The Cellar - Lesbian teen in prom flap sues

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Lesbian teen in prom flap sues

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JACKSON, Miss. – Constance McMillen didn't believe her Mississippi school district would really call off her senior prom rather than allow her to show up with her girlfriend and wear a tuxedo. On Thursday, a day after the Itawamba County school board did just that, the 18-year-old lesbian high school senior reluctantly returned to campus to some unfriendly looks, she said.

"Somebody said, 'Thanks for ruining my senior year.'" McMillen said.

The district announced Wednesday it wouldn't host the April 2 prom. The decision came after the American Civil Liberties Union demanded that officials change a policy banning same-sex prom dates because it violated students' rights. And the ACLU said the district not letting McMillen wear a tuxedo violated her free expression rights.

The ACLU filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Oxford to force the school district to sponsor the prom and allow McMillen to bring whom she chooses and wear what she wants.

District officials didn't returned numerous calls left by The Associated Press seeking comment on Thursday.

McMillen said she never expected the district to respond the way it did.

"A lot of people said that was going to happen, but I said, they had already spent too much money on the prom" to cancel it, she said. "I'm just trying to get done what I originally wanted done. Now, we're having to fight just to have a prom."

McMillen said she didn't want to go back to Itawamba County Agricultural High School in Fulton the morning after the decision, but her father told her she needed to face her classmates, teachers and school officials.

"My daddy told me that I needed to show them that I'm still proud of who I am," McMillen told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. "The fact that this will help people later on, that's what's helping me to go on."

A school board statement said it wouldn't host the event in Fulton, "due to the distractions to the educational process caused by recent events" but never mentioned McMillen or her girlfriend, who also is a student at the school.

Same-sex prom dates and cross-dressing are new issues for many high schools around the country, said Daryl Presgraves, a spokesman for GLSEN: Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, a Washington-based advocacy group.

"A lot of schools actually react rather than do the research and find out what the rights of these students are," said Presgraves, who was preparing to facilitate a discussion about anti-gay bullying at a National Association of Secondary School Principals meeting.

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Perhaps this belongs in the WTF thread.

There is NO reason kids shouldn't be allowed to go to the friggin prom with whomever they want.

I wholeheartedly agree with this comment -

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How is the sexual orientation of students the business of a public school? Where do they get the idea that they can make any kind of decision about such a thing?

It is sad when discrimination goes so far that a given organization is willing to punish an entire community in order to sustain that discrimination. And the *only* possible reason this is being done is on religious grounds, which, last time I checked, a school wasn't supposed to be involved in.

These people are *so* going to lose the ACLU lawsuit this girl has filed.

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Originally Posted by Elspode (Post 640376)

And the *only* possible reason this is being done is on religious grounds, which, last time I checked, a school wasn't supposed to be involved in.

No, community standards and the will of the taxpayers that elect the school board. There are plenty of non-religious people that don't approve of queers.

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Originally Posted by Elspode (Post 640376)

It is sad when discrimination goes so far that a given organization is willing to punish an entire community in order to sustain that discrimination.

Sounds a little Talibany doesn't it.

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Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce (Post 640386)

No, community standards and the will of the taxpayers that elect the school board. There are plenty of non-religious people that don't approve of queers.

Yep, bigotry exists regardless of religion. Unfortunately religion can be a convenient organizing tool for some.

I call to mind some of the trashy awful prom outfits seen in the WTF and similar threads. A woman in a tux is far less objectionable to good taste.

Heehee ... he said "flap".

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Originally Posted by ZenGum (Post 640400)

I call to mind some of the trashy awful prom outfits seen in the WTF and similar threads. A woman in a tux is far less objectionable to good taste.
aG
Heehee ... he said "flap".

Again, community standards.

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Originally Posted by Griff (Post 640399)

Yep, bigotry exists regardless of religion. Unfortunately religion can be a convenient organizing tool for some.

In many places religion provides the only organized gathering of the community, except the Harper Valley PTA.

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Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce (Post 640386)

No, community standards and the will of the taxpayers that elect the school board. There are plenty of non-religious people that don't approve of queers.

Which is why anti-discriminatory policies and laws need to be enacted at a higher level, say state or federal. That's the only reason I got to go to prom with my white boyfriend. (That and the fact that miscegenation never was illegal in NJ.)

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Originally Posted by Pie (Post 640439)

But just try to go with your white girlfriend....:right:

You find me a hot young thing that wants to date me, and it's a deal. :D

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Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce (Post 640386)

No, community standards and the will of the taxpayers that elect the school board. There are plenty of non-religious people that don't approve of queers.

And there are plenty of us who are of faith and are still advocates for gay rights.

What this school did was wrong.

My senior prom they turned away a male student that was wearing a dress, but let in a woman who was wearing a tux.

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Originally Posted by toranokaze (Post 640459)

And there are plenty of us who are of faith and are still advocates for gay rights.

What this school did was wrong.

Agreed - well put.

Three words. Class. Action. Lawsuit.

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Originally Posted by Pie (Post 640439)

...miscegenation...

[O Brother Where Art Thou] Them boys is miscegenated. [/O Brother Where Art Thou] :lol2: