So, taunting someone about religion is perfectly OK, but taunting someone about sexuality is hate speech?
When a few classmates razzed Rebekah Rice about her Mormon upbringing with questions such as, "Do you have 10 moms?" she shot back: "That's so gay."
Those three words landed the high school freshman in the principal's office and resulted in a lawsuit that raises this question: When do playground insults used every day all over America cross the line into hate speech that must be stamped out?
After Rice got a warning and a notation in her file, her parents sued, claiming officials at Santa Rosa's Maria Carillo High violated their daughter's First Amendment rights when they disciplined her for uttering a phrase "which enjoys widespread currency in youth culture," according to court documents.
It's ridiculous to punish a razzer who was merely razzing back after having been razzed, especially when it was a fairly clever retort. I mean, having more than one mom is so gay, is it not? I would accuse all these hate-speech-seeking, quick-to-take-offense people of havinhg completely lost their perspective, but such judgmentalism would be so Mormon of me.
