Back in 2020, Christian teen Brielle Penkoski was sent home from a Tennessee public high school after refusing to change out of a T-shirt that stated “Homosexuality Is a Sin.” Her father, a street preacher and outspoken opponent of LGBTQ rhetoric, sued, and a settlement has now been reached. Although the Overton County Board of Education isn’t acknowledging any wrongdoing, it will pay Penkoski, who is now 18, $101 plus attorney fees and costs.
Rich Penkoski, the original plaintiff, was dropped from the case once his daughter reached the age of majority. The preacher, who leads the online ministry Warriors for Christ, said he feels vindicated by the outcome, noting that most symbolic payments are just $1.
Another bonus, said Penkoski, is that teachers at Livingston Academy were told to take classes about the First Amendment. As a result of the lawsuit, he added, a Gay-Straight Alliance club that had been in the works at the Tennessee high school failed to materialize.
T-Shirt Referenced Bible Verses About Sexual Immorality
Brielle Penkoski’s black T-shirt referenced 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, which lists sins including sexual immorality. The school’s principal objected to the apparel’s “sexual connotation.” Yet, as Rich Penkoski noted, a teacher at the school displayed a rainbow-colored LGBTQ Pride sticker in his classroom without consequence.
Rich Penkoski claimed that Brielle was targeted for merely expressing her values “like all the other kids do.” The school administration unfairly “censored” her, added the father, who accused Livingston teachers of “pushing Joe Biden” and “the rainbow stuff.”
Penkoski rejected the claim that calling homosexuality sinful equates to hate speech. “That’s what the Bible says,” he noted, “and we need to start preaching truthfully.”
Penkoski and his organization vocally oppose drag queen story hours for children. He was recently slapped with a five-year restraining order for allegedly threatening and harassing a lesbian couple in Oklahoma. Penkoski has denied the claims and is appealing the restraining order.
For that case, Penkoski is represented by John Whitehead, president of the Virginia-based Rutherford Institute.
“The First Amendment is the sole savior of America,” said Whitehead, “and what I’m seeing in America today with all the wokeness and political correctness is that people are afraid to speak.” Whitehead, a constitutional attorney, added that if quoting Jesus is a crime, “then we’re in a bad state in this country.”
Preacher: Why Should Christians ‘Cut and Run’?
In a recent phone interview with Friendly Atheist blogger Hemant Mehta, Rich Penkoski said he feels vindicated in the Tennessee settlement because “free speech is free speech.” If a student wore an anti-Jesus shirt, he added, he would support that person’s rights too.
