> Put simply, it was supposed to be the one place where you could speak your beliefs freely, and, barring specific harm done to others, nobody could force you to do anything

Unless you were a slave, or black in segregation times ( which ended what, in the 1960s???), or Chinese until the 1960s, or Japanese during WW2, or a pregnant woman up to and including today.

It's like that Family Guy joke - freedom for all, but not exactly.