Remember Constance McMillen, the Mississippi teenager who wanted to take her girlfriend to her high school prom?
And how the school board cancelled the prom rather than let her attend. And then hurt and humiliated her further by organizing a fake prom.
And how she tried to turn that cruelty into something beautiful.
Two students with learning difficulties were among the seven people at the country club event, McMillen recalls. "They had the time of their lives," McMillen says. "That's the one good thing that come out of this, [these kids] didn't have to worry about people making fun of them [at their prom]."
A school district in Mississippi has agreed to pay a recent high school graduate $35,000 in damages and adopt a policy prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation, according to a statement released Tuesday by the American Civil Liberties Union.
It's a happy ending to a sad story. And a new beginning in the Old South. But what moved me the most was the reaction of my gay friends when I told them the news. Just about all of them said roughly the same thing: they couldn't pay me enough for what I had to endure.
And all I could say was I know. I KNOW.
I didn't go to my prom, and if I was straight I probably wouldn't have gone either. I had to wait until I was seventeen to dance romantically with another guy.
At a street party in very French Montreal, with my new boy friend Sébastien.
That began sort of like this ...
I can't remember much about that night except how shy I was, the friendly cheers, the little paper lanterns, the big shoulders, and how good it felt to say to the whole world...without saying it: I like him and he likes me.
And of course how grateful I am that my motorbike didn't turn into a pumpkin at midnight eh? And that I'm still dancing with the guy I love.
Now thanks to a brave young lesbian a lot of other gay kids are going to get a chance to know how that feels.
Yesterday I wrote about the sad story of Constance McMillen, the gay teenager who was cheated out of her prom by a group of cruel bigots. And I wrote in the comments that it reminded me of the way white high school kids behaved in the redneck south during the days of segregation. How I had seen videos of them standing outside schools and chanting "two, four, six, eight, we don't want to INTEGRATE." While their parents and school officials and bigot cops looked on admiringly. Then today I read this story.
(Carolyn King) spent all Saturday getting ready, fixing her hair, slipping into the pink floral dress her mother finished the week before….She and her date drove that 1965 night with her father and a retinue of supporters and protectors toward the high school gym. They turned the corner. The gymnasium was dark, empty…..White mothers of the prom planners had kept the location of the Jones Valley High prom a secret so she couldn’t attend…."Of course they all taunted me about it -- `Did you like the prom, Caroline?’”
I guess some things in the Bible Belt never change eh? The victims of their cruelty may be different. But not those who would hurt and humiliate the oppressed. Because bullies are bullies. Bigots are bigots.
You've probably heard of Constance McMillen, the 18-year-old lesbian who fought for the right to bring her girlfriend to her prom in Fulton, Mississippi.
She won a court order after the school cancelled the prom rather than allow her to attend. Then they organized another one for her.
But when her big night arrived it turned out to be a fake prom.
What nasty little white trash bigots. And what a sad story. Although there was something to celebrate: Two students with learning difficulties were among the seven people at the country club event, McMillen recalls. "They had the time of their lives," McMillen says. "That's the one good thing that come out of this, [these kids] didn't have to worry about people making fun of them [at their prom]."
Meanwhile in Cochran, Georgia, Derrick Martin has been told by his school that they can't stop him from bringing his boy friend to the prom.
“I don’t believe in going up there and dancing with gay guys like that,” she said. “It’s also not just him bringing a boy. It was bringing all this attention to it.”
We knew Derrick was gay,” said Keith Bowman Jr., a high school senior who showed up at the rally. “They don’t want (Cochran) to be known as a pro gay town.”
They are talking about organizing a separate prom.
And oh yeah...like so many other gay teenagers he's been kicked out of his home.
As a result of the media attention, Martin’s parents have kicked him out of their home, and he’s staying with a friend in Cochran.
Martin’s father is a math teacher at Bleckley County High and is the school’s Teacher of the Year.
Great eh?
I know all too well that what doesn't kill you can make you stronger.
And that Constance and Derrick are setting a magnificent example for gay kids everywhere. My heroes. But when will this cruel bigotry end?
