Girl suspended for wearing "barbie is Lesbian" shirt

JetPhotos.Net Forum ^ | Reuters

[El Conservador]

NEW YORK (Reuters) -- A New York teenager alleged on Thursday that teachers violated her civil rights when they suspended her from school for wearing a "Barbie is a Lesbian" T-shirt.

Lawyers who filed a lawsuit on her behalf in Manhattan federal court said 14-year-old Natalie Young is openly lesbian and that a teacher laughed at her, calling the garment and its reference to the popular Barbie doll "inappropriate."

Young alleged that the principal held her for three hours in an office at the school in the borough of Queens on April 10, 2002 and refused to allow her to return to class while she wore the T-shirt.

A spokesman for the city education department, a defendant in the lawsuit, declined immediate comment.

Young was suspended for the day and the principal threatened to send her home again if she wore the T-shirt to school in future, the lawsuit alleged.

"Schools cannot legally engage in this type of selective, content-based suppression of speech," lawyer Dan Perez said. "If she had worn a 'Barbie Supports the Troops in the War in Iraq' T-shirt, she would have been called a patriot."

Perez said that on another school day before the T-shirt incident, teachers made Young remove rainbow colored beads from her hair, although she was not suspended then.

The lawsuit, which names the education department, school principal and several teachers as defendants, seeks a declaration from the court that Young's constitutional right to free speech was violated. It asks the department to issue guidelines on students' dress and on dealing with students' expression of their sexual orientation.

The lawsuit, which was filed in the name of the student's mother, Kathleen Hodges, because Young is a minor, also seeks unspecified monetary damages.

"That is not the most important issue here but if a jury decides to contribute to Natalie's college fund, all the better," Perez said.

[El Conservador]

14 years old and already a lesbian? Something doesn't seem right in this story...

[dts32041]

Hey she learned it in school and it has to be correct.

[Tijeras_Slim]

Of course Barbie's a lesbian. Jeez... everybody knows Ken's as queer as a three dollar bill.

[Brad C.]

C'mon, you have to know by now it is a genetic thing, something you are born with and have to work with your entire life.

That said, there is a simple solution. School uniforms.

[c-b 1]

"Schools cannot legally engage in this type of selective, content-based suppression of speech,"

I am sure that would also be the case if there were a Christian message on the shirt, NOT.

[lilylangtree]

Ken is a sexual predator and Barbie is a lesbian = Bubba is a sexual predator and Hitlery is queer

[Yeti]

14 years old and already a lesbian?

Mom's raising her that way, maybe? I notice Dad wasn't mentioned, but the lawsuit is in the mother's name.

[7 x 77]

Barbies hair is too long, and she's generally just too good looking to be a Lesbian.

[ChemistCat]

I don't think t-shirts with sexual content on them is appropriate in K-12 school for anybody. And the teacher who laughed--well, gosh. Isn't that what people wearing goofy t-shirts are after anyway?

I wish I could tell her: Save it for later! You have plenty of time to be sexual, one way or another, later, but you're only a young teenager once. Swim. Ride horses. Read good books. Learn how to cook. Learn how to change oil in a car. Volunteer at a hospital, a vet clinic, the animal shelter. What's between your legs doesn't have to rule your life now (or ever) if you are willing to apply yourself to something else while you still have a free roof over your head and someone else worrying about your health care costs.

Why such a hurry to put a marginalizing label on yourself before you're even old enough to consent to having any kind of sex with anybody?

[joanil]

And all of this stuff was so innocent back in the late 60's/early 70's.
Alas.

[putupon]

ROFL

[upchuck]

Seems to me this 14 yo GIRL is yelling, "Look at me, I'm a queer!!!" just a little too loudly.

I wonder how old she was when she decided she wuz gonna be a gueer? Whatta think? 5, 7, 10?

[secret garden]

That is excellent advice.

[AlaskaErik]

In this day and age I'm surprised she wasn't made student of the year. I'd expect nothing less from those who run our socialist indoctrination centers.

[Bullish]

Ken is a faggot allright.

[ChemistCat]

It's a plea for attention, a different kind of suicide attempt, that's all. Acting out.

If someone under 19 declares that she or he is gay, I flat-out don't believe it. If it becomes fact over time, that may be as much from the pressure to live by a decision as from any biological reality. Between 14 and about 25 the brain is just programmed to respond to sexual stimulation and doesn't much filter where it comes from. Any sexual image or literature is going to have a huge effect. The relentless quest for friction isn't particularly well-guided at that age unless some external control is applied. That's why teen boys so often flirt with gay behavior, then settle down to be perfectly straight. Between those ages the source of stimulation/friction hasn't narrowed down to anything you could specifically call "orientation." That's something that takes some years.

It's a huge argument for trying to limit the sexual stimulaton this society imposes on youngsters. Brains of this age are over-sensitive to it. If they are thinking about it on the average one out of every ten waking minutes, all on their own, without outside help, that leaves nine minutes tops for other activities. If they aren't planning on a career in the sex industry, perhaps they should be spending that nine minutes on things that relate to the other 95% of what they need to know how to do to be an adult!

Yes, I believe that gay adults are neurologically different from straight adults. That's proven by autopsies and CAT scans. I just don't believe that the still-elastic brain of a teenager settles on the matter as early as many people seem to think.

I'm not saying that girls can't be more "masculine" in interests and behavior...but let's not mistake a tomboy for a lesbian. Perhaps she's making that mistake here about herself. If she liked trucks as a tot and likes wargaming as a teenager, that doesn't mean she has to eschew normal marriage and pregnancy later.

[dfwgator]

Barbies hair is too long, and she's generally just too good looking to be a Lesbian.

Perhaps she is a LUG - Lesbian Until Graduation.

[upchuck]

What you said!!

[SMEDLEYBUTLER]

lesbian Barbie

[SuziQ]

Yes, I believe that gay adults are neurologically different from straight adults. That's proven by autopsies and CAT scans.

I don't anything has been PROVEN. There have been inferences from some autopsies, but no one is sure whether the changes were the cause of the homosexual behavior, or a result of long time homosexual behavior.