Imagine that you are the
principal at a school at the beginning of the year and you are given
Quasimodo as a student. Quasimodo is a hunchback and incredibly ugly but this is no fault of his own and his loathsome exterior covers
a truly decent soul. How far would the administration be morally obligated to
go in order to accommodate Quasimodo? Clearly, the school needs to protect
Quasimodo from blatant bullying. Quasimodo's teachers need to be prepped before
the year starts for having Quasimodo. For example, the teachers need to be
conscious of the fact that Quasimodo notices how people grimace at the sight of
him and that it does real psychological damage. That being said, there are
going to be real limits as to what Quasimodo's two moms, the Notre Dames, can
demand from the school.
Despite the fact that social
standards of beauty are largely arbitrary and that they discriminate against Quasimodo, who never chose to look the way he does, it would be
unreasonable to demand that the school overthrow conventional standards of
beauty in order that Quasimodo no longer be considered hideous. A different
standard of beauty, besides being impractical, would simply leave some other
unfortunate student as the ugliest kid in school. To eliminate all standards of
beauty, besides being profoundly impractical, would harm society. Beauty is
foundational to art and to ethics. It is by contemplating mere physical beauty
that we come to comprehend the possibility of a higher form of beauty such as
the virtuous person.
Unfortunately, a tragic
consequence of believing in physical beauty is that, inevitably, there will exist
an ugliest person such as Quasimodo who will be made to suffer even if no one
is actively mean to him. While it would be wrong to stare at Quasimodo, he will
catch on fairly quickly if people are not looking in his direction at all or if
the timing for how long people look at him is different from how they look at
other kids. What is the principal supposed to tell Quasimodo when Esmeralda
turns him down for the prom and instead goes with Phoebus, the football
captain, even though he is a jerk? Before the school accepts Quasimodo, the
principal will have to be honest with Quasimodo's moms. If they really want to
avoid getting him hurt at all costs, the best option would be homeschooling.
For Quasimodo to attend school, it will need to be acknowledged that, while there is an obligation to tolerate and be kind to him, he will never be truly accepted. The very act of trying to be kind to Quasimodo will only further his alienation. Why would anyone feel the need to go out of their way to be nice to Quasimodo if it were not for the fact that they have already "Othered" him and, feeling guilty about it, wish to cover up for their moral failure? As such, the Notre Dames would have to agree to let the school off the hook for trying to make Quasimodo fully part of the community even though that is what pure Justice would demand.
I bring up this example of
Quasimodo because it sets an outer limit for the moral obligations of a school
to a student. The fact that Quasimodo did not choose to be the way that he is
allows his moms to make real demands from the school if it wishes to plausibly
claim that they are serving the entire community but there is not going to be
any blank check to refashion society to allow Quasimodo to function within it.
Imagine that, while Quasimodo's
principal is talking to the Notre Dames, he has to put them on hold because a
call is coming in from Steve Urkel's parents, who want him to do something
about the fact that Urkel finds himself socially isolated. Obviously, there is
nothing wrong with Urkel dressing like a nerd and the school should protect him
against physical violence. That being said, the Urkels cannot expect a higher
level of support than the Notre Dames. Fairly quickly, the principal is going
to have to point out that Urkel is choosing to wear dorky glasses. Even though
it is wrong that kids do not want to be friends with him because of how he
dresses, if Urkel wants friends, he should probably change his clothes.
The moment we start dealing
with students who violate social norms out of any religious belief or ideology,
the ability of the school to act should constrict even further. Imagine that
Quasimodo and Urkel were to come out of the closet as transgender Trumpist
Christians and came to school wearing skirts, MAGA hats, and crosses. Clearly,
Quasimodo and Urkel have the right to wear such paraphernalia even though it
will make many people uncomfortable, particularly as they are likely to
strongly oppose the beliefs of transgender Trumpist Christianity.
While the principal is on firm ground to admonish students for making fun of people for their clothes and certainly for their looks, he is on far trickier grounds when students criticize or even mock the beliefs of other kids. Disagreement is an essential part of a free society. As a public servant, the principal needs to be absolutely neutral in the often brutal ideological discourses taking place around the school. He can protect Quasimodo and Urkel as long he acts in exactly the same manner for all other groups. It must be clear that he is not acting out of any desire to promote transgender Trumpist Christianity as that would violate the rights of all the other students. As this standard would be incredibly difficult to reach, the principal may have no choice but to allow Quasimodo and Urkel to be mocked.
It will do them no good to argue that they really are women, that Trump really is their president, and that God predestined them from before creation to be part of the elect despite their sins. All three claims are things that their opponents have the right to dispute. Furthermore, it will not help Quasimodo and Urkel to argue that being transgender Trumpist Christians is essential to who they are and that their opponents are rejecting their humanity. They were on better ground arguing that being a hunchback and a nerd was essential to their being and even that offered them little benefit.
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