U.S. Supreme Court asked to review case of ‘Two Genders’ shirt

MIDDLEBORO — The U.S. Supreme Court has been asked to review and rule on the case of a Middleboro middle school student who was asked to remove a T-shirt bearing the words “There Are Only Two Genders.’’

In reaching out to the nation’s top court, attorneys from Alliance Defending Freedom, who represent the student, argued that preventing him from wearing the shirt violated his First Amendment rights. 

The case, which has attracted international attention, involves Liam Morrison, who wore a shirt to school March 21, 2023 with the words “There are Only Two Genders.’’ Morrison was 12 years old and a Nichols Middle School seventh grader when he wore the shirt. 

He was asked to remove the shirt, and, when he refused, was taken home by a parent. He later wore a shirt that said “There Are Only (Censored) Genders,’’ which he was also asked to remove. 

Morrison’s father and stepmother, Chris Morrison and Susan Morrison, subsequently filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court for Massachusetts. 

“This isn’t about a shirt,’’ Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys wrote in a fact sheet on the case. “It’s about a public school telling a seventh grader that he can’t wear a shirt with a message that’s important to him.’’

The district court sided with the school, citing case law that argued that a school does not have to tolerate speech that “is inconsistent with its basic educational mission, even though the government could not censor similar speech outside the school.’’

The decision also stated that “school administrators were well within their rights to conclude that the statement There Are Only Two Genders may communicate that only two gender identities— male and female— are valid, and any others are invalid or inconsistent’’ and that students “have a right to attend school without being confronted by messages attacking their identities.’’

This decision was appealed to the United States First Circuit Court of Appeals, which upheld the lower court’s decision. The court ruled it “cannot say the message, on its face, shows Middleboro acted unreasonably in concluding that the shirt would be understood…. to demean the identity of transgender and gender-nonconforming’’ Nichols Middle School students. 

Attorneys from Alliance for Defending Freedom view the situation differently.

“Students don’t lose their free speech rights the moment they walk into a school building,” said Alliance for Defending Freedom Senior Counsel and Vice President of U.S. Litigation David Cortman. 

In requesting that the Supreme Court review the case, attorneys representing Liam Morrison said the case presents a question: “Whether school officials may presume substantial disruption or violation of the rights of others from a student’s silent, passive and untargeted ideological speech simply because that speech relates to matters of personal identity, even when the speech responds to the school’s opposing views, actions or policies.’’

Superintendent of Schools Carolyn Lyons was cited in the original lawsuit, along with Heather Tucker, then Acting Principal of Nichols Middle School. 

In a public discussion of the shirt issue at a 2023 school committee meeting, Lyons said that “the dividing line for me as this district’s leader is when all students are not protected, when all students are not accepted for who they are and are told, either directly or indirectly, that they don’t belong here in Middleboro.’’

Lyons said this week that she could not comment on the latest developments because they involve ongoing litigation.