“I’m being dead serious,” the man says, “if a biological male comes up to me who says he’s a woman, and I say’sir,’ and he gets offended, is that a citable offense?
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This is the sort of thing we expect out of the U.K. or other censorship-loving European nations. It’s not something we expect out of the great state of Texas. In Fort Worth, police supervising an ‘all-ages Pride event’ warned street preachers they could be ‘cited’ if someone is offended by their speech.
In body cam footage, the police are seen speaking to a street preacher at the event.
“I’m being dead serious,” the man says, “if a biological male comes up to me who says he’s a woman, and I say ‘sir,’ and he gets offended, is that a citable offense? I call a biological male a male and he says ‘I’m offended,’ … is that a citable offense, if he’s offended by that speech?”
“We’re talking a gray area right now,” the officer replies. “We’re not talking about earlier … that’s a vague charge.”
“I’m genuinely curious,” the man interjects.
“I don’t believe I would cite that for offensive language,” the officer continues. “Offensive language to me is calling somebody the N-word, curse words.”
“We don’t curse, we’re preachers,” the man replied.
“No, I agree, but it’s more like calling somebody a male, I don’t necessarily find that offensive,” the officer says.
“You don’t, but what if they do?” the man asks.
“That’s what I’m saying. If they come up and say, ‘Hey, I’m offended by that’ and you continue to do that, well, then that’s just becoming offensive,” the officer says. “Then we’re moving into the potential.”
“So what if I’m offended by what they said?” the man then asks. “Will they get cited?”
There’s a very pregnant pause before the officer answers.
“Are you offended by it?” the officer asks.
“I’m offended by all of this,” the man says. “I’m offended by seeing half-naked men run around with children. I am deeply offended by that.”
It’s been clear for a while that some are more equal than others.
Yes, it does. Even if the Left doesn’t want it to.
You do not have a right not to be offended. Even the racial slurs the officer mentions are still protected speech. Some may find that abhorrent, but it’s protected nonetheless. The First Amendment isn’t written to protect polite speech. It’s meant to protect the controversial speech; without that, we do not have free speech.
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