Student who called lesbians ‘perverse’ continues legal battle against university
A student who described lesbians as “perverse” in an essay continues to attempt legal action claiming she has been ostracised by professors.
Monico Pompeo has filed an appeal to the 10th US Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver.
A hearing is set for next month.
She claims the University of New Mexico, at which she was a student, violated her First Amendment right to free speech and that she was kicked out of class in 2012.
Pompeo says the action was taken in 2012 after she described lesbianism as “perverse”, in an essay about a film about a lesbian romance.
According to the Albuquerque Journal, Pompeo alleges that her teacher’s actions violated the syllabus of the class which called for “open minds” to look at “representations of a plethora of genders and sexualities.”
Pompeo claims she was accused of employing “hate speech”, and in 2013 filed a lawsuit which gained attention across the US.
After initially finding that Pompeo had a plausible case for her lawsuit last year, Chief US District Judge M Christina Armijo later found that the student had been given several opportunities to rewrite her essay.
The judge found after investigtion that Pompeo had had explained to her that she had not backed up her opinion that lesbianism is “perverse” with critical analysis.
Judge Armijo also found that communication attempts were made by the professor in question and her boss to get Pompeo to re-write the essay, and that taking such action was within the realm of teaching.
