Miss. school prom off after lesbian's date request

From the AP via the Washington Post courtesy of Eschaton:

The American Civil Liberties Union had demanded that the Itawamba County school district allow senior Constance McMillen to attend with her girlfriend. A school district policy requires that dates be of the opposite sex.

A school board statement Wednesday announced the district wouldn't host the April prom. The district's statement didn't mention McMillen's request but did refer to unspecified recent "distractions."

A bit more here.

Homophobic schools have been pulling this stunt since at least the mid 90s. Back then, it was gay/straight alliance clubs. Kids would try to get one going and school officials would refuse. Some of these kids enlisted legal aid, and, threatened by lawsuits, officials essentially destroyed the village in order to save it: they banned all clubs to keep the gays out. And not only did such a move keep the gays out, it had the added benefit, for homophobic administrators, of turning rank-and-file students against their gay classmates for getting all clubs shut down--the young lesbian in the above linked article expects the very same thing to happen to her.

Of course, this is total bigoted bullshit, fully illustrating how utterly irrational homophobes are. I mean, big fucking deal if a lesbian couple attends prom, right? But because it looked like the big bad communist fag-loving ACLU was going to get involved, the school went for the nuclear option, which is just nuts.

But the times they are a changin'. I see far fewer of these stories today than I did a decade ago. Meanwhile, the gay marriage movement continues to post success after success. It is telling that this prom ban is taking place at a school in Mississippi, historically the most prejudiced state in the union. I'm thinking that when I'm in my 70s, this shit will be safely stuck in the past.

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