College sued over speech against gay marriage

Student says professor at L.A. Community College cut him off


A college student in Los Angeles recently filed suit against his college professor at the Los Angeles Community College District they both attended. Jonathon Lopez is sueing his professor for being breated in class because he had made a speech in class in regards to his decisions on opposing same sex marriage. Lopez said halfway through his speech once he started quoteing the bible about marriage, professor John Matteson cut him off while calling Lopez a 'fascist bastard.' Appearently multiple students were also offended by this speech and quoted saying "this student should have to pay some price for preaching hate in the classroom." Lopez also made this speech in November right after the bill for banning gay marriages in California was passed.

My personal view on this issue is that I beleive it was a little wrong for Jonathon Lopez and John Matteson to both act the way they did. Everybody has different views, morals, and beleifs. and all the time people make speeches about fighting for gay marriages. But it's only when theres an opposite approach that people get upset. Professor Matteson should't have blown up and called Lopez names, but it was rude of Lopez to make such a statement when even people in the classroom were getting upset.

The problem is, we have freedom of speech in this country and not everyone wants to go by that. I didn’t hear the speech but I’m sure this young man wanted a good grade and wasn’t shouting obscenities or pointing fingers at anyone, especially if he was using the Bible. However, his mistake might have been that he did not capture his audience first by telling them that God loves all human beings, regardless of race or gender. I think that maybe he went about it in a wrong way. I have given speeches in class, which might have been considered controversial and I also used the Bible, but I was careful to try and capture the audience first by relating to them. I also had a very good instructor, Jeffrey Sorrels at Delta, who spoke to us about if we did not agree with the subject matter not shouting obscenities. I also believe that the professor in the article acted in an unprofessional manner and should be spoken to by the school. So I do agree that they both may have acted wrong, but I sure would like to hear that speech to judge for myself.

That is a very interesting problem. It kind of reminds me of something like the KKK. Everyone has their right to their own opinion and there’s really nothing that can change that but any situation dealing with equal rights issues have a similar problem. If someone is giving a speech about equal rights and how everyone deserves to have equal rights then it is not hurting anyone where on the opposite side to that, the Lopez guy and people that are not for equal rights tend to give hurtful and degrading speeches. There’s no way around being hurtful and degrading if your against equal rights!

I believe that neither Jonathon Lopez nor John Matteson handled the situation in the right order. Technically it is freedom of speech and Lopez can say what he wants to say but if the professor wants to cut him off he should be able to cut him off. John although probably should not have cut him off the way he did. In my own opinion I do think that Lopez should have been able to continue with his speech. It is his own opinion and no one has to agree with it if they don’t want to. If they really felt that bad about the speech they could have wrote one about why they agree with same sex marriages. Either way I don’t think there needs to be a law suit and both men didn’t deal with the situation correctly.

As a professor if you give someone a speech and an array of topics to choose from you should be expecting someone to pick a topic that is going to be some sort of an issue for others in the classroom. Like Pam said I didn't read the speech that the boy said, but I can't see him making the speech really obscene. He knew he was giving it in a classroom environment so that probably swayed the way he wrote his speech. If he did use harsh language then and only then I think the teacher should have shut him down, but not in the manner that he did. It was definately not necassary for the professor to speak to him in the way that he did. No matter where you are people will have there own views, and other people have to understand that.

Both Lopez and Matteson acted out because of their own beliefs. Some people believe that gay marriage should be banned and others believe that it should be considered as normal as one man one woman marriage. Opinions can anger everyone but it sounds like both of them took it a little too far. This is why everyone has their OWN opinion…you don’t always have to believe what others think about a certain topic. I think that Lopez should be sued because what he said towards Matteson was wrong. He is more than welcome to think that to himself but if you say something like that to another person then they are going to come back with something that could be worse. Matteson did have the right to say what he believed but out of respect for others he should have kept it to himself. He had to have known that if he stated his opinion on gay marriage then there were going to be some upset students and professors.

My personal opinion is that the professor should be reprimanded if the situation was as it is portrayed in the news article. If the speech was offensive, then it should have been made into a teachable moment. It would have been a good time to talk about how to persuade an audience whose beliefs may be different than their own and a chance to respectfully disagree. Also, it is a great time to discuss if the Bible should be considered an valid source when making arguments in an academic setting. Granted, I know not every situation can be made into a mature discussion. Gay marriage is a touchy subject, especially when religion is thrown into the mix. But I think the most important thing is that the professor not push his or her own agenda in these situations. While I believe in promoting gay rights, I wouldn't want to alienate my students whose religion may cause them to be against gay marriage.