Gay Rights: Of High School Proms and Courage

If you grew up in the USA, chances are you went to your high school prom, either in the 11th or 12th grades or both. Prom is a rite of passage of American students, with all of the teen angst and drama percolating through and around the experience that one expects from the teen experience in social learning settings. Although some schools and students splurge extravagantly for prom, most of us concerned ourselves with what to wear, what time to arrive, and if we were going solo or otherwise. Sometimes, though, such events can mark a significance that is witnessed far and wide.

A few days ago, an 18 year old high school lesbian senior in Itawamba County, Mississippi, Constance McMillen, approached school authorities to let them know in advance that she would be coming with her girlfriend. Their response was typical of this excessively conservative region of the Deep South Bible Belt when it comes to gay matters. Rather than permit Ms. McMillen to come as she had requested, they told her that she and her GF could come if they were accompanied by boys, citing their official heterosexist policy. Then, rather than deal with the entire situation in a mature and just way, they chose to cancel the entire prom for all students. This ignorant, uneducated school board manipulated the situation so that the ire of students was turned on this high school senior who behaved admirably and with considerable fortitude. They apparently figured they would just sweep the entire thing under the rug and that would be that.

Not so fast, said Ms. McMillen and her father, who told her that she needed to return to school and face her peers, which tells us where she learned integrity and bravery. They contacted the ACLU, who has intervened and is aiding Constance McMillen in her request to be included in this important event in her life, identifying it as a failure of authorities to respect McMillen’s 1st Amendment right to expression. It is of note that in neighboring Alabama (my home state), Franklin County authorities chose to proceed with the Tharptown prom and another lesbian may now participate with her female prom date, after ACLU action.

It is said that children can be leaders and teachers, which is requisite on our being open to following, learning, and growing. I am certain that the entire Itawamba County school board members are churchgoing, God-fearing Christians, as that is an unspoken and assumed consideration for the post. Their actions loudly boom a worldview that chooses to elevate practices and beliefs from a  past that wasn’t that good for many dispossessed or disenfranchised people and groups, notably African-Americans. Now, using the same thinking and tactics, they are trying to oppress the Constitutional rights and freedoms of lesbians and gays.

I chose to leave the Deep South in the early 1970s, rather than face a permanent tsunami of homophobia firmly located in an impossibly moralist culture. My hat is off to Constance McMillen, her GF, and her father for facing down bigotry and for advancing the cause of human rights for us all.

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