Victory! A trombonist’s triumph for free speech on a college campus

     “With trumpets and the sound of the horn, sing joyfully before the King, the Lord.” —Psalms 98: 5-6.

     These Bible verses are a fitting finale for Daniel Mattson, a world-class trombonist and man of quiet faith. With CIR’s help, he challenged wrongful treatment by Western Michigan University over his private, off-campus writings and scored an important victory for free speech and religious expression.

     On campus, Mattson was an adjunct music professor and performer since 1999. Off campus, he returned to traditional Catholic practices and chronicled his spiritual journey to adopt a chaste lifestyle in his 2017 autobiography, Why I Don’t Call Myself Gay: How I Reclaimed My Sexual Reality and Found Peace.

     His efforts to help Catholics like himself and advocate for sympathetic engagement with same-sex-attracted people connected with individuals around the world. During all that time, Mattson never mixed his spiritual work with his university work. Nor did he discuss his personal views with his music students.

     Nevertheless, in the fall of 2021, another music professor discovered Mattson’s writings, deemed his orthodox Catholic views “harmful” to the LGBT community, and launched a social media campaign condemning his views. The administration’s response to Mattson’s private speech was swift and harsh. Matson was first stripped of his core duties, hindered in important school activities, and finally, WMU refused to renew his teaching contract.

     Mattson, however, refused to allow woke activists to cancel him from a public university just because they disagree with his off-campus speech and convictions. He also challenged WMU’s forcing him to choose between earning a livelihood as a worldclass artist and mentor for aspiring musicians on campus, and life as a religious believer and witness for conflicted Catholics off-campus.

     In March 2023, CIR filed a federal lawsuit on Mattson’s behalf, challenging his firing as a free speech violation under the First and Fourteenth Amendments. WMU’s response was again swift. In October, less than seven months after CIR filed suit, the university abruptly changed its tune. Rather than attempting to defend its viewpoint-based punishment in a court of law, WMU settled the case and agreed to pay Mattson substantial damages and attorney’s fees.

     The financial compensation is welcome, to be sure, but even more rewarding for Mattson is the vindication in standing up for the rights of all individuals to religious expression regardless of what others think.

     The favorable settlement is also a victory for everyone who supported Mattson’s heroic stand and joined CIR to hold WMU accountable for his free speech injury. Going forward, extremist college bureaucrats should be on heightened notice that they can’t cancel someone for private speech they don’t like without facing legal consequences.