It’s not that Constance McMillen’s classmates hate the girl, you see. The reason they had their own prom and purposefully sent Constance to the “official” (ruse) event was because they were tired of all her drama. But it’s difficult for us to explain, so let’s let classmate Lindsey Begley speak in her own words.
Writing in one comments thread, Begley tried this one out:
**Open Minded Readers Only**
I am a senior at IAHS, and I’ve known Constance for the last 6 years. Please hear our side of the story before you decide on our fate.
The party we had in Evergreen (the county neighborhood I live in) is 30 mins away from the school. we rented out the community center, hired vendors, decorated, and our parents ran the security/chaperone staff- but it wasn’t prom. Prom was at the country club where constance and 7 other students were. The reason the senior class boycotted the actual prom was not because we hate gays. We wanted a drama-free gathering to celebrate 3 great years and 1 lousy one together, and we wanted to lay low. We also wanted to do it without the main cause of the lousy. What people are failing to realize is that much of the fault of this whole stink lies with Constance, not her mistreatment by the school district, but her crazy-reckless need for attention. It sounds mean and horrible and like we planned it all specifically to embarrass Constance, but we didn’t. We let her have her prom with her girlfriend and her tuxedo and we went to party it up in the “boondocks” not because we wanted her rights violated, but so we could salvage what has turned into a total fiasco. As a whole we didn’t support her decision to throw the district under the bus, or her insinuations that we’re all just a bunch ‘a hicks driving around in beater pick up trucks spitting tobacco and burning crosses. IAHS is one of the top schools in the state and I’m proud of that, and I’m proud that we took a stand and just said you know what? forget it, we have just as much right as you do to have a party for ourselves. So we did, and now we’re getting flack because poor Connie’s ego got a bit of bruising. She’s playing the lesbian card to prove she ALWAYS gets what she wants. This time, we didn’t just let her.
Take it as you will, because I’m sure it sounds like we faked her out, but understand this- the decision NOT to attend prom had nothing to do with the school or with Constance’s sexual preferences; it had everything to do with proving we weren’t going to let her and the ACLU steamroll us into doing what Constance wanted. We flexed the muscle of the majority and we’ll suffer the consequences.
See, it’s Constance’s fault. Here she was, demanding to be treated like every other student, and it just got in the way of the kids having a good time!
Shortly thereafter, Begley wrote this, clearing up any confusion over her previous remarks:
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
Thanks to everyone who has responded to my post from earlier this evening. First want to apologize for the misrepresentation of the motives behind our decision. Secondly, I want to apologize for any discomfort I must have caused all you revolutionaries who are working so hard to bring change to such a small minded place as Itawamba- but do me one favor. Please, do not assume that every graduate from IAHS is stupid, incompetent as I seem to all of you. I ask that you forgive my very emotional attempt at defending my home. I personally believe that the whole thing has turned into a tempest in a teacup, so to speak, and I wish now that things could have been changed. Again, I ask you though please do not sterotype my school, county, state, or region based on what I have said.
Thanks again.
Lindsey
And she wasn’t the only one proud of excluding a classmate. Other students took to Facebook to gossip about their stunt.
If anything is clear, it’s that Itawamba Agricultural High School suffers from an educational deficit, because the entire civil rights era seems to have been lost on these students. Absent from their remarks is any notion that there was a time, in very recent history, that these excuses were used to keep white and black students from attending the same schools (and dances).
There will come a day when some of these students, whether they’re mid-way through college or breastfeeding their second son, look back on this outcasting exercise and come to regret what they did to a fellow human being. Many others, however, will not. And they, not Constance, are who we truly feel bad for.
Cam
Again, this is the standard line from bigoted pathetic small southern towns. Their biggest fear is to have a focus put on their behavior, so they have constructed their false world where the biggest sin is “Trying to get attention.” But isn’t that also the biggest fear of people like child molesters? They complain that Constance was “Just trying to get attention.” Well then, why did she get attention? Oh thats right, because the school was trying to discriminate against her. And what would have happened if she didn’t “Try to get attention” oh thats right, the school would have been able to break the law and nobody would have found out.
Again, lets compare them to child molesters who tell their victims not to tell their parents…what happens if they do not “Try to get attention” by telling their parents? The molester has free rein to do it again. What happens if they do “Get attention” by telling their parents? The molester is stopped and sent to jail.
So all the people in this town that keep bitching about her trying to get attention need to realize. Nobody would have GIVEN her any attention if you all weren’t such a bunch of low class, bigoted, rednecked, trash who were breaking the law.
RomanHans
Fighting for equal rights — to bring a female date to the prom — is “playing the lesbian card”? Love to hear what these kids think about that bitch Rosa Parks.
Lindsay says, “Please, do not assume that every graduate from IAHS is stupid, incompetent as I seem to all of you.”
Lindsay, I’m sad to say that was a requirement to get into your prom.
JonJon
Why wait until they are “breastfeeding their second son”? These bigots ruined Constance & these other mentally disabled student’s prom, why don’t we return the favor at graduation. Are they going to have a fake one of those too? I say we get out and set up a protest at the entry to wherever they are holding their graduation and see if they can stand themselves when they have to walk past a bunch of grown men and women waving banners and rainbow flags. I’m tired of the notion that we gay men and women are always supposed to “take the high road”. I say it’s time we play tit-for-tat.
JonJon
Correction: In rereading my comment I think it may have sounded as though I’m implying Constance has a mental disability. That’s not what I meant at all. What I meant was that they ruined Constance’s & these other students who are mentally disabled’s prom. Sorry for any confusion.
Cam
Being called a Brat or “Playing the lesbian Card” when asking for being allowed to go to a publicly supported event. Sounds a little bit like when their parents and grandparents called people “Uppity N*****s” for having the insulting gall to ask for voting rights and to not get firehosed for wanting equal access to public businesses like restaurants.
I suppose it is a compliment for parents to have their children turn out just like them. Well then there are many many parents in Mississippi today who should be feeling proud. They’ve raised a bunch of ignorant, intolorant, redneck, bigoted trash. Have a beer you Mississippi Moms and dads, you deserve it!
Justin
In the end its constance laughing…..
Shes the one that became famous.
Shes the one who got a scholarship from Ellen.
Shes the one who got to bring her date to the fake prom.
Shes the one who will probably leave the obscurity of “hicksville” life and actually make something of her life.
Shes the one who will most likely be the changing this country in the future.
All these lackeys have is their small town, theyre small closed minds, and a bunch of “sticks”
Wade MacMorrighan
OMGs! “Flexing the muscle of the majority”? Sounds like she believes, as all right-wing nuts that “majority might makes right”! And, that’s just sick…
BTW, thanks for reminding of the tactics of early segregated schools!
Robert
Okay – I’ll buy that she wanted some drama-free time with her friends and even that Constance is a rabid ACLU lesbian wielding her sexuality as a weapon. I’ll totally buy that because the town was in a no-win situation the moment the school canceled prom. Just think about their options:
1.) They defend the schools decision and are branded a bunch of red-neck homophobes and the ACLU shoves lawsuit after lawsuit down their throats.
2.) They defend Constance and then the ACLU gets to claim another victory against small-minded red necks.
And honestly… how COULD the seniors have an enjoyable Prom in the end? Sure it sucks for Constance as she fought for this… but in her fight she ruined the enjoyment for a lot of other people because Prom ceased being a right of passage for them and became political.
BUT! The prom that Constance was invited to reportedly was only populated by special needs students and other ‘outsiders’ which sort of says a lot about the character of the IAHS seniors.
Robert
@Justin:
She’s famous; for about 10 more minutes. She extended that fame by bringing up the fake prom but America’s sympathy isn’t going to extend forever.
As for the rest well… I doubt it. She’ll fade into obscurity after this like so many after their 15 minutes and CNN will look to see where she is in 10 years and this will probably be the highpoint of her life.
Cam
No. 8 · Robert said…
And honestly… how COULD the seniors have an enjoyable Prom in the end? Sure it sucks for Constance as she fought for this… but in her fight she ruined the enjoyment for a lot of other people because Prom ceased being a right of passage for them and became political.
——————————————–
How could they have an enjoyable prom in the end? Here is an idea, they could show up, dance, and talk to their friends, hang out, maybe sneak out to the parking lot for a beer if anybody brought one and stay out late…in other words, what kids always do at prom.
As for Constance ruining their fun? Again, just how would their fun have been ruined if they had gone to the prom at the country club? LEss music there? Worse food? Would the girls dresses have automatically gotten uglier as they walked through the door?
And also, Constance ruined their fun? An interesting thought, I suppose that the police who arrest theives ruin their fun as well. The school was breaking the law, she got a lawyer, and suddenly she is the bad guy instead of the lawbreaker..nice.
soul_erosion
Well dear little precious, Lindsey, aren’t you just the sweetest “partied up in the boondocks of Evergreen with jealousy” high school graduate that ever lived? But at the end of night, after the DJ has packed up his music, the private community center decorations have been pulled down, your wrist corsages wilted, you still had to go back to your ever-so thoughtful security & chaperoned minded parents and whine,”…mama, daddy, that big ole lesbo Constance got $30,000 from that big ole TV lesbo Ellen and now you’re telling me that you didn’t save enough to put me through beauty school here in Tupelo? And what’s worse is that big ole fat Bonnie Beauregard Jackson (in yellow dress from other thread)was suckin face with my old boyfriend, Bubba. This has got to be the lousiest year of my life!”
MB
@Robert 8&9
Well put!
*By her own admission* McMillen was encouraged by her lesbian mother and her mother’s activist friends to use the prom to force a contest over lgbt rights.
Interestingly, McMillen has been quoted saying she had been well treated by her teachers and classmates prior to her activist stand with the school on the prom — and was so surprised when they didn’t “just give in” to her request to escort a ss date and wear a tux, because she had been told by her adult activist coaches that they would!
Could it be the town was TARGETED by lgbt activists and young Constance their proxy? Rumor has it that conservative press is looking into the story . . .
And then there is the complicity of the gay press in presenting (and fueling) the controversy, which has been called out by gay activist blogs . . .
As a “lone lesbian activist student in a Southern school” McMillen has a much more marketable media story than as a well connected and supported agent of older, experienced lgbt activists who had the connections to link into media and the ACLU.
Look what the gay media has done for McMillen — launched her as a gay media darling, providing money and celeb status within the community as only the lgbt community can do!
While McMillen was busy with her lgbt political agenda, many of her senior classmates (including non activist inclined gays)chose to celebrate their high school years with a party elsewhere, privately, *free from* an lgbt agenda.
Bottom line, McMillen is protected to pursue her lgbt agenda publically and her classmates are protected to pursue private partying that *excludes* an lgbt agenda.
And the irony? Reported yesterday, McMillen’s 15 year old girlfriend did not attended the prom with McMillen — she NEVER had her parents’ permission to attend the event in the first place! McMillen did, however, wear a tux and brought a female friend with her.
GeoffM
Thats alright, thats okay they’re gonna pump her gas some day.
Cam
@ No. 12 · MB
MB, your problem is that you are the typical small town Southerner, desperate to try to defend the indefensible. While you sputter and foam at the mouth to try to come up with any conspiracy, or to claim that Contance was told to do this by her mother etc… what you fail to understand is that WHY she did this is irrelevent. Only in the small town south can you try to insult somebody doing the RIGHT thing by claiming they are out for attention. Because you see, that is the ONLY way you can keep the illegalities and other bigotry safe from outside eyes.
Constance’s reasons are a non-issue, the fact of the matter is that the school was doing something illegal, she called them on it, and the students responded the same way that bigoted rednecks have responded for 200 years. By doing whatever they can to keep those dam (Insert pejorative term for balcks, women, Jews, Mexicans, foreigners, etc…) from getting uppity and getting equal treatment.
terrwill
@MB:
“Rumor has it that conservative press is looking into the story” Thank you MB!! I can sleep so very much better tonight knowing that Faux News is “looking into the story”…………I am sure they will present an “unfair and unbalanced” investigation………….
Queerts: Once again your Editors have their facts wrong:
There will come a day when some of these students, whether they’re mid-way through college or breastfeeding their second son,
Should Read:
There will come a day when some of these students, whether they’re mid-way throught their second shift at WalMart, or breastfeeding their eighth son while sitting in the mobile home on blocks at the trailer park………
JonJon
@Cam:
“Rumor has it that conservative press is looking into the story”
This is almost laughable. The idea that the conservative press takes the time to look into any story about the left is a joke. Everyone who has spent any time in front of Faux News can attest to the fact that they just run stories and then when its debunked never say a word.
JonJon
Apologies. I meant that to be directed to @MB.
AlwaysGay
The haterosexuals wanted to rig the prom to be heterosexual-only and that’s what they did. Constance is apart of that school and had every right to go to prom AS SHE IS which is a lesbian with her girlfriend. It’s too bad she upset their haterosexual sensibilities. Forcing someone to pretend to be haterosexual or else is wrong.
soul_erosion
@MB:”rumor has it that conservative press is looking into story..”
oh, MB,rumor has it that April is going to be a very busy month for gay legal cases, you know, just in case you get bored with Constance. The Prop 8 appeals briefs are due April 9, the Italian Supreme Court is supposed to issue their decision on gay marriage on April 12, oral argument in the US Supreme Court is scheduled for April 19 on the Hastings Law School anti-discrimination against gays case versus the Christian Law Society student organization; oral arguments in the Texas gay divorce case is scheduled for April 21; the motion for Summary Judgment hearing of the Log Cabin Republicans challenge to Don’t Ask Don’t tell is scheduled for April 26, and oral arguments before the US Supreme Court is scheduled for April 28 in the case of Referendum 71 from the State of Washington in which the question of whether the petitions signed to overturn the legislation granting complete legal rights to gays (except for the name of marriage) are public records which must be disclosed or whether they can be sealed. Also, the Florida Court of Appeals is due to issue their opinion on whether the law banning gay adoption is unconstitutional or not. They issue their opinions every Wednesday morning, so each week everyone is waiting with bated breath to see if they have decided anything yet. Three trial judges in Florida have now held that the statute, enacted in 1977 (at the height of the Anita Bryant) scare is unconstitutional.
Don’t ya just love rumors? I bet you’re still buying Anita Bryant records. You sound just like her.
BootsieGee
Let’s not forget that there were five other students at the prom with Constance and her date. I am sure the conversation went something like this.
A: Let’s have our own prom like those black kids did a while back and let’s not invite that lesbo.
B: We can’t just not invite Constance it will look strange. We need to exclude some others. But who?
A: How about those retards, they probably won’t complain at all. Let’s do that.
We have a child care center in my building and I am always amazed when they take all the kids (some 30 of them) out to play. They all hold their partners hand and don’t let go. They never question it. No thought about race/gender/height/weight etc.
Hate has to be taught.
The parents are just as responsible for the fake prom as the kids are.
On my first day at Navy boot camp they told us there, there is no white, no black, no brown etc. There is only Navy blue. Because, when you get blown overboard, you won’t care what color hand rescues you.
Let’s hope Constance never has to decide whether to pull one of those kids or parents from a burning building.
Lastly – You reap what you sow.
DR
I believe that the school should have just let her bring her date. There would have been talk and snickers, but at the end of the day, IAHS would have been a footnote. I believe that there was certainly adult manipulation going on in regards to the decision to either not invite Constance to the prom or strongly discourage her from attending. I believe that many of these kids were manipulated by the adults.
I can, however, understand the kids’ point of view. Imagine how it must feel that because the adults make a decision, you can’t have prom. Then you can. Then you can’t. Add to that media attention and cameras in front of the school, as well as all the negative press on your town, your fault or not. That’s a lot of attention on a small town high school that just wants to have a prom. No one ever thinks about how these lawsuits impact the rest of the school and disrupt the lives of kids who just want to have a normal high school experience. We spend so much time focusing on the single person who we believe was wronged, we lose sight of how all of the collateral stuff which goes along with a lawsuit impacts everyone else.
I think the school was wrong for denying Constance the privilege of attending the prom with the person of her choice. I think the school made a number of bad moves after that, including canceling the real prom….
MB and your friends, I do have to point a finger at you as well. The young men and women who helped organize the “non-prom” which Constance and the special needs kids weren’t invited to need to take a good look at themselves as well, because they share some of the blame here. By keeping it secret and/or actively discouraging the “wrong” people from attending, you lose a lot of credibility (what did the special needs kids do to deserve not being invited?).
You had the opportunity to do the right thing, but you put your blinders on and were, in your own way, just as greedy and selfish as you claim Constance was. As a Christian man, I have to agree with what someone else in another thread on this topic said. Jesus would have attended the outcast prom. You missed the opportunity to do the right thing. Imagine how cool it would have been to just come together as a community for one night, forget the lawsuits, media attention, and drama, and just have one big party for everyone. Imagine the message you would have sent to all the adults and the lawyers fighting over this.
Oh Boy
Okay Lindsey.
You guys went without Constance cause you think she is an attention seeker.
So what about the mentally disabled students who you also cast out and neglected to include? Did you think you might be hurting them by boycotting the official prom?
If you were so tired of Constance you could have at least gone to the official prom and had your own party another night.
Very hurtful.
RomanHans
@Robert: The town “was in a no-win situation”? That’s honestly one of the *stupidest* things I’ve ever read. How horrible, having to face the consequences of DOING SOMETHING WRONG.
@MB: “Could it be the town was TARGETED by lgbt activists and young Constance their proxy?” And could it be that somebody replaced your brain with clams?
Here’s the meta-issue we need to address: how can the LGBT community, and indeed our country, thrive given the unabashed stupidity of half of America?
MB
14-Cam:
Thanks for the belly laugh! I hope your gaydar is better than your geo-political radar!
I would challenge you that my uber-urban uber-gay zipcode trumps yours.
And at no offense to my friends and small town Southern brethern, I did not grow up or have ever lived in the South, nor was raised by Southerners. I have and continue to periodically travel and visit in small towns in the South (including MS), however, and have seen for myself a different culture from what you describe.
McMillen indeed had the right to challenge the school, and did so successfully. She politicized the senior prom in a small Southern school that by her own admission had treated her very well over the years to achieve this great feat on behalf of the lgbt community. Did she really expect to be *socially accepted* by her classmates for her efforts?? Tolerance is what is is legally required, and she has received it.
Social acceptance — which cannot be mandated by law — is evolutionary.
Kent
Yeah right “Lindsey”. I see right through you. What you call “attitude” and “drama” from Constance is nothing more than her having enough self-esteem to keep from turning into a sobbing little puddle of despair whenever you and your ilk attack her in typical schoolgirl popularity/dominance fashion. Constance simply will. not. break. And that upsets you. So you call Constance the aggressor. Bitch.
Mr. Enemabag Jones
@MB
senior classmates (including non activist inclined gays)chose to celebrate their high school years with a party elsewhere, privately, *free from* an lgbt agenda.
And when those non-activist gays are older and alone, and are arrested for hanging around public toilets looking for some action, they will go running to the queer press, and the ACLU, begging them to defend their right to cruise public toilets and parks.
And I’m sure you’ll be there, MB, holding the Men’s Room door open and waving them in
D'oh, The Magnificent
What’s their excuse for tricking the handicapped kids? Evil is interesting. It never sees itself as such, and yet, that’s what these kids and their parents are- evil.
Mr. Enemabag Jones
@MB
Social acceptance which cannot be mandated by law is evolutionary.
Can the learning disabled kids who were also excluded from the prom-proper also expect their acceptance to be evolutionary, MB? Just what did they do, to be excluded from the “cool” prom?
Tallskin
GeoffM
Thats alright, thats okay they’re gonna pump her gas some day.
Man, you are SO wrong! Operating a gas station involves some technical ability, I don’t think these Orangutangs will progress past emptying rubbish bins.
DR
@MB:
I echo others… None of you have answered the main question which gives many of us insight into your character…. What did the special needs kids do to deserve going to the fake prom and not the party for the in-crowd?
Cam
@ No. 24 · MB
No. 24 · MB
14-Cam:
Thanks for the belly laugh! I hope your gaydar is better than your geo-political radar!
I would challenge you that my uber-urban uber-gay zipcode trumps yours.
And at no offense to my friends and small town Southern brethern, I did not grow up or have ever lived in the South, nor was raised by Southerners. I have and continue to periodically travel and visit in small towns in the South (including MS), however, and have seen for myself a different culture from what you describe.
McMillen indeed had the right to challenge the school, and did so successfully. She politicized the senior prom in a small Southern school that by her own admission had treated her very well over the years to achieve this great feat on behalf of the lgbt community. Did she really expect to be *socially accepted* by her classmates for her efforts?? Tolerance is what is is legally required, and she has received it.
Social acceptance — which cannot be mandated by law — is evolutionary.
_______________________________________________________
Yeah yeah yeah, pretend all you want. GLad you’re typing out that you got a “Belly Laugh” out of it. What I do notice is that you didn’t respond to my actual argument, but instead pretended that I said something so you could then respond to it. Out here in the world where our educational systems aren’t ranked in the bottom two nationally that is called constructing a “Strawman Argument”.
If you actually go back and reread my comment so you can pretend you didn’t see what I wrote the first time.. You will see the following.
I never said one thing about Constance being socially accepted.
What I DID say is that your insults and attacks against her were all about her supposedly “Seeking attention.”
I merely pointed out that this is the type of behavior that small town southern bigots have in common with Child Molesters, their biggest fear is that somebody will call attention to their behavior and therefore they won’t be able to practice it. The School was behaving in an illegal way. She called them on it, what you call “Seeking attention” was actually her sending the law after a lawbreaker. But then again, you small town southerners said the same thing about those pesky minorities who were asking for the right to vote all those years ago.
I then pointed out that just like Child molesters threatedn children to not tell their parents…small town ignorant southerners try to make it some like a fault for somebody to “Seek attention” by calling attention to the illegal bigoted practices that go on in small towns in the south.
Now are you going to pretend that this post was about something else again so you can then taylor your answer to that subject? Or would you prefer to actually respond to what was really written?
Timothy
cam: “As for Constance ruining their fun? Again, just how would their fun have been ruined if they had gone to the prom at the country club?”
Of course she would have ruined their fun.
Good little straight girls who want to make out to titillate boys would have been embarrassed to have Constance there. OHMIGOD, what if her and her date were fooled into thinking they were gay and come over and molested them?!?
And while those boys and girls were grinding on each other, they would have been in the same room as two girls slow dancing. It would have just sexualized the whole situation. If lesbians were around making everything about sex then the kids’ grinding, groping, and rubbing would have then been about sex instead of just innocent heterosexual hijinks, and we can’t have that!
Don’t you know, the very presence of lesbians in the room creates a space warp and mind control and before they knew it boys would be humping boys and girls would have been motorboating each other.
Soylent Diva
Pesky friggen gays always being bratty and wanting what others take for granted.
D'oh, The Magnificent
DR
I don’t need them to answer why they excluded the special needs kids. The answer to me is as self evident as the kids who spit in the hair of the black girls basket ball team that my principal recounted leading in the 60s. It was bigotry. They wanted to dehumanize them and teach them who is in control. That’s all these little country hicks have is their ability to exclude. They can’t compete in terms of actual moral values since that’s only for other folks to follow.
Robert
@MB:
For clarifications sake MB, let me state that I DO feel it was wrong of the school to cancel prom over this. I DO feel that Constance was well in her rights to contest the issue.
BUT I also feel that the ACLU and GLBT community took this legal issue and went just crazy with it. Yes Constance is a lesbian whose prom was canceled because she wanted to wear a tux and bring another woman, and yes that is outrageous … but it wasn’t just her prom.
Where was the outrage by the parents that Prom was being canceled? Where was the outrage from the students? It was turned almost immediately into a gay-centric news piece and in the end of the prom did occur that’s all it would be. The end of a gay-centric news piece rather than a special moment for that entire senior class.
Cam
No. 35 · Robert
@MB:
Where was the outrage by the parents that Prom was being canceled? Where was the outrage from the students?
___________________________
Thats not the way small town southerners do things. They don’t complain loudly or “Rock the boat” what they do is passively aggressively backstab or plan something secretive and then giggle about how clver they were to get around things. If the parents had just said “Don’t cancel the prom” this would have been over a while ago. But they had to do things the typical way things are done down there.
DR
@D’oh, The Magnificent:
I want to hear it from them, not you who assume you know the answer. I want them to face what happened.
D'oh, The Magnificent
@DR: They are not going to “face what happened.” They are going to do what they are already doing along this thread. Your remind of the Chinese guy who when discussing the bigot who wrote “chink” across his door said he didn’t think what motivated them was bigotry.
ChrisM
@Robert:
I had a nice long reply to your comments, but my connection failed as I submitted it, so I’ll just give a short summary of it.
Constance wasn’t in the wrong. School canceled prom, not her. She tried to get it back and failed. Kids took the easy route, blaming Constance instead of the school (which actually denied them their prom). Lindsey claims to be having a lousy year, when they all could have had a great year if they stood together recognizing they ALL deserved a prom. Instead, they became divisive over it, as if Constance’s wanting to go to prom with her girlfriend was a personal attack on her classmates.
Lindsey can justify their actions all she wants. But in a few years, when everyone realizes how embarrassingly rampant and blatant discrimination against LGBTs is, everyone will see what cold-hearted cowards these students were.
DR
@D’oh, The Magnificent:
I work with youth for a living, I’d hope that some of them will see how they were manipulated by the adults in this case. Maybe I’m wrong, maybe I’m right, only time will tell. It’s easy to crucify them online, it’s harder to hope they learn something from this.
Lanjier
I have heard many stories. But I have never — never — never — heard a story as horrifically cold and unfeeling as this story. It is forever seared in my memory.
Constance. Please take heart. You can leave that damned place, and find another, loving place. Please go to Brooklyn, or San Fran, and heal, heal heal. La Vian Rose. 🙂
CPT_Doom
Did she really expect to be *socially accepted* by her classmates for her efforts?? Tolerance is what is is legally required, and she has received it.
Social acceptance — which cannot be mandated by law — is evolutionary.
That’s great – because that means I can use my religious upbringing to justify only “tolerating” the Satan-worshipping heretics (hell, they ain’t Roman Catholic, so they ain’t Christian) that populate this backwoods hick town. I’m sure they’ll love being treated just like Constance was, as social pariahs. Even better, now that they’ve posted their “breeder-only” prom pictures all over the web, their future college classmates can treat them exactly that way as well.
FunMe
Can the Disabled students sue under the Americans for Disabilities Act?
Chirren
Before every last person on this website piles condemnation onto Lindsey, please remember that she is a kid. Teenagers are unlikely to fully consider the consequences of their actions — that’s why we have laws against underage drinking and sex and why juveniles can’t sign contracts or vote. Maybe she and some of the other kids in Mississippi, where not everyone lives in a trailer or goes barefoot or is a bigot or illiterate, could learn something from this debacle. Do we want them to learn only that offended LGBT people are hateful and just as prone to insults as anyone else?
Maybe Lindsey would read some of these posts here and realize that the anger and bitterness is a result of the experiences that many of us gay folks had when we were in high school — the isolation, the rejection, the isolation, the fear — and of the identification we feel with someone like Connie McMillen, who stood up for herself against the flexing power of the majority. Maybe Lindsey would realize those things if we explained them to her rather than simply attacking her and her friends and her community. I admire Lindsey for publicly standing up and at least trying to explain herself. She will learn a lot from this experience, and we should think about what we would want those lessons to be.
JonJon
@Chirren
First, since this is a prom, it means that Lindsey and her friends are probably 17 or 18 which makes them old enough to have a well-developed moral compass. Their disregard for not only Constance, but also the several Learning Disabled students that also went to this prom means that they deserve our scorn. Secondly, I have no patience any more for people taking “devil’s advocate” or decide to practice the “turn the other cheek” mentality. We, as a people, need to realize that we need more than leaders that are too concerned with who they are wearing or who they are dining with to petition for any real change and make our voices heard, regardless of who gets their bigoted, little feelings hurt. There is no excuse for silence anymore.
D'oh, The Magnificent
@JonJon: It does seem like some are more concerned about the emotions of the bigot than they are about the harm to the people actually being victimized by the bigot. It seems like a version of Stockholm Syndrome.
JonJon
@D’OH.
Call it what you like. I am concerned with the harm being done to the victimized but the best way to stop those people from becoming victims is to get our equality as quickly as possible. This isn’t going to be accomplished by paying lip-service to people or attending $1000 dinners. This is going to be accomplished by getting out in peoples faces and demanding our rights. Right now is our chance. It is our Birmingham. If we don’t our chance now and take to the street when do you suspect that we will get Marriage Rights, or ENDA or the repeal of DADT. When the rich, straight men in power decide that we deserve it. Equality isn’t given by the powerful. It’s taken by the weak.
JonJon
@D’OH
I’m sorry. I just reread your comment. On the 1st read it seemed that you were countering my argument but on second read it seems to me, at least, that you were concurring with me. I apologize about the diatribe if the latter is true. This whole situation just makes me angry and the idea that we are supposed to bow down and ask for another when we get slapped by the man just gets me riled up.
D'oh, The Magnificent
@JonJon: No worries. That’s why I mentioned the example of the Chinese dude who wanted to make excuses for those who wrote “chink” on his door by saying “they are not really bigots.” How far does one want to go with this sort of being a door mat in the face of bigotry? I agree with you that the time for trying to understand them is over. The fact is here they told us all we needed to know through their actions. they are bigots.
JonJon
@D’OH
I agree. I, for one, grew up with family that reminds me of these people. There is no deeper justification for their actions and you won’t change their minds or hearts. The best we can hope for is that society changes so they have to tell their fag jokes in private just like they do their n****r jokes. That’s fine by me because I’m not looking to make friends out of these people, I’m looking to make them social pariahs.
atypicalG
eh. I wouldn’t have wanted to go to that prom either. Too much press. My senior prom was about me, not about politics.
I probably would’ve done the same thing – had my own event with my own friends.
I guess it’s unfortunate that her classmates didn’t necessarily stand behind her.
You have two scenarios – the HSers either: 1) give full support for Constance and make some more press, or 2) don’t, and risk looking like a “bigot.”
Maybe I give people too much credit, but, hell, I would have been done with the drama also.
zip
That girl is such a bitch! I’m shaking my head in anger. And Constance you rock!
Wy
OMG how fat is Lindsey?!
Jason D
@Cam: Oh that’s exactly what it is.
In their minds, Constance should’ve just laid back and taken it. How dare she stand up for herself. What an uppity dyke! Doesn’t she know her place?
ChrisM
MB is a jerkoff. I just read his comments about how the school had treated her so well over the years. That doesn’t mean anything. Gays want equality – not to be treated “almost” equally. When they told Constance that she couldn’t bring her girlfriend, even though all the boys in the school could bring theirs, that great treatment they’d been giving her crashed to a halt.
You say this was an LGBT political move, and somehow the fact that the media got involved makes it completely alright for the school to discriminate against her. Constance did what any person with dignity would do. It doesn’t matter how much media attention she’s gotten for it, and what issues it has brought up. She should not have just accepted the fact that the school had an anti-gay policy, and it’s disturbing that you and her classmates think she should have.
You sound like you would have the world just live with injustice for fear of disturbing the status quo or complicating things. That’s the position of a person privileged by the status quo.
By the way, those conservative news reporters are researching the fact that Constance’s mother said the fight against the school for not allowing her to bring a same-sex date could be meaningful to LGBT causes? Does this somehow change the fact that the school discriminated against her based on sexual orientation? I don’t see how that has any relevance at all, and just makes conservatives look even more ignorant.
niles
These people are vile lowlifes – believe me, I went to school with people just like them. If it is found that the school was complicit in setting up the decoy prom for just the gays and the disabled, they should be sued down to their hoods and robes.
Allison
Constance endured hatred and bigotry. But if there is a positive from this Constance was the victor in this.Constance got a scholarship and Lindsay will live with grief and hell to pay for the rest of her life. With all this negativity that Lindsay is receiving she most definitely deserved it. Whenever,she Googles her name she will have to live with all of these comments. It will never go away and forever haunt her. The people in her town will finally get fed up with her with all the bad rap she was responsible for. It would not surprise me that after some time that the citizens of Fulton will get pissed off with all the negative things said about it will run Lindsay and her family out of town. I forsee Lindsay having a.weak mind and will not be able to handle all of these comments for years to come and will forever be fearful as to who she may run into out in public and be recognized as the bigoted Bitch. The pressures will be so great that I would not be a bit surprised that she will commit suicide. Only time will tell. And if she doesn’t when her time comes she will be paying her dues in Hell.
Yuki
Sorry, Lindsay, but that doesn’t fly with me. If you guys had let her go with her girlfriend in the first place, this wouldn’t have been a problem; some students may have been grossed out, but this media firestorm would have easily been avoided.
Also, she couldn’t wear a tux… but some girls wore jeans to their prom, AND kissed each other? Really?
kanga
If you read between the lines, you will find that the school already has a bee in its bonnet about cross-dressing.
A few months ago, Juin Baize was expelled from the school, and then run out of town, after half a day, for cross dressing. According to other students, Constance was outraged, and the whole story unfolds from there. My take is that she wasn’t only fighting her battle, she was standing up for the situation of the boy who caused the school such alarm.
Andrew B.
Sounds like some rationalization to treat Constance poorly. This girl has to learn that manners is more than not throwing around epithets.
Tessie Tura
Dear Miss Lindsey Crunchpussy:
Did it ever occur to you drooling inbreds that if the school had allowed Constance to take her date to begin with, the media storm would never have happened?
Then you could have had a little private party afterward, perhaps at someone’s trailer or something.
Stef
Just because you don’t like someone, or think they are a brat, doesn’t justify excluding them from something that was meant to include all members of the senior class. There were tons of people at my own prom that I wasn’t friends with, didn’t like or found annoying…I would never seek to deny them the ability to be there, and if the situation were the same, in the sense that the students organized things, I would never actively seek to disclude them.
Someone, anyone, should have stood up for this girl’s right to prom. THey didn’t have to like her, or be friends with her, or sit at her god damn lunch table…they just had to stand up for the fact that she was being discriminated against. That’s all. And no one did. They stood back, said “glad it’s not me” and eventually got pissed because it WAS them, just in a different way.
One thing I learned growing up getting picked on, is karma is a bitch. I still will always remember one specific girl from kindergarden to 6th grade who made every single day of my life miserable. She made fun of my hair, my skin (had dry skin on my legs), my glasses, the fact that I really liked to read and loved animals. You name it, she found a way to gang up and humiliate me in front of the rest of the class. Until finally one day I came home in 5th grade crying so horribly because all of the girls in my class (it was a small catholic school, so like, 13) had gone to a sleepover I wasn’t invited to…then in art class, told me not only that they had had the sleep over, but had spent most of the night making fun of me because my jumper was ALWAYS a little too big for me because I was very skinny. My mom not only called every single mother of those girls, but pulled me out of the school at the end of 5th grade and put me in public school.
When I turned 21, I was home from winter break and saw the girl, Courtney. She is vile. She looks exactly the same as she did in 5th grade, just hideous and fat, particularly around the face. I grew into my looks in my teens, and I walked into the ski shop she worked in so proudly, and she knew exactly who I was. I didn’t say a word to her. I would have loved to tell her I modeled, and had a boyfriend who played in the MLB, or had gotten a partial scholarship to my college, or that I weighed 105 lbs. That I had a great group of friends and my social life in college was beyond what I could have ever hoped for. But I knew just by her expression she kind of knew I had turned out better than her. And in the long run, I would much rather be on the right end at 24, than at 11.
When these kids go off to college, if they do, they’ll see a bigger picture. Unless they go to like, Liberty or something. A lot of them, I think, will look back at what they did, or didn’t do for that matter, and regret it. I don’t doubt that, even if they never admit it. As we grow up, our opinions and outlooks change the more we are exposed to.
The only thing I will defend Lindsey on – don’t hate the whole region, or generalize. One of my biggest pet peeves was when the Duke lacrosse case happened, and everyone attacked the towns of Col, Dave, and Reade. I was from one of those towns, had gone to HS with three or four of the guys on Duke’s team, and having people generalize about our town was infuriating. People condemned our town as a breeding ground for racism and white supremacy and a better than thou mentality. But I, and so many like me, were not like that. Nor were Reade and Col (I can’t speak for Dave, I don’t know him that well). It bothered me to no end that people just assumed, and often times, I chalked it up to jealousy because we were a nice town that a lot of people dream to live in some day with their families. Now, I’m not saying people here are generalizing because they are jealous of this town – but don’t generalize. Unless you’ve been there and know some people, you can’t hate on everyone. It’s ignorant.
MB
Constance endured NOTHING except social non-acceptance.
She was hand-held and coddled by the lgbt activist community through her “rights challenge.” She didn’t even have a date for the prom (her 15 year old girlfriend was prohibited from attending by her parents from the get go.)
BF legal/pr challenge — like shooting puppies in a box. She has every right to shoot those pups — and she did.
McMillen had the opportunity to challenge the school — and she was encouraged and supported for political gain to do so. Poor little political patsy that she is — look at how she has been paid off by the lgbt media scrambling to make her a “hero.”
Of course, the media story is that McMillen cared only about her rights — she just wanted to go to the prom. Nevermind that she had every access to the prom ( dress in a dress) but dress codes apparently are not her thing.
And of course, the lgbt community is adamently against dress codes!
MB
@stef
Who, in all of her hs years, picked on Constance?
NO ONE.
But she felt the need to call out her right to take a ss date (nonexistent) and dress deviantly from the dress code to the prom.
She had every single right to do so. And she chose to do so. at the urging and with the support of the lgbt activist community and the ACLU.
What sacrifice did she actually EVER make in this journey?
Cam
@No. 62 · MB
And once again, you try to change the subject, avoid the issue or just outright lie.
Again, your small town little gossip/passive agressive bullshit is irrelevent. The REASON Contance did anything doesn’t matter. The school was in breach of the law. Laws that had been decided by courts going back to 1980. I don’t care if she was sitting in her room alone twirling an evil villain mustache saying “Muwahahah, how can I get attention!?”
The fact of the matter is she was not allowed to go with the person she wanted to go to, which violated established law. She challanged it and one. Sorry but you keep trying to say “But she was talked into it, and she didn’t want to wear a dress and blah blah blah” and again, none of it matters.
If somebody hits a woman and steals her purse and she sues him in court for injuries she sustained in the attack, I don’t CARE if she was suing him for money, to get revenge, or because she feels that by law he needs to be punished. The fact was, he broke the law and she sued him, end of story.
MB
@Cam
McMoillen never had a date for the prom. She couldn’t go with her so called girl friend because the date’s parents’ didn’t approve and would not grant permission. The DATE did not feel the need to challenge her parents’ authority on the issue.
In the future, the school will not sponsor any proms, leaving it up to the public sector to do what they want privately.
Do you think that Constance and her adult lgbt advisors will mount an all inclusive prom event that garners any attendance?
Stef
@MB:
MB, I don’t know Constance or her schoolmates, so I can’t say whether she was or was not picked on. Nor do I want to assume. But I think the fact that no one stepped up to the plate to say “she should be allowed to go, too” or “hey, we should invite her, too”, and the fact that so many people (so I read, could be wrong) were such assholes to her after the fact, as though it were her fault or she did something wrong, is enough of a torment.
When I was a senior, we were all out drinking behind this field near our high school…this girl, Emily, didn’t drink and was our DD. The cops broke it up and we all ran. This other girl, Chris, ran and hit a tree branch (don’t ask), and fell and so Emily stayed behind to help her find her glasses. The cops tagged Emily. When I got to the street, when all of us got to the street, we realized Em got caught. I was the ONLY person who wanted to go back for her. And I did. No one else came. I walked to the parking lot where Em was talking to the cop, and said “I’m with her, she wasn’t drinking, she was our DD”. The cop let both of us go.
In a similar instance, my junior year, the same girl (Emily), was on the outs of our group of friends. People just wanted someone to gang up on. So for our Winter Wonderland Dance (like a prom), she got excluded from the limo and the house for pictures. They initially said there was no room for her. So I said I would give up MY spot in the limo for her. They still wouldn’t let her in out of cruelty. So to make a point, I still didn’t go to pictures or go in that limo. My boyfriend at the time and I drove with Emily and her date. We had a great time and went to dinner after. I was 17. Even then, I knew the right thing to do.
That’s what I meant by getting picked on. By getting excluded. By not having anyone do the right thing for her, even if it wasn’t the “cool” thing to do. You don’t have to be someone’s friend to stick up for the right thing.
As for what her right for prom was – imagine being straight and being forced to go to prom with a dude. Put it in perspective kid. And deviantly from the dress code? Find me anywhere in whatever rule book you’re quoting that says women MUST wear dresses? What if she had a horrible scr on her body a dress revealed? It’s not like she was asking to go naked for Christ’s sake. So ridiculous.
Cam
No. 65 · MB
@Cam
McMoillen never had a date for the prom. She couldn’t go with her so called girl friend because the date’s parents’ didn’t approve and would not grant permission. The DATE did not feel the need to challenge her parents’ authority on the issue.
____________________
Once again,
1. You are lying, she and her date DID go to the fake prom together.
2. None of the reasons behind this matter. You keep trying flutter about and say “But she wanted attention, but her date didn’t want to go, but she didn’t want to wear a dress” And you ignore the entire post I just put up to now come back and flutter around with the one thing you think you have left to say. But again, NONE of it matters. Her school was in violation of the law, they got called on it. End of story.
Oh, and lastly, earlier you tried to claim to live in a huge gay friendly city and you just felt sympathy for the other kids. Well you’re use of the phrase “So called girlfriend” points out that you are a bigoted homophobe so nice try there, but if you are going to try to lie about who you are, you may want to watch little sip-ups like that.
MB
@cam
Check the Advocate (McMillen’s biggest champion besides her own mother and mother’s activist friends) and other gay blogs — she certainly didn’t go with her girlfriend — by McMillen’s own words. In fact, her “girlfriend” refuses (understandably, btw) to be identified.
I have repeatedly stated that McMillen was perfectly within her rights to challenge the school which indeed was violating her rights over her request to bring a ss date and her request for dress code exception to the prom.
Everyone in the school and town appears to have understood that this was all about Constance’ rights and the lgbt agenda.
What more do you want, Cam, *social acceptance* for Constance? Get over it. Constance and her activist coaches made sure that wouldn’t happen. On the other hand, Constance made out like a bandit thanks to the gay media. Much more than she deserves.
villager
i like how that chick calls herself a liberal.
Cam
@MB Once again you are a liar. I have two things to say to you.
1. Here is a direct quote from the Huffington Post
“Then it was reported that the mystery prom had been canceled, but that another prom would be held at a country club in nearby Fulton, MS; Constance was invited and would be going to this prom. It took place this past Friday and was attended by exactly seven students — Constance, her date and five others, plus some teachers and the principal as chaperons.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/candace-gingrich/prom-shocker-constance-mc_b_527280.html
2. You keep doing whatever you can to desperately bring up the whole “Social Acceptance” angle. But you see, nobody is talking about that. This is all about legal, illegal, bigtots, discrimination etc… So no matter how desperate you are to try to change this into the topic of social acceptance, sorry, it isn’t going to happen. You’re a liar as I proved above with the link, you are a bigot and no matter what you try to say, Constance did two things. She won in court and is getting her ass out of that town and….more importantly, the kids from school proved to a whole bunch of undecided people out there, just how nasty and bigoted people still are. Thank you to all the redneck, narrowminded, inbred Mississippi future Wendy’s employees out there. You guys did more for gay rights by proving how aweful people still are than 10,000 gay pride marches could have done. So give yourselves a round of aplause.
MB
@cam
First of all, anyone who quotes Hufpo as a definitive source is, er . . . factually challenged.
Here is the quote which [even the biased] the Advocate and yahoonews used (were you too lazy to look it up for yourself or could you not just find it?):
“McMillen didn’t take her girlfriend because the girl’s parents wouldn’t let her go to the event. McMillen escorted another female instead. She did, however, wear a black tuxedo with a blue green vest.”
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_lesbian_prom_date
Other sources indicate the 15 year old girlfriend was told from the get go by her parents she could not attend the prom with her girlfriend Constance. Of course, that’s an entirely different story.
The school was in violation of gay rights. No one had ever had reason to challenge them before. Constance did at the urging of lgbt activists. Lgbt activism prevailed.
Now Constance is hurt that no one in her geo-social community wants anything to do with her. Poor Constance. Poor poor Constance. Shame, shame shame on the gay activist adults who put her up to this.
But look what she has received — fabulous goodies from the lgbt media! All that attention for a less than mediable lesbian, scholarship, 15 minutes of fame. How else could she have achieve that in Fulton, MS? Poor poor Constance.
Cam
Interesting that you would bust yourself out in a lie. Let me paste two of your posts here..
No. 65 · MB @Cam McMoillen never had a date for the prom.
Read more: http://www.queerty.com/constance-mcmillens-classmates-didnt-punk-her-because-shes-gay-but-uh-because-shes-a-brat-20100407/#ixzz0kWouV7sX
——
and
No. 71 · MB
@cam
First of all, anyone who quotes Hufpo as a definitive source is, er . . . factually challenged.
Here is the quote which [even the biased] the Advocate and yahoonews used (were you too lazy to look it up for yourself or could you not just find it?):
“McMillen didn’t take her girlfriend because the girl’s parents wouldn’t let her go to the event. McMillen escorted another female instead. She did, however, wear a black tuxedo with a blue green vest.”
——-
So back in the first post you were claiming that she didn’t have a date for the prom, then when you realize I was checkin on your story you switched it to “She didn’t take her girlfriend.” So you got caught in a lie. You also said that my citing the Huffington Post was factually challanged, but they said she took a date, and your comment said the exact same thing. Funny how you claim they don’t get stories right.
And lastly, HERE is the part that all the low class, ignorant, inbreds HATE!!!! This is your comment from your last post…
“But look what she has received — fabulous goodies from the lgbt media! All that attention for a less than mediable lesbian, scholarship, 15 minutes of fame.”
Isn’t THAT what all you inbred rednecks HATE more than anybody? Somebody “Gettin above themselves”. See, you all know that you’re trash, and the last thing you want to see is somebody rising above that.
And lastly, once again, none of the other bullshit matters, you can whine all you want about what Constance got for this. But good for her. People SHOULD get something for pointing out and fighting wrongs. But then again, you probably sit around with your friends, complaining about how “That Damn Rosa Parks only did it to get some attention.”
Hey, once again, Yay, Constance got something out of bringing the hammer down on that small, smug, inbread dirt pit waste of space, redneck, uneducated, low rent group of people in that town and good for her. A decade from now, they can all make themselves feel better when she comes to town to visit her father, by talking about how ugly the large Mercedes she’s driving is, and how she and her girlfriend have funny city clothes on.
Forrest
Its the poorest most rural state not going to change. Éver.
MB
McMillen is nothing but a plastic (albeit XL) Barbie for the lgbt community. She FOUGHT for nothing. This was never about her special ss girlfriend as a date, as proven by her actions. For all you know, her “date” was straight — or perhaps her mother. Notice there is no lgbt press coverage of McMillen’s prom.
How dare you compare her to Rosa Parks: McMillen has never been a *slave,* is not genetically distinctive (as in race), nor has she been discriminated against because of her race.
Rosa Parks: heroine. Mcmillen: patsy for lgbt activists.
Yuki
“Notice there is no lgbt press coverage of McMillen’s prom.”
What, is The Advocate chopped liver?
rayy
I am ashamed for the “adults” who pulled this prank. Should be interesting to see how their kids turn out. Glad I’m not there.
Despite prv poster’s BS, Constance did speak up & stand up for her own rights to be with the person of her choosing at prom.
Rosa Parks was not a slave, either, duh–she was born in 1913.
I don’t see any point in comparing the two, but Constance did show courage in the face of idiocy and should be lauded.
Stef
Cam-
I don’t understand what your obsession with “activists” are? You are using the term like it’s derogatory. Whether the girl planned on it or not, or her moth was involved, they were looking out for her rights. One could compare suffragists and abolitionists as “activists” for their particular cause.
And, while I’m all for Rosa Parks, she was never a slave either. Slavery was abolished in the 19th century. She may have been a victim of racism, and civil rights violations, but she wasn’t a slave either.
This really isn’t about the LGBT community. If my high school told me I couldn’t take my boyfriend to prom when I was 18, just because, I’d make just as big of a stink. When you’re 18, prom’s a big deal. And you know what? Whether “activists” put her up to it or not, it brought attention to an issue down there. Maybe in the future, other LGBT students won’t have to have the town hate them when they petition to have their rights acknowledged.
What I hate about the way you’re referring to the higher ups in the LGBT fight is that you act like they are bad people. You forget that at the end of the day, whether they are high powered attorneys at the ACLU or part of HRC, or they are students or simple ocuples who want their rights as a couple recognized, they are arguing, at the very base, for rights they are being denied. They aren;t out to profit in some way that is a detriment to straights. It’s not like, a bad title, this “activist” term you use.
me
proving once again that the majority is a bunch of morons.
Cam
No. 74 · MB
McMillen is nothing but a plastic (albeit XL) Barbie for the lgbt community. She FOUGHT for nothing. This was never about her special ss girlfriend as a date, as proven by her actions. For all you know, her “date” was straight — or perhaps her mother. Notice there is no lgbt press coverage of McMillen’s prom.
How dare you compare her to Rosa Parks: McMillen has never been a *slave,* is not genetically distinctive (as in race), nor has she been discriminated against because of her race.
Rosa Parks: heroine. Mcmillen: patsy for lgbt activists.
_____________________
And once again you change the subject and try to attack her. McMillian stood up against an entire school full of inbread redneck losers. So attack her all you want, but the fact remains. She took on an entire school district, they lost…she brought some part of the modern world into a dirt pit town in Mississippi…and the thing you hate most…SHE IS GETTING HER COLLEGE PAID FOR AND A PAYING INTERNSHIP IN NYC! HAHAHAHAHA!
AGain, you keep trying to attack her etc… but your real problem is that somebody brought this little towns discriminatory practices into the light, and they withered and died. Cry for the Confederacy all you want, but the South lost the war and the ignorant genetic throwbacks came with their best and got beat. So attack and call Constance names all you want, but she was brave, she won, and now she gets free college and a good job. Think about that while you’re down at the Piggly Wiggly trying to figure out if you have a coupon for the extra large bucket of lard for tonights dinner.
MB
@cam
Hey, big mouth — feel free to bring your own lard and join me and a few of my lgbt journalist colleagues to continue this discussion tonite at the Viceroy (zip 10011) 5:30ish. One of my colleagues IS from the South, so perhaps you would have some discussion-ground in common, although none of us has worked at a Piggly Wiggly (how about you?).
Hopefully we’ll have a table outside — it’s such a beautiful day here!
Stephen
I bet $100 that the pictures from the “private” party end up in the school’s yearbook on the “Prom” pages.
And… some of you in this comment thread clearly take yourselves too seriously! Don’t talk to trolling sockpuppets!
Allison
MB did you ever get by the 6th grade? I cannot believe your mentality and intelligence level. Your so hung up on what she was going to wear. A person wears what they want and who they identify as. Do you have such a problem with that? Maybe after all is said and done maybe Fulton can get their act together and rid themselves of their1800’s bigotry. Fulton should really be proud of itself they ran Juin and her family out of your despicable inbred redneck town because she was transgender. Let me ask you this if you can even comprehend this,what if you ever had a child that identified as being LGBT,you would not like seeing them falling victim to hatred,bigotry and ignorance. You would love them and support them unconditionally. But then again one can never tell with the mentality of Fulton. Of course, the only cosolation is that Fulton f’d up and will always be remembered that way
Cam
No. 79 · MB
@cam
Hey, big mouth — feel free to bring your own lard and join me and a few of my lgbt journalist colleagues to continue this discussion tonite at the Viceroy (zip 10011) 5:30ish.
__________________
Yeah Yeah Yeah, nice try sweetie, but don’t think I don’t remember you in here a while ago yelling at all of us for not declaring that Clay Aiken was the greatest hero the world has ever known. Sorry but an edgy New Yorker who hangs out with “lgbt Journalists” doesn’t exactly scream “Clay Aiken” fan. But not to constantly hit you with numbers but…
1. Anybody can go through NYC search and come up with a sandwhich place in Chelsea to list here.
2. If you were telling the truth, you wouldn’t need to try to back up your “Street Cred” by claiming “lgbt Journalists”. Even your wording was wrong. You are just like the hetro anti-gay people that come in here and start off every sentance with “As a gay man” or “As a lesbian”. Oh, and lastly, doubtful that any of the “Journols” would be hitting up the Viceroy on a Thursday night.
3.
But thanks for once again altering the subject. It’s almost the same as you addmitting in black and white that you are wrong, so we all notice, and thank you for it…your defeat tastes delicious….kind of like those popsicles we ate as kids on a hot day, only yours are a bit saltier, flavored by your tears of bigotry, frustration and rage. Mmmmmmmmmmmm
MB
@Allison:
I don’t live in nor have ever been to Fulton. I am not from nor have ever lived in the South (I’ve posted that here several times earlier.)
My college and graduate degrees are not from Southern institutions, either.
If you chose to READ about this event, you’d know much much more, including:
The SCHOOL had a dress code for the prom.
Juin refers to HIMSELF as HE.
Where do YOU live Allison? Somewhere there’s no one to “rescue?” Have to practice your PC online?
trickstertara
Most of this is immaterial. Senior prom is one night in a person’s life. Mississippi is at the bottom of the totem pole for public education and the events of the past month have made it pretty clear as to why. Meanwhile, Constance is leaving all these people behind and going on to a promising future. In a handful of weeks, she’ll be beyond their reach and good for her.
Ultimately, the Itawamba School Board and the mayor of Fulton, MS made *themselves* into a laughingstock by taking the positions they did. An international laughingstock at that: this story was covered in Great Britain where civil rights for LGBT citizens are definitely still an issue, but the general citizenry lit up the comments boards with responses like “what the fuck is wrong with America?” So Miss Begley’s statement that Constance made their town and their state look like a bunch of redneck hicks is misleading. They made themselves look that way — and her Facebook statements are still helping it along.
Chirren
@JonJon:
I mostly agree, except to say that we should remember that the students who attended the prom are kids. You may believe that 17-year-olds have a “well developed moral compass,” but science is not on your side. Impulsivity rules with adolescents. Do you not see a difference in the criticism that should rightly be directed to adult politicians and religious leaders who oppress us and the criticism directed to teenagers who have made decisions that many, probably most, will regret in a few years?
Is it really okay to make hurtful comments (not that you personally did so) to one teenager in order to show how wrong it was for them to do hurtful things to someone else? Do you not see the irony in that?
I’d take my “turn the other cheek” lessons from Martin Luther King and Ghandi and even Jesus Christ before I’d take advice from an Internet troll any day.
Cam
No. 85 · Chirren
@JonJon:
I mostly agree, except to say that we should remember that the students who attended the prom are kids. You may believe that 17-year-olds have a “well developed moral compass,” but science is not on your side.
_______________________________
Not true at all. That incident in MA. where the girl was bullied to death. Why doesn’t that happen to every kid, or in every school? Easy, because most parents do not just sit back and excuse allt heir childrens behavior by saying “Gee, they aren’t adults yet”. Sorry, but 17 and 18 year olds are not stupid. Marriage certificates can be issues to girls as young as 15 in the state of Mississippi. So they are adult enough to get married and raise a child, but not adult enough to think “Hey, maybe we shouldn’t act like assholes.”? I don’t buy it.
Cam
@ No. 83 · MB
Wow, a whole post AGAIN changing the subject. This time referencing where you went to school. guess it’s easier than trying to argue against all the proof everybody has piled on here that you’re wrong, a bigot, and by the way, those pants make you look fat.
Ioan
Every time a GLBT person stands up for themselves, the homohaters accuse us of hate. I guess Constance just should have backed down and let the school run over her. The ONLY reason the school cancelled the original prom was because someone might be made “uncomfortable” by her bringing a female date or her wearing a tuxedo. She stood up for her rights and now the homohaters are upset because the GLBT community backed her up. And so what if her mother is lesbian and urged her to stand up for her rights? I guess Mom should have told her not to make waves, huh?
I am so glad that Constance will be getting out of this hellhole in a few months. Then all the good Christians and other homohaters can congratulate themselves on having got rid of the “lesbo dyke”.
It was sad to see that African-Americans, whose parents or grandparents had this “private”, exclusionary prom crap pulled on them would turn around and do it to someone else. Just sad, that whole damned town!
samthor
What many straight people don’t understand is the incredible amount of courage & determination it took for a high school kid to come out and ask to take her same-sex date to the prom.
What many “sheeple” don’t understand is incredible amount of bravery and self- respect it took for a high school kid to stand up for herself in the face of the school board, classmates, and townspeople trying to shut her out and make her feel “wrong”.
What many of the whiners don’t understand is the enormous amount of strength, composure and poise it took to speak publicly to the world about the discrimination against her as the haters attacked her.
How many of us really would have been able to take on the world like Constance at her age? How many of us NOW can take all the jealously, spitefulness, and inevitable attacks that come with doing anything worthwhile and important? This young lady is years ahead of her classmates.
Rin
@JonJon:
Um ruined? Sounds like they probably would have had a better time at the prom they actually went to. I’d rather hang out at the country club with the disabled kids than go to the “party” with the other ones.
Constance wanted to prove a point and did.
Show of hands of people that think she really truly would have had fun with those other kids.
PirateFaafy
The reason the senior class boycotted the actual prom was not because we hate blacks. We wanted a drama-free gathering to celebrate 3 great years and 1 lousy one together, and we wanted to lay low. We also wanted to do it without the main cause of the lousy. What people are failing to realize is that much of the fault of this whole stink lies with Constance, not her mistreatment by the school district, but her crazy-reckless need for attention. It sounds mean and horrible and like we planned it all specifically to embarrass Constance, but we didn’t. We let her have her prom with her niggerskin and her slave heritage and we went to party it up in the “boondocks” not because we wanted her rights violated, but so we could salvage what has turned into a total fiasco. As a whole we didn’t support her decision to throw the district under the bus, or her insinuations that we’re all just a bunch ‘a hicks driving around in beater pick up trucks spitting tobacco and burning crosses. IAHS is one of the top schools in the state and I’m proud of that, and I’m proud that we took a stand and just said you know what? forget it, we have just as much right as you do to have a party for ourselves. So we did, and now we’re getting flack because poor Connie’s ego got a bit of bruising. She’s playing the black card to prove she ALWAYS gets what she wants. This time, we didn’t just let her.
Take it as you will, because I’m sure it sounds like we faked her out, but understand this- the decision NOT to attend prom had nothing to do with the school or with Constance’s race; it had everything to do with proving we weren’t going to let her and the ACLU steamroll us into doing what Constance wanted. We flexed the muscle of the majority and we’ll suffer the consequences.