Constance McMillen Photo: AP
Posted on 04/07/2010 7:56:09 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Disappointment as US high school students snub 'lesbian-friendly prom'
Senior prom fell far short of the rite of passage Constance McMillen was hoping for when she began a legal battle to challenge a ban on same-sex dates.
Published: 7:00AM BST 07 Apr 2010
Constance McMillen Photo: AP
The 18-year-old lesbian student said that she was one of only seven students to show up at a private party chaperoned by school officials. She said the rest of her peers went to another private event where she wasn't invited.
"It was not the prom I imagined," she said. "It really hurts my feelings. These are still people who I've gone through school with, even teachers who loved me before this all started. I've never been a bad student and I don't feel like I deserve to be put through this."
Her case drew a national spotlight after she and the American Civil Liberties Union challenged an Itawamba County School District rule that banned same-sex prom dates and a requirement that only male students wear tuxedos. Proms are parties held for students, generally in their senior year in high school.
The ACLU sent a demand letter to Superintendent Teresa McNeece in February, saying the rules against same-sex prom dates and girls wearing tuxedos violated Miss McMillen's constitutional rights. The district responded by withdrawing its sponsorship and cancelling the April 2 event.
In an apparent compromise, school district officials said parents would organise a private event with school chaperones that Miss McMillen could attend.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
In an apparent compromise, school district officials said parents would organise a private event with school chaperones that Miss McMillen could attend
I'll bet dollars to donuts their own children attended the dance the parents help give.
Her partner is supposed to be a 16-year old minor, which is why we haven’t seen any pictures of her. I wonder if there are statutory rape issues here that need to be looked into?
I smell pedophiles ALL OVER this story.
Why is the ACLU/LGBT Chorus media hiding this information?
Disappointment? She got a $30,000 scholarship from Ellen DeGeneres over this, who cares how she feels now?
There was probably statutory rape involved.
>> So one spectacularly selfish sexual cripple trumps the entire senior class?
No.
>> Homosexuality is a CHOICE, right up there with child molestation, beastiality, and necrophilia.
Agreed.
>> Being christian and forgiving hasn’t bought me anything but grief, lately. I think I’m going to go with pagan and vengeful. It’s much more satisfying, and I can always have a last-minute conversion... I’ll leave the forgiveness to those who believe themselves qualified.
Kindness for the outcast is indeed a rarity. Like I said, I am less concerned about this girl than about my child participating in the ostracization of seven kids (six of which aren’t Constance) ... and what that says about my kids’ values.
Constance may very well be reaping what she’s sown ... but replacing one sin (homosexuality) with another (picking on the outcasts) isn’t what I’d be aiming for as a parent.
SnakeDoc
The claim that there were 2 (yes only 2) special needs kids there was a claim made by the lesbian and has not been confirmed yet. Besides 2 special needs kids out of a total of how many special needs kids in the school? It could be that the parents of these two kids wanted to support the lesbian so they forced their kids to attend the gay prom. It probably has nothing to do with these special needs kids being left out by the students.
in another FR posted article it stated two of the kids were handicapped. In all likelyhood those kids would not have recieved notice of the other private party.
As for the other 3, who is to say those kids did not have a single homosexual raising them? It could be the parents.
The school board did their job. The non-attendees did their jobs.
this girl is now going to be the homosexual who killed the prom UNLESS THE COMPLETE STORY is reported.
I can’t see a whole student body conspiring to keep the alterna-prom from seven people other than the one who was giving them grief in the courts. I don’t see any complaints out of the seven either of being fooled. Doubtless of the seven either they were asked by their parents to “be tolerant” or decided they themselves didn’t care and thought it would be neat to go to an almost empty prom, freak show or no.
Or they chose to make a statement with their attendance.
To get the word out without the lesbian (or school administration) knowing, the student committee probably had access to a mailing list. There’s no reason to think this would omit handicapped students.
...or their parents were the ones running the prom, decorating, etc
God only gave you two cheeks to turn.
After that its time to go after the money changers.
My kids are 21, 18 and 15. Long past are the preschool days of inviting everyone in the class to parties etc. Undoubtedly throughout the course of their HS careers, my kids were on occasion excluded from parties, and other social events that kids in their HS classes have had. I imagine that other parents got together amongst themselves and WE weren’t included. this is LIFE. Because there was another PRIVATE event held that night, that not everyone was invited to, does not make those who attended the other event UNChristian or cruel or thoughtless.
mmmmm....not so much.
Mailing lists with student names, addresses, etc are private and are not supposed to handed out for any use other than an official school function.
I can imagine this was probably handled discreetly with written invitations. Constance KNEW of the other party, she even asked if she could go and was told it was at the country club and she assumed she couldn’t attend.
The other party wasn’t the offical prom, it was just a party
Godly love takes the form of saying no when we are asked to normalize sinful conduct. This wasn’t like the adulteress that Jesus approached in a context quite different from the one in which she committed the adulteries.
Thta’s a heck of a well-written reply from a high school senior of today. Good for her! You’d expect it 2 b wrtn l1k3 th1s!
>> On the other hand, a private party is a private party and it’s not elementary school any more where “every member of the class has to be invited.” I’m sure there were many parties over the last 4 years that were private without invitations for all.
There is a difference in “having the right” and “doing what is right”. They certainly have the right to invite whomever they want to a private party. Whether it is a moral right (as opposed to wrong, not as in “Constitutional right”) to ostracize a select few people is another question entirely.
>> As you said, Christ taught us to love the outcast, (however, not to COPY the outcast) and to treat others as he would have treated them.
Precisely. My contention is that, if we base our judgment of Constance’s behavior on Christian morality (which we are) ... we should base our judgment of the other kids behavior on that which is taught by Christ Himself.
Constance is wrong in many ways. She brought much of this on herself, and she likely deserves what she gets. But, should Believers really give her exactly what she deserves? Would Christ have approved of ostracizing her? She desperately needs to see the examples set by some good Christian kids.
>> But....good catch on the others. Were they invited and chose their ‘prom?’ Were they left out for a reason? Or is it all a tempest in teapot because the larger party was private?
The presence of the other six kids raise MANY questions about the behavior of the majority. I do understand the “private party” argument ... they have the right to invite and disinvite. But, is it morally right to invite all but seven?
SnakeDoc
IN fact, another article noted that Constance left the prom early because there were only 7 others there and she didn't enjoy it. So really, she ditched the others for her own personal reasons, just like the rest of the class decided not to attend the unofficial-official Prom.
Which is another weird part of this story -- they cancelled the official prom, and then had a "private" prom that was chaperoned by the school officials? DOesn't that make it an official school function, if you have school officials in charge, and I presume applied school rules?
In the end, an entire senior class had what some think is the most important day of their life RUINED because a girl insisted on wearing a tuxedo. What, is a lesbian genetically incapable of wearing a dress? And we are supposed to feel bad for the tuxedo-girl? And supposed to be upset at the entire class of people who had their prom ruined?
From the earlier stories, we learn that the school tried to make accomodations. They wouldn't let the girl bring a female underclassman as a date, but said she could come to the dance. They wouldn't let her wear a tuxedo. If she was dating another senior, they both could have come to the dance, and spent the dance together. She could have gotten a friend to "swap dates", so a guy could "bring" the sophomore, and the guy's senior date could have come "alone".
The girl insisted on wearing a tuxedo, and on being allowed to bring her same-sex sophomore (realise that in the end, it is unlikely the other kid's family would have allowed her to go, since they are refusing to allow anybody to know who she is or to take her picture, and obviously attending the prom would have meant pictures and notoriety).
The school, probably broke like most schools, could hardly afford a court battle, so they cancelled the prom.
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