Lesbian teenager sent to hoax prom
April 9th, 2010 by Martina.Booth
A student who was banned from taking her girlfriend to the prom has been sent to a hoax prom by fellow students.
Constance McMillen, 18, made international headlines when school officials cancelled the official prom after refusing to let her bring her girlfriend to the event.
A US federal judge ruled that the ban violated Ms McMillen’s constitutional rights - but didn’t force the school to reinstate the prom, because it was understood that Ms McMillen would be invited to an alternative prom being organised by parents.
Instead, Ms McMillen and her date were sent to a country club event with five other students - while the rest of her class partied at a secret location.
“They had two proms and I was only invited to one of them,” Ms McMillen told The Advocate.
“The one I went to had seven people there, and everyone went to the other one I wasn’t invited to.”
Ms McMillen added that two of the students invited to the hoax prom had learning difficulties. “They had the time of their lives,” she said. “That’s the one good thing to come out of this, [these students] didn’t have to worry about people making fun of them [at their prom].”
The National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) has now invited Ms McMillen to its 33rd anniversary “lesbian prom” next month in San Francisco. The NCLR say it will pay for Ms McMillen’s travel costs to the event which attracts up to 2,000 people, and give her “a weekend she’ll never forget”.
I think it’s outrageous that the school and that community would not only flaunt heir bigotry in such a hurtful way, but would show such disrespect for the Courts and the Constitution (equal rights and privileges under the law) as well. Now the ACLU is suggesting federal legislation to recognize and codify basic human rights which should have been inviolable in the first place. Will we ever get past official sanction of hurtful bigotry? How can this school have accreditation?
Panty Buns ∼ April 11th, 2010 10:36 pmThat’s just evil. No wonder the kids are ignorant, with having the kind of parents who would orchestrate such a callous deliberate act!
AliT ∼ April 16th, 2010 5:36 amA group of lesbians invite a high school girl to SF for “a weekend she’ll never forget”. I bet. ;)
Sandrine ∼ April 17th, 2010 10:56 pm