Cynthia Stewart, the lesbian Alabama high school junior who was barred from bringing her girlfriend to the prom, will be able to slow dance with her gal after all. Even before the ACLU got involved, supposedly the school district was “already in the process of re-evaluating the issue and concluded Stewart’s girlfriend can attend the prom in March as long as she is cleared through a screening process that all out-of-district dates must undergo when attending similar school functions.” We want photos!
Keith Kimmel
Congratulations, Cynthia! Fight the power!
Alex Hanpeter
hell yeah! go cynthia!
Wes B
Way to go! I’m glad the time has come in Alabama when kids are willing to stand up and be counted for who they really are. A lot has changed there since I went to my proms with girls, even though I should have gone with my boyfriend.
Alex
Good! I bet her peers had a lot to do with this too. Stats indicate that people under 30 in Alabama are more supportive of gay rights than people over 65 in Massachusetts (in other words, age has a lot more to do with it than geography). Just like how all those high schoolers in Illinois got that one teacher back on the job last week, I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of Miss Stewart’s friends were making their opinions known to the administration.
Stef
I was very proud of this girl! I hope she has a wonderful time.
But on the flip side, it’s sad to see how much further our side has to go. If you look at the story in the local Tharptown paper, and look at the comments section, you can see the backlash from the community. It’s still the old religious south. ugh. These people need to get out and make a gay friend.
Sebs
cynthia is a fierce woman
Chris Hampton
I’m one of the staffers at the ACLU who’s been helping Cynthia and I have to offer a bit of a clarification on this. While the principal told a local reporter that he is letting Cynthia bring her girlfriend to prom and that report has gotten out there quite a bit, the school has yet to respond to the ACLU, and they also have yet to address the free speech issue raised by the principal forcing Cynthia to remove her “I’m a lesbian” sticker. We’re really hoping what he told the reporter is true and we certainly look forward to talking with the school, but we don’t at all consider the matter closed yet.
Liz
Thanks for your post on this topic – I just blogged about some related issues at Psychology Today: https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/gender-and-schooling
Thought your readers might be interested in checking it out!