Controlled Speech: Good or Bad?

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Recommended: The effects and importance of freedom of speech

Imagine a world where people are persecuted for being straight. This is how the LGBTQ community feels everyday. Some people support their sexual orientation, while others deny it, often in extreme ways. Many years ago, an amendment was put in place protecting the freedom of U.S. citizens’ speech. This essentially means that if you are a citizen of the United States of America, you are able to say what you want, when you want. It also gives the press the right to report on what they want with little-to-no regulation. While being a great advantage of living in the United States, it also has it’s disadvantages. With a relatively large population of LGBTQ people in the United States, there is also an incredible amount of hate against them. The hate is primarily through verbal abuse, however there have been multiple recorded events of physical abuse (even fatal.) These people verbally abusing the LGBTQ community are protected by their freedom of speech. Therefore, the freedom of speech laws should be revised to control this abuse.
Organized groups, such as churches abuse their freedom of speech. One so-called “church,” the Westboro Baptist Church is a church that preaches the fact that every disaster, whether it’s the December 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, which they protested according to the Huffington Post or the death of a gay war veteran. It is god punishing citizens of the U.S. for legalizing gay marriage or supporting the LGBT community. They go to every event that has almost nothing to do with gay marriage, and protest some unconnected ideology that we should stop supporting gays, and/or gay marriage. According to the Huffington Post, they even went to a concert by pop singer Lorde and protested, however they were...

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...long run it will solve many of our country-wide affairs. It will also help minorities in our society such as those of the LGBTQ community be better respected and feel confident in who they are.

Works Cited

1. Sieczkowski, Cavan. "Group Counters Westboro Baptist Church's Lorde Protest With A Message Of Love." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 24 Mar. 2014. Web. 29 Apr. 2014.

2. “Legally recognize Westboro Baptist Church as a hate group.” WhiteHouse.org. 14 Dec. 2012. Web. 29 Apr. 2014

3. Grenoble, Ryan. "Amanda Todd: Bullied Canadian Teen Commits Suicide After Prolonged Battle Online And In School." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 11 Oct. 2012. Web. 28 Apr. 2014.

4. Sieczkowski, Cavan. "Westboro Baptist Church Newtown Funeral Protest Thwarted By Good Samaritans." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 19 Dec. 2012. Web. 29 Apr. 2014.

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