The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit upheld a middle school ban of the “There are Only Two Genders” t-shirt because words are violence!In March 2023, the Nicholas Middle School in Middleborough, MA, told seventh-grade student Liam Morrison to change his “There are Only Two Genders” t-shirt or leave school.
Clothing must not state, imply, or depict hate speech or imagery that target groups based on race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, religious affiliation, or any other classification. Well, guess what! The world has equated the two now so, yeah, Morrison is correct! I noticed the First Circuit latching onto the times when Morrison admitted or did not dispute anything similar to the defense, using it as an excuse to say the school did not violate the First Amendment.
We agree with the District Court and so cannot say the message, on its face, shows Middleborough acted unreasonably in concluding that the Shirt would be understood — in this middleschool setting in which the children range from ten-to-fourteen years old — to demean the identity of transgender and gendernonconforming NMS students.