Antigay Students Claim College Censorship

A lawsuit filed by two students at Kingsborough Community College in Brooklyn, New York claims that the school attacked their right to free speech by interfering with their plans to hold a campus forum on the "negative consequences" of marriage equality.

According to Courier-Life Publications, "In court papers filed March 7, both Joseph Hayon -- who is president of the Brooklyn Tea Party and the chairman of Kingsborough's Republican Club -- and Shmuel Mayteles, say school officials threatened to kick them off campus if they didn't stop handing out anti-abortion pamphlets in 2009, and then rescheduled a forum on gay marriage, moving it to a smaller location."

The suit also claims that school officials meddled with the marriage forum by insisting that a faculty member moderate the event and counter the antigay opinions.

A lawyer for Kingsborough, which is part of the City University of New York system, said the school had done nothing wrong.

Courier-Life reports that Hayon, 33, ran for state assembly in 2010 and waged a "pro-family" campaign in which he pledged to oppose measures including the order from then-governor David Paterson to recognize same-sex marriages performed out of state.