Free Speech Protects Minority Dissent

Free Speech Makes Free People

As a gay man, Rauch has lived experience of being a minority working and fighting for equal rights. And he credits the success of many gay rights campaigns in the U.S., such as the fight for equal rights in marriage, to the environment created by free speech. And that’s because free speech protects dissent. And for a very long time, and within my memory and lived experience, if you advocated for gay rights, you were dissenting against a majority opinion. For this reason, Rauch is suspicious of efforts that try to protect people from offense by restricting free speech on the grounds that some viewpoints should not be expressed.

Rauch, of course, anticipates counterarguments to his argument. Someone may say, “Well, of course, it would be wrong to censor someone fighting for gay rights becauses they are correct and their cause is just. But someone fighting against gay rights should not be able to express those views because they are incorrect and hateful and their cause is unjust.”

Rauch’s response… is in tomorrow’s post.