http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/1 ... 94555.html

Mississippi Prom Canceled After Lesbian Date Request

JACKSON, Miss. — A northern Mississippi school district decided Wednesday not to host a high school prom after a lesbian student demanded she be able to attend with her girlfriend and wear a tuxedo.

The Itawamba County school district's policy requires that senior prom dates be of the opposite sex. The American Civil Liberties Union of Mississippi had given the district until Wednesday to change that policy and allow 18-year-old Constance McMillen to escort her girlfriend, who is also a student, to the dance on April 2.

Instead, the school board met and issued a statement announcing it wouldn't host the event at Itawamba County Agricultural High School in Fulton, "due to the distractions to the educational process caused by recent events."

The statement didn't mention McMillen or the ACLU. When asked by The Associated Press if McMillen's demand led to the cancellation, school board attorney Michele Floyd said she could only reference the statement.

"It is our hope that private citizens will organize an event for the juniors and seniors," district officials said in the statement. "However, at this time, we feel that it is in the best interest of the Itawamba County School District, after taking into consideration the education, safety and well being of our students."

The ACLU said a school policy banning same-sex prom dates violated McMillen's constitutional rights.

Kristy Bennett, legal director for the ACLU of Mississippi, said the district was trying to avoid the issue.

"But that doesn't take away their legal obligations to treat all the students fairly," Bennett said. "On Constance's behalf, this is unfair to her. All she's trying to do is assert her rights."

Bennett said she wouldn't allow McMillen to comment on Wednesday, saying "she's still trying to process" the district's actions. Calls to McMillen's cell phone went unanswered.
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Itawamba County is a rural area of about 23,000 people in north Mississippi near the Alabama state line. It borders 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.

Anna Watson, a 17-year-old junior at the high school, was looking forward to the prom, especially since the town's only hotspot is the bowling alley, she said.

"I am a little bummed out about it. I guess it's a decision that had to be made. Either way someone was going to get disappointed – either Constance was or we were," Watson said. "I don't agree with homosexuality, but I can't change what another person thinks or does."

Other students are on McMillen's side.

McKenzie Chaney, 16, said she wasn't planning to attend the prom, but "it's kind of ridiculous that they can't let her wear the tuxedo and it all be over with."

A Feb. 5 memo to students laid out the criteria for bringing a date to the prom, and one requirement was that the person must be of the opposite sex.

The ACLU said McMillen approached school officials shortly before the memo went out because she knew same-sex dates had been banned in the past. The ACLU said district officials told McMillen she and her girlfriend wouldn't be allowed to arrive together, that she would not be allowed to wear a tuxedo, and that she and her girlfriend might be asked to leave if their presence made any other students "uncomfortable."

McMillen said she feared she would be thrown out of the prom because "we do live in the Bible Belt."

this kind of thing reminds me of the behavior white people displayed during the Civil Rights movement in the 60s.

Labeling groups of people and then fearing the label you've slapped on them is pretty dumb.

mary

hey babe!

Here's what I was trying to say I think? It's like the closer people get to being legally treated as equal the more the ape-mind takes over in people and fear and anger become the only way they can deal with it...

ACLU should still sue. That school just painted a massive target on those girls' backs.

What year is it in Mississippi again?

whatever year it was founded, I believe.

Sadly, I'm less surprised by the bigotry than just the fact that they have rules about dates at prom. My senior yer I went in a group of 5 people to prom. Two in the group were dating, the others were single. I think it's great that the girl is this case is demanding her right to not have to hide her intentions, but if she did just show up "by herself" in a tux is there any grounds she wouldn't be let in?

I wish Malice posted more in N&D.

What the hell does a prom have to do with the "educational process"?

Why the hell does it freaking matter? People STILL get thier panties in a twist over this shit REALLY?????

It's fairly difficult to believe that there would even be a rule made about that. Hell you can't bring your friend of the same sex?

The folks at Daily Kos are trying to raise money to throw the kids a prom at a nearby venue.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/3/11 ... 8UPDATE%29

I see some email addresses in there. Writing an email now.

Here's to the state of Mississippi,
For Underheath her borders, the devil draws no lines,
If you drag her muddy river, nameless bodies you will find.
Whoa the fat trees of the forest have hid a thousand crimes,
The calendar is lyin' when it reads the present time.
Whoa here's to the land you've torn out the heart of,
Mississippi find yourself another country to be part of!

this lyric instantly came to mind

I don't know how I feel about this one but I've been working on it since yesterday and I needed to publish it after all that work.

http://www.centerforinquiry.net/blogs/e ... h_school_/

I went to my prom with two girls.

True story.

this is the last thing i'd expect from a county on the border of mississippi and alabama.

Lesbian threesome.

I went to my prom with a bottle of vodka, true story.