(LifeSiteNews) — Double standards between homosexual and heterosexual “pride” may continue to stand in Denver Public Schools (DPS), a federal judge has determined in dismissing a lawsuit by a parent who requested “straight pride” flags be displayed in classrooms.
Colorado Politics reported that the case concerns area father Nathan Feldman’s $3 million lawsuit accusing DPS of discrimination for displaying flags representing “non-binary and non-cisgender students” but refusing a request to put flags representing his two straight, non-gender-confused children.
In 2020, the district had passed an “Inclusion for Our LGBTQIA+ Employees, Students and Community Members” resolution affirming the “right of its employees to post in their classrooms, offices, or halls a rainbow flag or other sign of support for LGBTQIA+ students or staff, because these are symbols consistent with the District’s equity-based curriculum.”
On September 26, U.S. District Court Judge Regina Rodriguez dismissed Feldman’s lawsuit on the grounds that the LGBT flags constituted the school district’s own speech, and as such had no obligation to be paired with opposing views.
“DPS policy reflects careful consideration about what views can be expressed and that any expressions must reflect DPS’s policy of equality and inclusion. Accordingly, the Court finds that DPS has maintained control over the flag displays,” Rodriguez ruled.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Scott Varholak had recommended dismissing the suit the month before, citing a 2022 precedent by former liberal U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer that “when the government speaks for itself, the First Amendment does not demand airtime for all views.”
“Here, DPS selected the Pride Flag, and not Plaintiffs’ Flag, as representing the message that DPS wished to convey,” Varholak wrote in August. “Conversely, there is no allegation that DPS had a history of accepting for display other flags submitted by the public.”
Over the years, a handful of pro-family activists have attempted “straight pride” messages in various forms, such as flags and parades, to challenge the ubiquity of rainbow banners meant to honor homosexuality and transgenderism.
While LGBT advocates assail such efforts as “homophobic,” they pose obvious questions about society’s logical consistency in embracing recognition of homosexual pride while condemning the very concept of heterosexual pride. Straight pride proponents argue that their displays can only be offensive in some way to LGBT Americans if the opposite is also true, and LGBT pride carries some comparable message to which heterosexuals would be right to take offense.
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