The Nebraska School Activities Association has asked a state speech champion from Gordon-Rushville High School to perform a different piece for an NET Television program because it doesn’t want to promote a homosexual or transgender agenda.
Michael Barth won the Class C1 poetry division at the NSAA state championship in Kearney last week with a poem that combined lyrics from Mackelmore’s “Same Love” and a slam poem called “Swing Set” by Andrea Gibson.
The request from NSAA has caused a firestorm in the high school speech community, which says it amounts to censorship. They have created a Facebook page called “Support Michael and Acceptance of Speech,” made numerous calls to NSAA officials to protest the request and alerted the news media.
Bridgeport speech coach Glen Lussetto said he judged the speech twice and it promotes acceptance, not an agenda. He said that Barth removed all profanity and other content that could be deemed offensive before the state contest. Lussetto said the performance didn't offend him
“And I’m about as conservative as they come in this speech community,” he said.
NSAA Executive Director Rhonda Blanford-Green said she decided to ask Barth to perform a different piece for the NET program because she doesn’t want the program to be seen as promoting an individualized agenda.
“We want to keep it as it was intended, to be a showcase for talent, not a platform for individualized agendas,” she said.
The “Best of the Best” is an NET Television production that showcases top-of-the-line performances from the state championship. Selections are made based on school classification, districts, gender, minority representation and events, Blanford-Green said.
She said she asked Barth to do a different piece based on the purpose of the production, its audience and the content of his poem, which could be controversial. She said he advocated for his poem but agreed to perform a different one.
Blanford-Green has been on the other side of this controversy.
Last year, she tried to introduce a non-discrimination policy for transgender students. That proposal erupted in controversy, and the NSAA board decided to let districts handle the issue on a local level.
That experience played a part in her decision, she said Wednesday.
“I don’t want the speech platform to be seen as pushing an individualized agenda,” she said. “If we have the opportunity to promote speech in a positive light that doesn’t create controversy or debate about students, content, the activity of the NSAA – that drove my decision.”
Barth told the HuffPost:
"I was contacted on Sunday that I was selected for the Best of the Best showcase ... and we had to send them a physical copy of my speech. And they read through it and they declined it because the executive director of the NSAA believes that it was advocating transgender rights and that demographic of people. The real controversy is how they're seeing that in the poetry. My poetry program is not advocating gay rights or straight rights or transgender rights or anything like that. It's about love and accepting each other."
Students and supporters of Barth have created a Facebook support page which has 426 members and growing.
Here is Barth's poem.
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