Lesbian Teen and Students With Disability Sent to Fake Prom

How low can they go? Pretty darn low.

Remember Constance McMillen, the queer teen who was barred from bringing her girlfriend to prom, and then had the whole shebang canceled on her and her classmates by the school? With the backing of the ACLU, she sued for a discriminatory violation her constitutional rights. But even though she won her case against the school district, the judge decided against forcing the school to reinstate the original prom, since he felt it would just muddle up preparations already underway for an alternative prom.

An alternative prom McMillen was not welcome at.

Mike Jones reports on the Gay Rights blog that McMillen's classmates and their parents conspired to send her to a fake prom, while everybody else would be at the real once. The concerted effort on behalf of students and their parents to lie to McMillen on a united front is astounding, as is their attempt to justify their homophobia and nasty action as McMillan's fault anyway for making all that fuss about her girlfriend and her tux. The classmates also sent a couple kids with learning disabilities to the fake prom — no way to justify that one as the victims' fault for causing a stir. They sure are classy down in Mississippi.

We also have here an excellent example of history, and discrimination, repeating itself: 45 years ago, an African-American girl in Birmingham was tricked into attending a fake prom by racist classmates. It's good to know that bigotry and intolerance looks the same half a century latter, even if the victim and particular characteristic that triggers the hate changes.

Photo credit: Elessar