Right to anti-gay T-shirt upheld

LOS ANGELES – A school district was accused Wednesday of violating the civil rights of a student who was suspended for wearing a T-shirt saying “Homosexuality is Shameful.”

The federal lawsuit against Poway Unified School District claims Tyler Chase Harper, 16, was suspended for expressing his religious beliefs during the “Day of Silence” on April 21.

During the national event, high school and college students were urged to remain silent to show support for homosexuals, bisexuals and trans-gender students.

Sharon Raffer, a spokeswoman for the district, declined to comment.

“When are public school officials going to learn they are not allowed to silence constitutionally protected student speech just because they disagree with the student?” said Robert Tyler, a lawyer with the Alliance Defense Fund, which filed the suit.

Harper is a Christian who believes “homosexual behavior is immoral, damaging to the practitioners and to human society in general, and is demonstrably contrary to the teachings of the Bible,” the lawsuit says.