Mississippi School Wants Lesbian Student Excluded From Prom

"The law is clear that school districts can’t treat students differently just because they are uncomfortable with the topic of gay rights or the presence of gay students."  - Christine Sun, ACLU

For most high school students, attending the prom with the person they care about is more than just participating in a social event, it's an important rite of passage.  But across the United States, there are still school districts hell bent on spoiling this once-in-a-lifetime experience for LGBT teens. 

Paula Brooks writes on Lezgetreal:  An 18-year-old lesbian high school student is challenging a Mississippi school district policy that says no same-sex date at the senior prom.  Constance McMillen has enlisted the help of the American Civil Liberties Union after the district refused to let McMillen and her girlfriend arrive as a couple at the April 2 prom.  District officials also denied McMillen’s request to wear a tuxedo.  At issue is a memo issued to the Itawamba County high school students that laid out the criteria for bringing a date to the prom, and one requirement was that the person must be of the opposite sex.

From HattiesburgAmerican:  Superintendent Teresa McNeece and Michele Floyd, the school district's attorney, haven't returned calls left at their offices...  The ACLU has given the district until Wednesday to change its policies. Attorneys say McMillen has a constitutional right to have the same privileges as her fellow, straight students, and that the way she dresses falls under her right of free expression.  "The law is clear that school districts can't treat students differently just because they are uncomfortable with the topic of gay rights or the presence of gay students," said Christine P. Sun, senior counsel for the national ACLU.  Sun said the ACLU receives up to 10 complaints a year from gay and lesbian students who feel they've been discriminated against... The ACLU said school officials told McMillen that she and her girlfriend, who is also a student, could be asked to leave the prom if people complained about them being there.  "If we're slow-dancing or something and it makes somebody uncomfortable, we can get kicked out," McMillen said. "We do live in the Bible belt."

Enter the repulsive Liberty Council, an organization of right-wing "Christian" trial lawyers that embraces any enterprise aimed at quashing the rights and liberties of LGBT Americans.  Steve Crampton, an attorney for the group, is offering his free legal assistance to the school board.  Crampton says, "We have a general interest in protecting a school district's right to police and regulate dress code and school events, such as proms. In all candor, while we know nothing about the complaining student here, we believe this is part of a larger agenda to implement homosexual rights in the schools."   

Readers of the Sun-Herald, which serves the Biloxi area, almost immediately started throwing religious hissy fits over this story.  Here are some of their comments:

"This BS will probley ruin the memories of a lot of students of their final night of the school. I guess parents will have to join together and have private proms and let the gays have the school. The Good Lord said go forth and reproduce. Gays don't reproduce."
"Can you say 'Sodom and Gomorrah?'  HE will only put up with this so long!"
"I don't hate them or anyone else, but sin can only go on for so long before it is brought to an end."
"A man and a woman Gods law everything else needs to put it self back in the closet!"
"Perhaps people just feel uncomfortable around homosexuals? Has that thought ever occurred to you? Perhaps people wnat to keep thing traditional instead of having radical change."
"They make me nauseated, them and theirs...  If they could just be left to themselves, they'd perish from off the face of the Earth in their own generation, as it cannot reproduce itself."
"Why is it that Americans have to drop their values to accommodate everyone else?"

I just don't get it. This girl isn't trying to cause trouble. She just wants to attend her high school prom with a date of her own choosing, in formal wear that makes her feel comfortable.  Do these Christian zealots have nothing more pressing to worry about?    (Pictured upper right: Steve Cramptom, Bottom: Constance McMillen.)  

UPDATE 3/11: Talk about mean-spirited Mississippians.  School administrators have just canceled the prom and are calling on God-fearing citizens to sponsor a special "private" function with the sole purpose of keeping out Constance McMillen.  McMillen, when she heard the news, was understandably alarmed:  She said:  "Oh, my God. That's really messed up because the message they are sending is that if they have to let gay people go to prom that they are not going to have one.  A bunch of kids at school are really going to hate me for this."  (And they will hate her with the blessing of the school district.)

Pam Spaulding collars the hound:  In a brazen move, the school board urged that a private prom be organized so that they can legally ban McMillan from attending with her date and the attire of her choosing. How much deeper hate can adults foment over this young students request for equal access to her own school's prom? ...This level of "othering" is sick. For her brave stand, Constance will need some very good and equally brave peers to stand up for her in that community. And this chilling effect communicated by adults in Fulton is that it is willing to throw one young person under its bus and drive over her rather than contemplate that its policy and actions are wrong.

Comments

[Trent]

In a word... no. They don't have anything better to worry about. All they can think about is the "scary" homos. Also, Liberty Council has lost cases like this before. The law is the law. The girl has every right to bring another girl to the prom. It's 2010 for chrissake!

[Bee Girl]

I'm curious how the other kids in that high school feel about this.

[2cents]

To answer the last comment on that list... "Why is it that Americans have to drop their values to accommodate everyone else?" ...Its because not everybody thinks discrimination is a "value", Xstian asswipes.

[Kevin]

Every time I read something like this, I wonder why there isn't more people clamoring for private schools. If you don't want to 'drop your values to accommodate everyone else' enroll in Dick and Janes School for Homophobes.
This is the downside (one of many, rest assured) of our public education system: everyone has to play by the same rules and one set of rules doesn't work for everybody. Public education needs to be remodeled into a more efficient voucher system to allow everyone to choose the kind of educational values they want their kids to have.

[Samantha]

I don't get the whole "gay" rights or "homesexual" rights thing. These aren't rights specifically for GLBT people: they're basic rights that should apply to all citizens of the country. I'd rather say "treat gays like humans and give them human rights" because that's really what it's about. See how well the opponents do when they're forced to go against groups campaigning for "human rights".

[WTFCheneyBush]

It was just a generation ago that schools in Mississippi threatened to cancel school functions if they had to allow blacks to attend. Some things never change, such as Mississippi bigotry.