Valedictorian v. Graduation Speaker

You assignment is to compare and contracts these two graduation speakers…

The first speaker is from Florida.

A Florida class president couldn’t discuss being gay in high school graduation speech – so he talked about his curly hair
CNN
By David Williams
May 25, 2022


The class president at a Florida high school says he wasn’t allowed to share his experience as a gay student in his graduation speech or how the state’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay” law will affect students like him, so he talked about something else that makes him a little different from his classmates – his curly hair.

Zander Moricz, 18, has been active in social justice causes as a student at Pine View School in Osprey, Florida, and led a student walkout in March to protest the controversial measure that bans certain teachings about sexual orientation and gender identity in schools and goes into effect in July. He’s also one of the plaintiffs in a lawsuit challenging the law.

Moricz told CNN that a few weeks before graduation, the school’s principal met with him and told him he couldn’t talk about that issue.

“He’d always been very supportive of me and my identity and I was really hurt,” he said.

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Now this speech in Ohio.

'Hateful' anti-LGBTQ graduation speech at Ohio high school sparks outrage
"When he made the comment that marriage should only be between a man and a woman, my jaw dropped to the floor,” one alumna said.
NBC News
By Jay Valle
June 4, 2022


A high school graduation speech telling students to “choose a spouse” based on “biblical principles”  is sparking outrage online.

“Choose a spouse, I suggest,” alumnus Jim McGuire said in a commencement address at River Valley High School in Caledonia, Ohio. “I also strongly suggest to make sure to choose biblical principles, you know a male with a female and female with a male.”

Caledonia, about an hour north of Columbus, had a population of 560 in the 2020 census.

Since the speech last week, McGuire’s remarks have been called “hateful” and “inappropriate.”

Alexis Osipow, a 2018 River Valley graduate who was at the ceremony to support her younger sister, told the local newspaper, the Marion Star, “When he made the comment that marriage should only be between a man and a woman, my jaw dropped to the floor, and I honestly thought I was hearing it wrong.” 

“I had to look around and see if other people were having the same reaction that I was, and they were,” she continued. “I felt like crying when I heard some people in the crowd clapping. But I was absolutely outraged and so were my parents and brother. I heard people behind me whispering about how inappropriate the comment was as well.”

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What do you think?

Do you think that the “Don’t Say Gay” violates the First Amendment?

Do you think that if the business man was told not to talk about marriage equality would  violates the First Amendment?

Do you think that it is appropriate to talk about LGBTQ+ issues during graduation ceremonies?

I think there is a time and place for everything including at graduation speeches, I think it is the wrong place to bring it up. Call me old fashion but I think graduation speeches should be about looking forward. About hope.

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