they need. tom, to some degree, though, aren t gay and lesbian kids coming out at younger and younger ages in schools today? isn t it important to create a safe place for them, a place where they feel comfortable and good about themselves rather than making them feel bad about themselves? studies have shown in minnesota that large numbers of kids are insecure with their sexual identity and when you begin promoting, encouraging and endorsing it, more kids are going to say, hey i m gay and lesbian you re using the buzz words like promoting and endorsing and encouraging. i mean, what about just, you know, talking about what is real? i mean, you make it sound as if there are gay kids and they re going to be gay kids whether you like it or not. isn t the question how do we make them feel okay about themselves and how do we make them feel safe and want to be able to go to school and get an equal education rather than, we re not about force it s not about forcing it down
this is the idea these purporting. but what kind of threat would it be to gay teachers possibly being hired in a public school system? your thoughts? i would say this would be a huge threat to public education. i mean to go through the ranks of teachers and to scare teachers who are single women who are gay, who are lesbian with this kind of investigation and firing. i mean this would devastate public education. i mean, it would destroy many of our public schools. i mean, even the teachers that aren t gay, who are married, to see their colleagues brought up on these charges in a witch hunt. i mean, if you want maybe his real agenda is to destroy public education. i mean, if you look at where the agenda goes, gutting schools, vouchers, i mean, they are looking at destroying public education. do you believe that? you are on the education committee. do you believe that the republicans are trying to privatize education in this country across-the-board? many of them are, not all, an
interview with mike cox, how would you feel sitting there as a gay person or someone who respects gay rights, which includes a lot of people who aren t gay, and see this guy representing the state of michigan? because he s not a private lawyer. he is up there representing the entire state of michigan. and i think many people in the employer position, in mike cox s position, would say of course he can t represent the state of michigan because people who express those kind of hateful sentiments are not representative of my office or of the state. professor turley, what do you make of this? you re a big defender of the first amendment. well, first of all, i think that jeff is right about the trend that there certainly is more and more upheld restrictions on the free speech of public employees. on my blog i ve actually detailed a lot of these cases involving police officers, teachers, a great variety of public employees. in fairness to mr. cox, there is
interview with mike cox, how would you feel sitting there as a gay person or someone who respects gay rights, which includes a lot of people who aren t gay, and see this guy representing the state of michigan? because he s not a private lawyer. he is up there representing the entire state of michigan. and i think many people in the employer position, in mike cox s position, would say, of course, he can t represent the state of michigan because people who express those kind of hateful sentiments are not representative of my office or of the state. professor turley, what do you make of this? you re a big defender of the first amendment. well, first of all, i think that jeff is right about the trend that there certainly is more and more upheld restrictions on the free speech of public employees. on my blog i ve actually detailed a lot of these cases involving police officers, teachers, a great variety of public employees. in fairness to mr. cox, there is a legitimate free speech issue
with his work. and as you pointed out in your interview with mike cox, how would you feel sitting there as a gay person or someone who respects gay rights, which includes a lot of people who aren t gay, and see this guy representing the state of michigan? because he s not a private lawyer. he is up there representing the entire state of michigan. and i think many people in the employer position, in mike cox s position, would say of course he can t represent the state of michigan because people who express those kind of hateful sentiments are not representative of my office or of the state. professor turley, what do you make of this? you re a big defender of the first amendment. well, first of all, i think that jeff is right about the trend that there certainly is more and more upheld restrictions on the free speech of public employees. on my blog i ve actually detailed a lot of these cases involving police officers, teachers, a great variety of public employees.