School calls off prom due to lesbian couple

[Corrderio]

JACKSON, Miss. - An 18-year-old lesbian student who wanted to take her girlfriend to her senior prom is asking a federal judge to force her Mississippi school district reinstate the dance it cancelled rather than let the couple attend.


The American Civil Liberties Union of Mississippi on Thursday filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Oxford on behalf of 18-year-old Constance McMillen, who said she faced some unhappy classmates after the Itawamba County School District said it wouldn't host the April 2 prom.


"Somebody said, 'Thanks for ruining my senior year."' McMillen said of her reluctant return Thursday to Itawamba Agricultural High School in Fulton.


The lawsuit seeks a court order for the school to hold the prom. It also asks that McMillen be allowed to escort her girlfriend, who also is a student at the school, and wear the tuxedo.


The district's decision Wednesday came after the ACLU demanded that officials change a policy banning same-sex prom dates because it said it violated students' rights. The ACLU said the district violated McMillen's free expression rights by not letting her wear a tux.


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.


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.


"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."


The school board statement said it wouldn't host the event "due to the distractions to the educational process caused by recent events" but didn't mention McMillen. District officials didn't return calls seeking comment Thursday.


At least one supporter has offered to help McMillen and her classmates hold an alternate prom.


New Orleans hotel owner Sean Cummings told The Clarion-Ledger of Jackson he was so disappointed with the school board's decision he offered to transport the students in buses to the city and host a free prom at one of his properties.


"New Orleans, we're a joyful culture and a creative culture here and, if the school doesn't change its mind, we'd be delighted to offer them a prom in New Orleans," he told the newspaper. "Concluding your high school experience should be a joyful one. One shouldn't conclude that experience with all their friends on a negative note."


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.


In 2002, a gay student sued his school district in Toronto to allow him to attend a prom with his boyfriend. A judge later forced the district to allow the couple to attend and stopped the district from cancelling the prom.


U.S. Rep. Jared Polis, D-Colo., said a bill he's introduced in Congress would make it illegal to discriminate against gay and lesbian school students. He said at least 10 states have such laws, and his bill is modeled after those.

"This situation with the prom is a perfect example of why we need to protect students from discrimination. In this case it's a prom. It other cases, it's getting beaten up or killed," Polis said.

The school district had said it hoped a privately sponsored prom could be held.

Southside Baptist Church Pastor Bobby Crenshaw said he's seen the South portrayed as "backwards" on Web sites discussing the issue, "but a lot more people here have biblically based values."

Itawamba County is a rural area of about 23,000 people in north Mississippi near the Alabama state line. It's near Pontotoc County, Miss., where more than a decade ago school officials were sued in federal court over their practice of student-led intercom prayer and Bible classes.

SOURCE: http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/1...bian_prom_date

Also just to point it out:

The school board statement said it wouldn't host the event "due to the distractions to the educational process caused by recent events"

lolwut?

[Faris]

school rejects gay parents child.

and now THIS!?

whats the world coming to.

[Lucavi]

There's a toddler in your sig with an automatic weapon, Firas. What's the world TRULY coming to?

[Faris]

but he was allowed to the prom

[Correction]

Southside Baptist Church Pastor Bobby Crenshaw said he's seen the South portrayed as "backwards" on Web sites discussing the issue, "but a lot more people here have biblically based values."

Typo here, they mispelled 'because.'

[Quixon]

Typo here, they mispelled 'because.'

Correction

I chuckled. Thank you kind sir.

[BunkMonk]

There must be more to the story than this. Calling off an entire prom due to not wanting a gay couple to attend is a bit dramatic. Perhaps there were some threats made about disrupting the event, or something similar, so they figured it would be better to cancel.

[Yuri-G]

I wasn't gonna post it, but yeah, this is silly. So now it's a national news story and that's somehow less of a distraction than just letting the chick go to prom?

Specious Reasoning Powers: ACTIVATE!

[Corrderio]

There must be more to the story than this. Calling off an entire prom due to not wanting a gay couple to attend is a bit dramatic. Perhaps there were some threats made about disrupting the event, or something similar, so they figured it would be better to cancel.

I wouldn't be surprised, they state further in the article that a gay guy wasn't allowed to the prom since he wanted to bring his BF.

Wonder if one of them had to wear a dress to the prom once the state forced the school to let them in....

[jinkazama]

I saw this on the news today.. Its a BS story, I dont know why people flip out about it and shit..

Lapdancing teachers, that one professor that killed those people, now this shit? wtf is happening with our teachers lol

[510Meeze]

You call off prom to ostracize the couple, when they are forced out of school by threats and a bad environment from the students, put prom back on, everyone is happy except a couple of ugly lesbians.

[Draylo]

You call off prom to ostracize the couple, when they are forced out of school by threats and a bad environment from the students, put prom back on, everyone is happy except a couple of ugly lesbians.

Or they could just let them go to the prom and have avoided the situation completely? I don't see the big deal... it isn't like they are going to fuck each other with dildo's infront of the whole prom... they will enjoy it just like every other straight couple that goes there will. They will dance and have fun, geeze people need to evolve and realize change has already happened, I hate people stuck in the past.

[Atreides]

Pool's closed due to aids

[Melena]

They also mentioned that when she stated she was going to wear a tuxedo, they told her only men could wear tuxedo's at the prom. It's just dumb. It makes the controversy my class had with it's junior prom (girl wanted to bring the mascot of the San Jose Sharks as her date, and won an appeal to the school board to bring him), then having a lesbian or gay couple at the prom should not be an issue either.

[Klutz]

I made out with another girl in front of everyone at my senior prom. They didn't call it off right then. Let the lesbians go.

[Atreides]

what's next? bringing animals to prom? polypromdategamy? think of the children!

[oldoldman]

Are they hot?

If their fat dykes fuck 'em.

[Draylo]

what's next? bringing animals to prom? polypromdategamy? think of the children!

They might catch the Gay if this couple is allowed to the prom it seems.

[Jefe]

Nah, they ugly as sin. Now if they were good looking like the top rated lesbo vids in youporn, we'd have a different story here.

Anyway, if they let her wear a tuxedo, then the gays would want to wear evening gowns. Then it turns into a mess. I wonder if later on they would approve of robots, like that Japanese cyborg... forgot her name but something in the veins of H-1000 series. Now that would make a great dancing partner, sex slave, etc. forget the gays and lesbians, where's my damn cyborgirl?

[Corrderio]

what's next? bringing animals to prom? polypromdategamy? think of the children!

I laughed harder than I should have...