Students at a west suburban high school will be allowed to wear anti-gay T-shirts after an appeals court ruling.
The ruling stems from an argument at Neuqua Valley High School in Naperville, where a student wore a shirt that read "Be Happy, Not Gay" back in 2006, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
The student wore the T-shirt to school after other students were allowed to wear shirts supporting homosexuals as part of the "Day of Silence" campaign.
But school officials asked the student to remove her shirt, arguing it could hurt other students' feelings. The student changed the words on the shirt to say, "Be Happy, Be Straight." Later, it was changed it to just "Be Happy."
After that incident, another student who wanted to wear a similar shirt to class filed for an injunction asking to suspend the school's ban, but the courts denied the request twice, according to the Sun-Times.
However, in 2008, the 7th Circuit Court reversed the lower court's rulings, ordering Neuqua Valley to end it's ban on the shirts until the lawsuits filed by the students proceed.
On Tuesday, the judge ruled Neuqua Valley does not have a legal right to prevent students from freely expressing their beliefs.
