Mississippi Prom Halted: Lesbian wanted to bring Girlfriend

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http://www.advocate.com/News/Daily_News ... Fake_Prom/

McMillen: I Was Sent to Fake Prom
By Neal Broverman

To prevent Constance McMillen from bringing a female date to her prom, the teen was sent to a "fake prom" while the rest of her class partied at a secret location at an event organized by parents.

McMillen tells The Advocate that a parent-organized prom happened behind her back — she and her date were sent to a Friday night event at a country club in Fulton, Miss., that attracted only five other students. Her school principal and teachers served as chaperones, but clearly there wasn't much to keep an eye on.

"They had two proms and I was only invited to one of them," McMillen says. "The one that I went to had seven people there, and everyone went to the other one I wasn’t invited to."

Last week McMillen asked one of the students organizing the prom for details about the event, and was directed to the country club. "It hurts my feelings," McMillen says.

Two students with learning difficulties were among the seven people at the country club event, McMillen recalls. "They had the time of their lives," McMillen says. "That's the one good thing that come out of this, [these kids] didn't have to worry about people making fun of them [at their prom]."

In March, after the Itawamba County School District refused to allow McMillen to bring a female date to the prom, the district canceled the event altogether. McMillen and her lawyers from the American Civil Liberties Union challenged that decision in court, and a judge ruled the district could not bar McMillen and her date.

The judge declined to force the school district to hold the prom because a parent-sponsored, private prom was being organized — and the understanding was that McMillen and her date were invited to that event. But Hampton says McMillen was never invited and organizers made it very difficult for her to find information on the time and location. That prom was later mysteriously canceled, with the Friday night event at the country club officially replacing it.

that is very sad. in fact, it is infuriating. the parents involved in the petty charade thought they were so clever, but really they were just so mundane. Constance McMillen deserved better, and i hope she leaves this provincial little town far behind her.

That's what I wonder as well. I know that they said same-sex dates weren't allowed, but I want to add something. I live in Mississippi and attended a dance (not a prom) a few years ago (not at that school, I also don't know this girl). They make tickets for couples cheaper, so same-sex people tried to split the price as 'couples'. They could have paid separate fees and just gone to the dance. I guess if she wanted to make a big deal out of being able to go as an 'official' couple then that's up to her, I just don't see why it would matter as long as they were getting to do what they ultimately wanted to do

I don't agree with the choices of Itawamba County Schools, but I really don't appreciate all these fingers being pointed at Mississippi. Stereotyping MS and talking down about it doesn't help anything and I don't think it encourages the residents to think any differently about anything. There are prejudiced/bigoted/homophobic people and people who make bad decisions in every state.

When people do prejudiced/bigoted/homophobic things - it makes their state look bad - the solution therefore is to stop doing prejudiced/bigoted/homophobic things like setting up a fake prom to humiliate a teen girl who just wanted the same rights as everyone else to go to the prom with a person of her choosing. If this happened in a different state, then people would be just as outraged.

The issue is, that gay people have to jump through additional hurdles just to have the same rights as everyone else. Even in states with civil unions/gay marriage you get bigots at hospitals that won't allow a person to see their spouse unless they prove that they're married - something that would be unheard of for a straight couple. Also, why should she have to pay extra for a ticket when she's going with someone as a couple?

One hopes that your 14 year old has a more mature world view than you.

It is possible to have a discussion that draws a distinction between healthy, fulfulling sexual relationships, and exploitative, destructive relationships. Supporting the freedom of lesbians to attend a prom together is not the same thing as supporting sexual licentiousness.

A "room full of men sodomizing each other" is no different than "a room full of people having an orgy." Neither is behaviour that you want to encourage--but the behaviour that is troublesome is not the homosexuality of the participants in the first situation, because it is irrelevant to the second.

The world does not fit into neat black and white categories of "good" and "bad" behaviour.

an excellent perspective with which to view this chain of events.


there is an obvious monster presiding over this issue. humans have engaged in homosexual behavior, as far as we can tell, throughout our history. there is a perception that homosexuality is somehow harmful to our species and the correlation is obviously not factual. the monster i'm talking about is not homosexuality. the monster is the religious indoctrination that allows otherwise rational people to see a devil where there is only a difference.

at some point, we're going to have to accept that vast majority of the opposition to gay rights are the kind of people who think of evolution as "just a theory" at best. someone tell these people that sexual pleasure is good, not bad, and isn't going to destroy the world so they can go back to waiting for the second coming of santa.

This sounds like the kind of manouever that would be pulled by the "cool kids" in some teen comedy. I am astonished that young people in this day and age would consider this to be an appropriate course of conduct.

I agree, it would be great if people weren't prejudiced/bigoted/homophobic. But I don't think being judgmental of one another's homes and picking on each other accomplishes that goal. (It's still bigotry, really.) If this happened in California people might be angry, but I don't think we would talk in southern drawls and say "that's good ol' California" in a sarcastic way.

And again, yes, it is unfair that they had to pay extra for a ticket. I've just been thinking about what I would have done in the same situation, and it seems like if the ultimate goal here was to go to the prom then why would a couple extra bucks matter. But I think she was worried about more than that.

The thing with the South is, that people tend to expect bigotry from the South and are rarely disappointed - which brings me to my point which is if Southerners want to stop being called bigots they shouldn't do things like get together and hold a fake prom to prevent a teen girl from having a prom with her partner.

It's about justice to me - why should gay people have to go through extra hurdles to get what straight people get without question?

And my point is, it's a sampling of Mississippi that did that; I'm a part of Mississippi, yet I still have to be grouped with those people. It's not "if the South wants to stop being called bigots they shouldn't do that" because the entire Southern population doesn't huddle together and decide to exclude homosexual people. It's generalizing. I could generalize that all Northerners are bigoted against Southerners, but I think that's a bit unfair (and untrue, as I doubt that every Northerner is).

For example, people make a lot of generalizations about AS. There are generalizations that people with AS are lazy. I would have to guess that there are people with AS that are lazy, and some that are not lazy. I might get called lazy because I am AS too, but I can't just go and announce to all the AS people of the world "stop being lazy! I don't want to be associated with you!" because it isn't that simple. I'm not arguing that there are bigoted people here because there are, I just wish people could remember that there are bigoted people everywhere. Also, I think when you have low expectations for something you often get what you expected.

You're right, not everyone in Mississippi is prejudiced and it is unfair of me to generalise. I guess part of it is wanting those that are prejudiced embarrassed enough that they change but things like this would probably just inspire pride or resistance on their part while further marginalising those who disagree with them.

That's all I was saying. I get the feeling that that is the attitude some from Mississippi are adopting, though I don't really know because I don't live near that particular school district.

Has anyone written letters to the school? I've read the facebook pages about Constance, and there have been a lot of people writing letters. I will probably write one.

Well I had a feeling that the rest of the student body wouldn't take to having their prom cancelled so lightly. And being teenagers as they are with the girls being in the news and then having their prom cancelled, who else were they gonna blame?

It would be typical for everyone to get back at a student who ruins things for them even if it was unintentionally done.

That has to be the bitchiest thing I have ever heard. I am actually astounded!

Dang it all!

I wuz gonna bring my favorite sow to the prom. I even got her new lipstick and a hat.

They's jest prejudiced. That's all I got to say.