Sexism, ageism, and religion in intercultural communication

¶ … hate speech? Research the First Amendment and the right to free speech. Is it legal for students to pass out flyers and T-shirts with anti-gay and lesbian slogans? Is advocating violence against a social group legal?

Hate speech refers to speech whether orally or written, that insults, promotes hatred or violence on a specific group, race, disability, national origin, or gender. Hate speech has been shown to incite violence in individuals, leading to hate crimes with recent crimes directed towards homosexuals. Hate speech often takes the form of propaganda as shown in World War II with the Nazis and protests like the protests of the now infamous Westboro Baptist Church. However, thanks to the First Amendment, the constitution protects the use of hate speech to a certain degree and allows the use of publications and protests with the sole purpose of promoting hatred of groups. Although the government and society frowns upon such actions, people can fight actions taken on hate speech due to First Amendment rights of freedom of speech.

Essentially, the First Amendment or Amendment I within the context of the United States Constitution prohibits the creation of any law respecting a foundation of religion creating impediment of the free exercise of faith, modifying the freedom of speech, overstepping on freedom of the press, or interference with the right to "peaceful" assembly. Nothing that actively incites or promotes violence, however, is covered under the First Amendment. People wishing to participate in peaceful protests or sell merchandise promoting their hateful message is technically legal as long as there is no violent outbreak or active violent behavior transpiring.

Even though in the scenario for the assignment, people sell t-shirts promoting violence against homosexuals, it is not a part of active violence happening immediately thereafter. There are many things that society makes available to people that may generate violent behavior. For example, alcohol is legal in the United States (with age restrictions). Within a given scenario, alcohol could fuel violent behavior. However, it remains legal to consume and sell.

Another important thing to discuss is the fact that the t-shirts and other items are being passed around, they are not making profit from these actions. When people do things regardless of generating profit, they are less likely to be stopped and have a greater legal defense than if they were selling them and making profit from the selling of these items. Realistically speaking however, it does not stop school or people in the area from attempting to stop such behavior. "It sent police to enforce an unconstitutional rule, said that students could not freely distribute literature, placed a waiting period on free speech, produced an artificial scarcity of room for free speech with a tiny 'free speech area,' and limited the number of speakers on campus to two at a time" (Liptak, 2015).