The University of Chicago (UC) Laboratory Schools, an institution associated with the university, will no longer be flying an LGBTQ pride flag outside its courtyard after university administrators determined it would violate institutional neutrality.The news was first reported by U-High Midway, the UC Laboratory High School student newspaper, ahead of Pride Month with a new statement from Interim Director Ethan Bueno de Mesquita explaining the decision on Monday."I think the idea of a student organization saying ‘We should fly the pride flag for Pride Month’ in some way is student speech and should be totally acceptable," Bueno de Mesquita said."I think the university saying that an observer who sees something flying from a flagpole and understands that to be a statement of the institution is a reasonable interpretation of how flagpoles operate, and so that doesn’t strike me as an unreasonable rule."OHIO TEACHER SUES HIGH SCHOOL FOR DEMANDING HE REMOVE LGBT POSTER INSIDE CLASSROOMThe University of Chicago (UC) Laboratory Schools chose not to fly the LGBTQ pride flag for the first time since 2022.
(Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters)He added, "To be clear, the full membership of LGBTQ+ people in the Lab community is not a contested issue.It is a core value."The decision to remove the flag, which has flown in the same spot since 2022, came after administrators reviewed whether the LGBTQ pride flag aligned with the University of Chicago's Kalven Committee report on neutrality."There is no mechanism by which it can reach a collective position without inhibiting that full freedom of dissent on which it thrives.
It cannot insist that all of its members favor a given view of social policy; if it takes collective action, therefore, it does so at the price of censuring any minority who do not agree with the view adopted.In brief, it is a community which cannot resort to majority vote to reach positions on public issues," the report read.ANTI-ISRAEL PROFESSOR CURSES OUT EMPLOY...