Bigotry and Deception.

I do not know how many of you will be aware of a story from Mississippi that has made the news recently. A high school girl wanted to attend her senior prom with a date. Her date just so happened to be a girl. Yes, it was a lesbian date (one of the girls wanted to wear a tuxedo for the event as well). Does any sane person see anything wrong with two girls going to a school dance together? Frankly, if you answered "yes" to that admittedly hypothetical question I no longer value your opinion.

The people who did answer in the affirmative were the people running her school. They banned Constance McMillen and her girlfriend from the prom. A teenage rite of passage denied because she had the strength to be herself. McMillen then, with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), brought a lawsuit against the school for discriminatory practices. The school's response was to cancel the prom altogether. Seriously.

This is the point of the story that really infuriates me. After a lot of pressure, they decided to allow the prom to go ahead, and told McMillen she could bring her date and wear a tuxedo. When she turned up to this event there was a grand total of seven people attending. Seven. Two of whom were said to be students with learning disabilities. Seems odd doesn't it? It gets worse. She later discovered that the majority of her senior class had attended a separate, private party (acting as a prom) on the same night, to which she was not invited. This party was organized by the parents. There are several levels on which I am disgusted regarding this story.

Firstly, the initial ban. What was so wrong with the idea of a same sex couple at the prom? I will tell you: nothing. Having a problem with homosexuality is one thing, as long as it is kept private. No public institution should be allowed to discriminate against sexuality at all. Bottom line. Secondly, the pig-headed vindictiveness with which the school responded to the complaint. As I mentioned earlier they chose to ruin the prom for everyone in their senior class before they would allow one same sex couple be treated as an equal. While these factors did irritate me it was the next part of the story that really infuriated me.

The fake prom. This sounds like a cruel prank one would find in a high school movie. Instead of allowing this couple to attend the prom the school told them that's what they were doing and sent them to a separate prom (in case they infected the other kids with 'the gay' perhaps). They segregated these kids. I do not use that word lightly but it is precisely what they did. The other prom attended by the majority of the students would perhaps be less heinous if it was the work solely of cruel, immature teenagers, but it wasn't. It was organized by the school and the parents. Adults, who should know better actually assisted in this cruel piece of bigoted deception.

Finally the last aggravating point is that the fake prom that McMillen and her girlfriend were sent to was also the prom that students with learning difficulties were sent to. The school was not content to humiliate and segregate students for being gay, they thought that students with learning difficulties should be purged from the prom too. The one positive that came from that situation, McMillen said, was that those students "didn't have to worry about people making fun of them [at their prom]."

Constance McMillen appears to be dealing with this awful turn of events in the classiest way possible. I commend her for taking a stand and for staying strong in the face of such discrimination. The school and parents should be utterly ashamed of themselves for this. The amount of callousness displayed at every step of the way is deplorable and I for one think that they should be held accountable for it.