I became an anti-censorship activist in 1989, when Helms and company began their attacks on the National Endowment for the Arts. I became Co-Chair of the Political Issues Committee in the spring of 1992, and Chair the following autumn. When I began this work, I expected to spend the bulk of my time fighting Jesse Helms, Donald Wildmon, Pat Buchanan, James Dobson, Paul Weyrich, Tim and Beverly LaHaye, and the other ogres of the theocratic right. And I have spent much time doing that. But I have also spent a depressing amount of time fighting for free speech on college campuses, and in a depressing number of these cases I have had to fight the students themselves.
Freedom of speech is in terrible shape on our campuses.
I wish a few people would wake up before it is too late. Also, on a more personal note, I'd like to say that as a gay man I find campus speech codes incredibly offensive and demeaning. It saddens me whenever I hear of a sexual- minority person or organization advocating censorship because of the misguided belief that censorship could benefit us. Delgado authored the absurd speech code at the University of Michigan that, thankfully, was struck down on First Amendment grounds by the courts. A quote from my article was picked up by Marcia Pally, founder of Feminists for Free Expression, and quoted in her terrific book, Sex and Sensibility .