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‘Being Catholic in public is not an offense on Columbia’s campus,’ free speech expert says 

Following complaints, Columbia University’s Office of Institutional Equity recently confronted graduate student Daniel Di Martino for comments he made on social media expressing his Catholic beliefs and criticizing transgenderism.

Di Martino told The Fix the matter is now closed — but only after he went public. The doctoral student said the university closed the investigation after he published a story in City Journal detailing what happened.

The incident began when Di Martino “received an email from the OIE accusing [him] of ‘conduct that could constitute discriminatory harassment'” earlier this year, he wrote in his City Journal piece.

“The message included no details, and when [he] asked for clarification, OIE didn’t provide any,” Di Martino wrote. Then, three university officials called Di Martino in for a meeting to tell him he had been the subject of “multiple complaints.”

They showed him screenshots of his social media posts, “treating [his] public Catholic beliefs as if they were prohibited,” the student wrote.

One of the posts stated “God does not teach us that we can change our gender.” In other posts from this year and last year, the student condemned gender ideology and celebrated that some politicians have supported bans on transgender care.

School officials told him that their goal was not to punish him, “but to make sure that this doesn’t escalate into a disciplinary outcome.”

Additionally, the investigators acknowledged his First Amendment right to free speech but cautioned that his posts might be “creating a hostile environment,” as such expressions of Catholic faith—particularly if a transgender classmate saw them—could make someone feel unsafe even to “walk on campus,” the student wrote.

Di Martino also told The Fix via email this case is part of a broader issue.

“The great societal problem we are facing is that universities, and liberals with power in every institution, feel empowered and right in censoring conservative and religious speech,” the student said.

“They believe that speech they disagree with should be illegal and so they do everything in their power to censor it, even when their own actions are unethical, illegal, or even unconstitutional,” he said.

As a result, conservatives on campus engage in self-censorship, leading to more division, he said.

Di Martino also urged students not to “be afraid of a college attempting to censor them.”

“I left [Venezuela] which was destroyed by a socialist tyranny, we cannot let America fail because we are afraid of a lower GPA. Be brave and stand up for yourself,” he said.

The College Fix emailed and called Columbia and the OIE several times in the last few weeks for more information on the incident, but has not received a reply.

However, Special Counsel Robert Shibley from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression told The Fix that the free speech group previously reached out to Columbia to express concern over the school’s “departures from [its] own written policies in expression and due process.”

Columbia’s conduct rules state that “all members of the University community have the right to speak, to study, research, to teach, and to express their own views,” and that “the University cannot and will not rule any subject or form of expression out of order on the ground that it is objectionable, offensive, immoral, or untrue.”

FIRE called for the school “to provide Di Martino with the full details of the allegations or to end its investigation.”

The student “cannot help but feel chilled and restricted from sharing his viewpoint for fear of further such allegations,” FIRE’s message stated.

While Columbia did not respond to FIRE’s message, Shibley told The Fix he believes the school “has declined to take any further steps against Daniel for his protected speech.”

“Nevertheless, he should not even have been required to attend a meeting based on his protected expression. Being Catholic in public is not an offense on Columbia’s campus,” he said.

MORE: Higher ed free speech advocates oppose the First Amendment – for Christians

IMAGE CAPTION AND CREDIT: Daniel Di Martino giving a speech at a YAF event; Young America’s Foundation/Youtube

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