The Itawamba County School District in northeast Mississippi has canceled the April 2 prom at Itawamba Agricultural High School to stop a lesbian couple from attending.
The board cited “distractions to the educational process caused by recent events” and urged citizens to organize a private prom that assumedly could legally ban gays.
Student Constance McMillen, 18, was told she couldn’t attend the prom with her girlfriend and couldn’t wear a tuxedo either. She fought back, enlisting help from the American Civil Liberties Union.
Gays and their lawyers usually win prom-ban cases on federal constitutional grounds, so the district responded by just canceling the whole thing.
“Oh, my God,” McMillen said, when informed of the development by USA Today. “That’s really messed up because the message they are sending is that if they have to let gay people go to prom that they are not going to have one. A bunch of kids at school are really going to hate me for this.”
On March 11, McMillen and the ACLU sued the school district, demanding that the prom be un-canceled and that McMillen be allowed to attend, with her girlfriend, in a tux.
At press time, McMillen’s battle was shaping up as a possible Rosa Parks moment for the LGBT movement, eliciting support from everyone from Ellen DeGeneres to more than 243,000 Facebook fans. Hashtag #Constance was a “trending topic” on Twitter, which is a big deal, she was appearing on network newscasts and talk shows, and Google was reporting 176,000 unique hits on her name.
By Rex Wockner
