Phil Robertson, a star of the A&E series Duck Dynasty, has been suspended from the show following some homophobic remarks he made in an interview with GQ. Robertson’s comments were pretty standard (i.e. offensive and disgusting) homophobic fare and I’m not going to give them any space here; if you want to know exactly what he said you can read the story here.

What I’d like to focus on for a moment is the discussion surrounding his suspension—which, disappointingly but not surprisingly, has revolved around free speech. No less than Bobby Jindal, Louisiana’s Republican governor, has spoken up in Robertson’s defense, writing, “I remember when TV networks believed in the First Amendment. It is a messed up situation when Miley Cyrus gets a laugh, and Phil Robertson gets suspended.”

The issue of free speech is one that The Stake hasn’t tackled yet, so on this very first outing I want to make my position abundantly clear, since it’s one that you will likely hear from this blog anytime someone in pop culture invokes free speech as a defense of their right to say offensive things.

Are you ready? Here goes:

Free speech is the right to communicate one’s thoughts and opinions freely. It is not the right to be free from the consequences of speech.

Phil Robertson has the right to his opinions, and the freedom under the constitution to express those opinions.

Be he, and all of us, have no reason to expect that we should exercise the right of free speech without consequences. The A&E network has every right to suspend on-screen talent who do not align with the public image they’d like to maintain. They’ve suspended Robertson, according to their statement, because the opinions he expressed run contrary to their publicly stated intention of supporting the LGBT community.

Speech is free. But speech has real-world consequences. Phil Robertson is reaping those consequences.