Help Constance McMillen take her girlfriend to prom

17th March 2010

Help Constance McMillen take her girlfriend to prom

With the exception of Monday’s behemoth of a post, posting will be pretty light again this week. I’m mad crazy busy with both work stuff and a few personal projects and now with the sun making its grand reappearance along with blue skies and spring-like temps, will most likely be spending any and all leisure time soaking in the vitamin D and preparing my cottage garden for planting season. In the meantime, I urge you to take up a call issued today by Dan Savage. Dan might not totally *get it* on issues of fat stigma and discrimination, but he’s right on when it comes to the case of Constance McMillen, an out teenage lesbian and senior at Itawamba Agricultural High School in Fulton, Mississippi. Dan writes:

When [Constance] asked if she could attend prom with her girlfriend, she was told no. When Constance pressed her case, the Itawamba County School Board canceled prom rather than allow Constance to attend with her girlfriend. The school board had to know what would happen next: The other students blamed Constance for getting prom canceled and “ruining senior year.” Constance is now being harassed and bullied.

The school board claims it canceled prom to avoid “distractions.” Now it’s up to us—to decent people everywhere—to make sure that bigotry and discrimination are a much bigger distraction for the Itawamba County School District than inclusion and tolerance ever could’ve been.

E-mail, call, and fax Itawamba Schools superintendent Teresa McNeece (tmcneece@itawamba.k12.ms.us, phone 662-862-2159 ext. 14, fax 662-862-4713) and Itawamba Agricultural principal Trae Wiygul (twiygul@itawamba.k12.ms.us, 662-862-3104). Then join the Facebook page “Let Constance Take Her Girlfriend to Prom.” And, finally, make donations to the Mississippi Safe Schools Coalition (www.mssafeschools.org), which is organizing an alternate prom that will welcome all students, and make a larger donation to the ACLU LGBT Project (www.tinyurl.com/yl9mvkb).

Call, write, fax, donate. Constance needs to know that there are people all over the world who are on her side. And, more importantly, Itawamba County Schools needs to know that we’re not going to let them get away with this. Be respectful, but be relentless. Let’s show these bigots what a real distraction looks like. Get ‘em.

My best friend in high school transferred to my school because of the emotional and physical abuse and harassment she received from students and even a few teachers after taking a girl to the prom at her old high school. One of the chief reasons I think we bonded is that while I was a Rush-parroting conservative Republican at the time (like my parents), I, too, was often on the receiving end of emotional and physical abuse and harassment because I was fat. That was more than 13 years ago and yet how very little times have changed. As Shirley Chisholm said, ““In the end antiblack, antifemale, and all forms of discrimination are equivalent to the same thing – antihumanism.” We’re all in this together, folks, so take a few minutes to help Constance out.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 17th, 2010 at 3:59 pm and is filed under Gender & Sexuality, Rachel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

1 On March 18th, 2010, WendyRG said:

My two e-mails have already been sent. This is what I wrote:

“I am writing as a wife and mother of two teenagers. My heterosexual credentials–and those of my husband and sons–are impeccable. Yet I feel that it is my duty as a decent human being to ask that Constance McMillan be allowed to take the person of her choice to the prom.

I believe all well educated people realize that a) homosexuality is no more a “choice” than is heterosexuality and b) neither is it a “cult” that seeks to recruit new followers.

Constance should be afforded the same basic human rights as anyone else and that includes being accompanied to the prom by someone she holds dear.”

This kind of discrimination is abominable. But the more I see of the States, the less it surprises me.

posted on March 18th, 2010 at 10:30 am

2 On March 18th, 2010, Filmi Girl said:

Oh… the great Shirley Chisholm… What a woman she was!

This whole thing has made me sick! Irrational hatred and fear heaped on the shoulders of one 18-year old girl…

posted on March 18th, 2010 at 1:00 pm

3 On March 18th, 2010, Kim said:

I hope Constance has a good prom!

posted on March 18th, 2010 at 4:07 pm

4 On March 22nd, 2010, Vicky Delgada said:

Its 2010 people! Time to wake up! And canceling a prom? That seems really far-fetched! Should probably cancel TV while they are at it…damn that Ellen and Rosie O’Donald !

posted on March 22nd, 2010 at 10:07 pm

5 On April 6th, 2010, Elizabeth said:

Holy crap, they actually sent her to a fake prom! Along with the learning-disabled students, because they obviously would also have created too much “drama and distraction”.

posted on April 6th, 2010 at 3:06 pm

6 On April 6th, 2010, Rachel said:

Wow… how very sad. I had hoped the prejudice was limited to the school board, but it appears to be widespread in that community.

posted on April 6th, 2010 at 3:30 pm

7 On April 6th, 2010, Willow said:

When I was telling my husband about this story, he said in a flat voice, “They [meaning the school board, etc.] must have really wanted their prom.”

Their prom. That says it all, doesn’t it? Forget it if you’re gay or disabled or different from mainstream, able-bodied straight people. I nearly cried reading about the fake prom, thinking of how ugly, sad, and downright nasty that attitude is: “Let’s stick the gay people and the disabled people in the fake prom and then the cool people can have the real prom!” Doesn’t that sound like the thing a person would do when they’re, oh, i dunno, 15?

They’ll be in church this Sunday, praying away.

“The more I see of Mankind, the more I prefer my dog.” ~Blaise Pascal

posted on April 6th, 2010 at 5:14 pm