixon had written FRC to tell us how grateful she was that we ran her story. "I simply want to thank you for calling for support via your e-mail list for my case. I am... currently... awaiting the President's decision in my exercising of my right to free speech as I spoke out for traditional marriage and opposed homosexuality."
Dixon, an African-American who objected to a column that compared the gay rights movement to the civil rights movement, asked the paper to print her response. The Free Press agreed, triggering an explosive reaction from university officials that resulted in Dixon's suspension. A couple of weeks and hundreds of protest emails later, the University has formally terminated her--though UT spokesmen are declining to confirm or explain it.
Dixon is planning a press conference for Wednesday at 6 p.m. Her attorneys, members of the Thomas More Law Center, say there is no basis for the firing, which they call "improper and potentially illegal." As a private citizen, Dixon was well within her rights to voice her opinion on social issues regardless of how those views may be perceived by the University. Despite what UT President Lloyd Jacobs believes, Christians have just as much right to air their opinions as liberal secularists. And when they do, the U.S. Constitution is there to ensure that they are fully protected.
2) In Canada, the government is having a similar debate over free speech after EGALE (Equality for Gays and Lesbians Everywhere) started lobbying the country to censor mail that may be "homophobic." In a letter to the president and CEO of Canada Post, EGALE implies that the postal system is helping to spread a message of hate by delivering materials that may be anti-homosexual.
However, even past members of the organization are coming forward to say that EGALE is overstepping its bounds by asking the government to enter an unprecedented era of postal censorship. Gilles Marchildon, a former executive director, says, "... I'm personally not comfortable with [the idea]... The danger, of course, is that once you advocate in favor of curbing freedom of expression, where does it stop and who's going to decide where the line gets drawn?"
It would also constitute an incredible invasion of privacy by a government agency. If Canadians empower the government to screen their mail, they have surrendered their most fundamental liberty. Yet this is how far the "thought police" are willing to go to suppress the opinions of anyone who opposes the homosexual lifestyle.
