| We can all be happy that Troy mayor Janice Daniels, having put her real estate license in escrow thanks to the backlash over her homophobic ravings (followed by her pronouncement that she's the real victim), apparently has no intention of letting go of her grip on #9 on the state's most odious political figures list. But then this week, Daniels compounded her Facebook faux pas when she met with a group that advocates for gay students at Troy High School to help plan a forum on bullying and tolerance. The students say Daniels suggested including a panel of psychologists who can speak to the "mental disease" that homosexuality represents. Daniels denied that, but acknowledged that she wanted to make sure the teens were made aware of the "higher incidence of disease" among homosexuals.
There's no point in laying out the explanation behind the "higher incidence of disease," is there? It's like pointing out that Detroit's decline and fall weren't linked solely to "liberal Democrat" policies but a complex stew of neglect and regional dysfunction. Once you grab hold of the end product and refuse to think things through to genesis, you're basically a lost cause. Meanwhile... Daniels has a right to her opinions, something she has pointed out several times since the initial flap over her Facebook post. Our First Amendment protects bigoted speech as much as any other kind, and no one has the right to silence another purely for the objectionable nature of what they're saying.
I would like to propose something here. I would like to propose that if Janice Daniels wishes to play part-time mayor of a major Michigan city that she be expected to wear her big-girl panties. The First Amendment protects bigoted speech from prior restraint by the government. It does not, however, protect bigoted speech from mockery and derision. Pretending that she's somehow a victim of her critics in all of this elevates hate speech to special status ... she has a right to embrace it to the point where anyone who responds is worse than she is. |
