Can't Ban Gay Couples? Cancel the Prom for Everyone!

If you're a high school in Mississippi and you really don't want your students bringing same-sex dates to the prom, what are you to do?

Well, you could try to ban them from coming to the prom, although that's illegal. Or, if you're the Itawamba Agricultural High School, you can cancel the prom altogether and punish everyone. That's right. No gay couples. No straight couples. No prom.

Isn't it amazing the depths folks will go in order to continue homophobic policies? That this school wanted to stop a lesbian student from bringing a same-sex date to the prom was outrageous enough. But to cancel the entire prom just to take aim at this student is punishing every single person in the school. So much for school's acting in the best interests of their students.

The Itawamba Agricultural High School's mission statement is to "involve school, families, and community in enabling students to be responsible and productive citizens of an ever changing world by providing academic and technological programs in a learning environment that is safe, orderly, empowering, and challenging." If that's the case, their decision to eliminate the prom is a complete and total epic FAIL.

Eliminating the prom does not create a learning environment that is safe for all students, and certainly not empowering. Instead, it sends a message of intolerance, and a message that the school is much more interested in playing politics, rather than prioritizing the interests of their student body.

E-mail this school right now and express your outrage. Canceling the prom altogether is an absolute disturbing move that should be rewarded by universal condemnation.

The student at the heart of this case is a senior named Constance McMillen. Reached by the Clarion Ledger, McMillen said she was absolutely disgusted that her school would try to punish her by canceling the prom for everyone.

"Oh, my God. 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," she said. "A bunch of kids at school are really going to hate me for this, so in a way it’s really retaliation."

Here's hoping that last part is not true. It's not about hating McMillen for this. It's about harshing on the leadership of the Itawamba Agricultural High School for punishing every single person in the entire school just because they're "uncomfortable" with two female students showing up at the prom. If students should be mad, they should be mad with a school district that can't look out for the best interests of all students.

The school now is encouraging "private citizens" to host an event similar to the prom. Why?  Because private citizens can discriminate and bar same-sex couples from attending. It's a run around move to foster discrimination, and it's really unacceptable.

E-mail the Itawamba Agricultural High School now and urge them to reconsider their decision to punish all students. LGBT students are nothing to be afraid of, and though the school thinks that a same-sex couple would cause discomfort, the only thing discomforting about this case is that the school seems willing to throw all students under a bus in order to preach a gospel of homophobia. So much for fostering an environment where all students can thrive.

Photo credit: snitni4