A US federal court has granted permission for a teenager to wear a T-shirt with the slogan “Be Happy, Not Gay” during a Christian day of action on Monday held in response to a gay rights protest.
The high school in Neuqua Valley, Illinois, had banned student Alexander Neuxoll from wearing the T-shirt in class on Monday, when a Christian group is organizing a “Day of Truth” to show its opposition to homosexuality.
The day is in response to a “Day of Silence” that has taken place in schools and colleges across the US since 1996 to call for more tolerance for gay people.
This year’s “Day of Silence” was planned for yesterday.
The school, while stressing its neutrality, barred Neuxoll from wearing a T-shirt saying “Be Happy, Not Gay” on Monday on the grounds that it was insulting.
The judges said Neuxoll’s T-shirt slogan was only “tepidly negative” and it was “highly speculative” that wearing it would “poison the educational atmosphere,” ruling that he should be allowed to wear it.