College is often a time when people are exposed to new ideas and experiences. This is all a part of the college experience. Moments of exposure like this provide people with opportunities for growth and development.

On Feb. 28, the organization of H.O.M.E., the Heterosexuals Organized for a Moral Environment, will be on campus. This organization is an anti-LGBTQ group that aims to build a case and argue that homosexuality is morally wrong.  

This group has visited the ECC many times in the past. They spend their time on campus sitting at a table in building B arguing and discussing with students why they think homosexuality is wrong. These debates can get very heated and it’s no wonder why many students and faculty despise their presence on our campus. Some people cannot seem to understand why this offensive organization is allowed to come and spread their message on our campus to our students.

The answer to that is, of course, the first amendment to the U.S. Constitution. ECC is a public institution, that means that ECC cannot legally deny anyone from speaking and spreading their ideas on campus as long as they follow the campus rules and don’t disrupt the school’s operations.

This still doesn’t seem right to some people. After all, H.O.M.E. goes against what a lot of people, including myself, believe in. They argue that homosexuality is not only wrong but that it is actually harmful to society. It’s hard not to get upset when words like that are being said in a hallway on a campus where it is supposed to be a welcoming and open environment for students to feel safe in. But free speech does not mean that everything anyone says will be something you agree with.

Free speech is a fundamental part of democracy. It gives the people of this country a great power that we sometimes take for granted. As long as someone’s speech does not pose a clear and present danger to someone else then they have the right to say whatever they want. Free speech allows individuals to voice their opinions without legal repercussions and with groups and individuals like H.O.M.E., those opinions can sometimes be full of some offensive language. But ECC cannot deny them their right to come onto our campus and attempt to spread their message.

If someone wants to stand on a street corner and yell out racial slurs or homophobic remarks, they have the right to do that. If the government or ECC began to try to regulate who can say what to protect individuals against speech that they deem offensive to themselves then that is a slippery slope that we should not begin to go down. At first, it seems like it would be a positive thing to stop people from spewing out words that they want to use to hurt some individuals and anger others, but what is to stop the regulating from going further beyond just the hateful words. Once we begin to limit one type of free speech we limit it as a whole.

This begs the question, what do you do when someone is using their right to free speech to put down others? You can, of course, stand up to them and add fuel to the fire by responding to them and yelling something back. But that is often exactly what they want. They want to argue and anger people. By even responding to them you are giving them what they want. That is why the best response is often the simplest one, you ignore them all together. Free speech means that you have the right to speak your opinion, it does not mean that anyone has to listen to you. The best way to deal with a situation like this is to simply not engage in an argument and keep on with your day. If there is no one to hear the offensive words that someone says then it’s almost like they were never said to begin with.

The limitation of free speech is a complicated topic that lawyers and professionals have been pondering for a very long time. There never seems to be a right answer to difficult situations like this, but there are many wrong answers. The idea of limiting the speech of certain individuals because their opinion is not agreeable is definitely the wrong answer. That is why it is important and necessary to allow the H.O.M.E. onto our campus even if it isn’t with open arms.