Lesbian teen fights for prom

2010-03-12 19:06

Jackson - 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 to reinstate the dance it cancelled rather than let the couple attend.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Mississippi on Thursday filed a lawsuit in US 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 on 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.

Violates student's rights

The district's decision on 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 tuxedo.

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 on Thursday.

Help offered

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 spokesperson for GLSEN: Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, a Washington-based advocacy group.

Schools react

"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 so as 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.

US 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 modelled 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 websites 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, Mississippi, where more than a decade ago school officials were sued in federal court over their practice of student-led intercom prayer and Bible classes.

- AP