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8 and bisexual individuals in their event. The group argued that Massachusetts’s public accommodations statute entitled it to participate in the parade as a matter of law. Id., at 560–561. Lower courts agreed. Id., at 561–566. But this Court reversed. Id., at 581. Whatever state law may demand, this Court explained, the parade was constitutionally protected speech and requiring the veterans to include voices they wished to exclude would impermissibly require them to “alter the expressive content of their parade.” Id., at 572–573. The veterans’ choice of what to say (and not say) might have been unpopular, but they had a First Amendment right to present their message undiluted by views they did not share.

Then there is Boy Scouts of America v. Dale. In that case, the Boy Scouts excluded James Dale, an assistant scoutmaster, from membership after learning he was gay. Mr. Dale argued that New Jersey’s public accommodations law required the Scouts to reinstate him. 530 U. S., at 644–645. The New Jersey Supreme Court sided with Mr. Dale, id., at 646–647, but again this Court reversed, id., at 661. The decision to exclude Mr. Dale may not have implicated pure speech, but this Court held that the Boy Scouts “is an expressive association” entitled to First Amendment protection. Id., at 656. And, the Court found, forcing the Scouts to include Mr. Dale would “interfere with [its] choice not to propound a point of view contrary to its beliefs.” Id., at 654.

As these cases illustrate, the First Amendment protects an individual’s right to speak his mind regardless of whether the government considers his speech sensible and well intentioned or deeply “misguided,” Hurley, 515 U. S., at 574, and likely to cause “anguish” or “incalculable grief,” Snyder v. Phelps, 562 U. S. 443, 456 (2011). Equally, the First Amendment protects acts of expressive association. See, e.g., Dale, 530 U. S., at 647–656; Hurley, 515 U. S., at 568–570, 579. Generally, too, the government may not compel a person to speak its own preferred messages. See