THE SHOT — Attendees of the “real” Itawamba High prom enjoy themselves a gay-free chance to slow dance. (via)
the shot
What the Prom Constance McMillen Wasn’t Invited To Looked Like
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B
That looks straight up Footloose. Although I support her and her stance, she is better off on her own.
terrwill
They would have saved money on the $15.99 Prom specials at WalMart and 1980’s era tux rentals if they just would have all worn their much more appropriate white sheets……………
fredo777
shitty. like most proms. and full of douchebags.
onward + upward, constance.
SouLKid
Whats this mess?
Well, it looks like she didn’t miss much.
Adam
are those bitches wearing jeans to the prom? seriously?
jason
The guy on the right has classic gay face.
Ed
This is what biogtry looks like. In all of it’s clean-cut, fresh-faced, Amefican pie glory.
ChrisM
I agree with Jason.
And the girls in jeans are bitches, but it’s not because I give a damn about fashion (I don’t). It’s because, as they got dressed to go to their so-called “prom,” they probably didn’t even think once that one of the reasons the real prom was canceled was because Constance didn’t want to wear a dress. Yet they’ll still blame her, and then not invite her to their sorry substitute. These kids and parents are pathetic.
alan brickman
two closet cases in this photo alone…..
BobaLou
I hear dueling banjos.
Cole Marentette
Is… Is no one gonna point out the damn elephant in the room? I know there’s no way those two are actually gay, but that only makes the “two hot chicks kissing” photo being a “memory” an even bigger slap in the face. In short, high school continues to be high school, it’s just sad that the parents and administrators are as much a bunch of petty assholes as the kids are.
Mishka
No gays (real ones). Check. No minorities. Check. No disabled kids. Check. Yup, looks like their “cleansing” was a rousing success.
Tina
Anyone remember how I said the suspension of the transgender student was going to get completely swept under the rug?
Yuki
Wait. So, no lesbians are allowed at the prom… but two girls can make out for the lulz all they want? What?
NAP79
All these assholes live (and will remain) in Miss so their shitty prom is really all they have to look forward to before they get fat, marry another asshole, divorce, and vote for another asshole to represent their trailor state.
Constance will all but have forgotten about wanting to hangout with these assholes.
TommyOC
@Yuki: Yeah… I’m confused too.
1) Two girls are kissing. Isn’t that the whole reason you didn’t want Constance going there in the first place?
2) I’m personally offended by that larger girl in the upper right pic trying to eat the face off of the guy she’s dancing with.
2.a) She’s showing a lot of sideboob there.
2.b) Is that boy wearing a T-Shirt?!?
3) Girls wearing jeans… just the first step to full-out lesbianism. Looks like Itawamba has a problem on its hands…
4) I went to a Title I ghetto-ass school where our buildings were old, our books even older, and our lunches consisted of processed mystery meat and asbestos. And the people there, without exception, dressed to the nines for our prom. And gays brought their dates.
What is so fucking hard about doing either?
MB
This event was a private party with a private guest list, not “a prom” open to a qualified student body.
Athough it appears a number of the guests chose to wear “prom” clothes (probably already purchased before the school prom was cancelled and the “alternate prom” implemented), others chose to attend more casually attired — it was a party, after all, not a formal event.
Other photos from the event show clearly minorities were included on the guest list and attended.
Now, how do you know there were no gays on the guest list and in attendance?
Tommy
The girl-on-girl kiss is the sexual orientation equivalent of black face. Not always, but in this context it is. The point is that you mock the lesbian you just excluded by acting like her in an exaggerated manner.
These kids are the product of Christian homes and IMO exemplify Christianity in its purest form.
Jayson
Bless their hearts!
B
No 1, “B” … its a different “B” 🙂
I seems from the pictures that it is OK for two girls to kiss each other as long as they do not claim to be lesbians.
TommyOC
@MB: If there were gays in attendance, they were closeted. If the “party” organizers were okay with gays at their “party,” they would have protested the school’s cancellation of their prom instead of going on record wishing Constance McMillen would spare them the trouble.
And they would have invited her.
—-
While I appreciate the point you’re trying to make, you fail to see where the offense is being taken. The fact that an entire community rallied to exclude a girl from the penultimate event of her high school experience is something to be ashamed of. And definitely not something to be defended.
Cam
Wow, so basically I feel a whole lot less sorry for Constance. Not being allowed to hang out with those kids would be like a piece of dog crap not allowing you to step on it.
Cam
No. 17 · MB
This event was a private party with a private guest list, not “a prom” open to a qualified student body.
_________________
You’ve been trolling all the postings about this event, and look, you are a typical defender of the small town bigotry. you can tie it up in technicallities, just the way people did in the past. Remember the “We aren’t saying that blacks don’t have the right to vote, we just want them to fill out a questionare with 500 incredibly trivial questions that they must get right before we hand them the ballot.
The fact of the matter is, the small southern town mentality is a lot like a child molesters. We all notice that the main attack lobbed at Constance is “She is just trying to get attention.” Well it’s the same as a child molester saying “Don’t tell your parents!” See, neither the small southern town, nor the child molester wants anybody to call attention to them because if it is done, then neither can continue to be the same pathetic slimey piece of trash that they are.
So I hope you have a good laugh at this girls expence, because looking at the clothes that those kids are wearing, my guess is that in 10 years constance will be making about triple the money that anybody else in that entire town pulls in.
Mr. Enemabag Jones
@MB
Now, how do you know there were no gays on the guest list and in attendance?
How do you know there were?
Other photos from the event show clearly minorities were included on the guest list and attended.
Where are those photos? Do any of those photos show the developmentally challnged kids in attendance?
This event was a private party with a private guest list, not “a prom” open to a qualified student body.
Funny that. Considering that many of the kids who attended are calling this “PROM 2010” on their FB pages. And I guess lesbians and learning disabled kids need not apply.
Dickie
There’s a very, very good reason I left Southern US as soon as I could… it’s this stupid, petty, “don’t rock the boat” mentality and this kind of Stand-In-Line, gossipy dictate that make it completely unbearable… this mentality that being racist is OK as long you don’t actually point at a black person when you laugh, or that being an anti-American separatist is OK because you’re just “honoring your heritage,” or that being homophobic is OK because it was a “private event” so there was no exclusion… except, of course, the child that was excluded.
Cassandra
“IMO exemplify Christianity in its purest form.”
Your opinion is as ignorant and malicious as the opinions expressed by the homophobes at Itawamba. You are no better than they, and exactly as bad.
They vilify GLBTQ people, you vilify Christians, it is all prejudice. You are their peer in every meaningful way.
parclair
Is someone going to post the names of these fine christians? So we can all follow their careers?
Michelle
@Cassandra:
“You are no better than they, and exactly as bad. They vilify GLBTQ people, you vilify Christians, it is all prejudice. You are their peer in every meaningful way.”
Exactly as bad? Really? And their peer in every /meaningful/ way?
Well, tell you what: once the gay community has the sort of social and political power to back up stripping the entirety of Christian-identified groups of the same rights that all other religious groups in America have? Once the gay community ceases to be an underprivileged, second-class of citizens in America? THEN we can talk about them expressing their frustration with the majority being “just as bad” as what that majority is doing to them.
Otherwise, it’s just that: expressing frustration. When gays get fed up with religion-based bigotry, some harsh things get said. When religion-based bigots get fed up with the gay community for existing, SEGREGATION happens.
I wouldn’t call that being “just as bad”. Not by a long shot.
Stef
I love the kid in the powder blue tux…nothing screams masculine heterseoxual male like a powder blue tux, bangs that would make justin bieber cry with jealousy, and an outfit that matches your date’s dress as well as a couple in the icecapades. He looks like a podunk version of mysize Ken. four feet tall and all!
I bet he rode a harley to the fake not prom.
Macho.
Yuri
“Your opinion is as ignorant and malicious as the opinions ”
No, it’s a reaction to ignorant and malicious behavior. If Christians do not want this lobbed at them, Christians have every power to, like, stop fellow Christians from oppressing minorities.
It’s not difficult. You can’t cry foul when people point out your groups batshit behavior when the behavior happens, is widespread and documented.
What do gays do? Protest that. No, not the same. Think before posting.
Helen
So they wanted a prom free of girl-on-girl and free from girls wearing pants?
Did they tell the lipstick lesbians that before or after they tried to get the boys hot? Or that girl in blue-jeans?
No one stopped to tell them that they were manipulated by a bigoted school (because no rational adult cancels a prom and puts all the blame on one person unless they really want to see some bullying and shaming)?
Emily
@Tommy: Two of the most intelligent, fair-minded, just people I have ever known come under various denominations of Christianity. One is my best friend from high school (she’s Lutheran and I was raised in an atheist family), the other is my beautiful girlfriend (of the lesbian variety). I am heartily sorry that the actions of these stupid, bigoted mouth-breathers have convinced people that all Christians delight in bullying people who are different from them.
DR
@Yuri:
You wrote: “No, it’s a reaction to ignorant and malicious behavior. If Christians do not want this lobbed at them, Christians have every power to, like, stop fellow Christians from oppressing minorities.”
So the efforts of the UCC for the last 30 years mean nothing? The efforts of the Lutheran Church mean nothing? The efforts of the Episcopalian Church mean nothing? The efforts of the Unitarians mean nothing? The efforts of the MCC, a GAY church, mean nothing? The efforts of Soulforce, a multi-denominational GLBT rights group, mean nothing?
You need to stop painting all Christians with the same brush, because as a Christian gay man in a position of leadership with my local UCC church, I’m getting really fed up with it. It seems like anything we do is never enough. You continue to point and yell and call all Christians “bigots”; it’s time to get educated. It is absolutely no better than when some of them paint all of us with the same broad brush strokes.
DR
@MB:
While I can respect that you and some of your friends wanted privacy and a vacation from the camera crews and drama surrounding this situation, you have to understand how bad things look for you. The lesbian and the special needs kids weren’t invited to your party. Your friends and classmates called it their “prom”. Folks in authority engaged in subterfuge and obfuscation to keep Constance from attending.
Either you and your friends deliberately conspired to keep the “outcasts” from ruining your party or you were totally manipulated by the adults. If it’s the former, you really are not nice people. If it’s the latter, well, you guys need to open your eyes, your pawns in someone’s sick game.
DR
darn typo. *you’re pawns in someone’s sick game. *grumble*
Anon Anon
So, this is what a Bigot Prom looks like?
I too would love to get a list of graduating seniors. I do hiring and if I ever see the name of this high school cross my desk, well, it will get put into the “Fake” filing cabinet that looks like a trash can. They should feel comfortable in there with the rest of the trash…
Neil the Ethical Werewolf
Thanks to all the tolerant and pro-gay Christians showing up here. We need more of you guys.
I’m an atheist, and my allies include anyone who wants to make this world a better place.
Shanna
@Cassandra
The poster to whom you reply is speaking against christianity, not its followers. Religions don’t have any special right not to be criticized.
stogoe
It’s not just this incident. It’s the entire history of your bloodshed religion. I appreciate the tolerant Christians for their efforts, but only as individuals. It must really be tough to constantly struggle against the teachings of your religion so you can be recognized as decent human beings.
And it’s truly unfortunate that the story of Juin Baize being run out of Fulton for breaking heteronormative clothing taboos hasn’t got more widespread attention. Journalism and the internet are fickle beasts and difficult to rein.
Luke
That guy in the blue looks gay… definitely. His face, his clothing, even his stance.
deb
I feel sorry for these children. One day they will look back at this meaningless ritual and cringe at their own cowardliness. Worse yet, they will always remember the time that they could have stood up for something noble and good but were too selfish to do so.
If they have children who are learning disabled, gay or different in any ways, then every time that child gets teased they will have to look into the hurt eyes of that child and remember that they were once the people dispensing cruelty.
By the way, the two girls touching tongues makes the high school students seem hyprocritical. Two girls willing to degrade themselves just to make some boys hot is all right, but two girls dancing together because they are homosexual is wrong?
Mostly, their parents have fallen down on their jobs. Kids can be cruel, stupid and selfish. It is the adults in their life who are supposed to teach them to aim for something higher. How sad that the parents of these children aren’t teaching them to stand up for what is right not what you personally find enjoyable.
Cassandra
So, Yuri
“You can’t cry foul when people point out your groups batshit behavior when the behavior happens, is widespread and documented.”
per the above, you are going to quit crying foul, right?
“”No, it’s a reaction to ignorant and malicious behavior. If Christians do not want this lobbed at them, Christians have every power to, like, stop fellow Christians from oppressing minorities.”
See, Yuri, your remarks parallel exactly what homophobes say about drag queens and leatherdaddies and the folsom street fair – if GLBTQ people don’t want to be labeled “pervert” etc, we should just stop other GLBTQ people from doing drag, or wearing leather, or having sexy street parties, or doing anything that heterosexuals don’t approve of.
You are judging all Christians by the actions of some, conveniently forgetting that because the U.S. is predominantly Christian, the majority of all condemnation of “the “real” Itawamba High prom” has come from other Christians.
Michelle, you are doing the same thing homophobes do, making excuses for your prejudice. Some people of a group harm you, as homophobes insist that GLBTQ people harm and threaten them, so that frees you to malign every Christian.
And Michelle, the reality of who does, or does not have power and priviledge is irrelevant, because homophobes perceive themselves as a threatened class too. Being threatened, or simply perceiving yourself as threatened, doesn’t justify maligning an entire class of people.
“Otherwise, it’s just that: expressing frustration. When gays get fed up with religion-based bigotry, some harsh things get said.”
When homophobes get fed up with homosexuals, some harsh things get said. Saying harsh things is the prelude to doing harsh things. Frankly, it is common for people who condemn Christianity to express their desire to enforce segregation as well, to dream of and work for a world free of religion.
Your prejudice is no different from that of any homophobe, including those who created this mess in Mississippi.
“I wouldn’t call that being “just as bad”. Not by a long shot.”
Homophobes see nothing wrong in their behavior either. Racists see no wrong in their behavior. That you see nothing wrong in your prejudice doesn’t refute my position, it confirms.
Either bigotry is always wrong, or it never is.
Cassandra
Stogoe
“It’s the entire history of your bloodshed religion.”
You are wrong, either deliberately (making you a liar) or inexcusable ignorance. You are a bigot as well.
“It must really be tough to constantly struggle against the teachings of your religion so you can be recognized as decent human beings.”
Do you have an idea how similar your patronize nonsense matches the bs that homophobes post about how tough they think it is to be gay?
Your claims about Christianity, Stogoe, are as ignorant and false as anything Fred Phelps, or Porno Pete has ever claimed about GLBTQ people.
Like any homophobe, you lie and vilify by reducing the experiences, values, beliefs and lives of millions and millions of people to some tiny shard you can complain about.
Fundamentalist atheists opining about religion are identical to celibate priests opining about sex: both are yammering on about something they are deliberately ignorant of.
Cassandra
Shanna
“The poster to whom you reply is speaking against christianity, not its followers.”
Oh, yeah, and homophobes are only speaking against “homosexual acts” not people.
Good grief, did you really think that your version of ‘hate the sin, not the sinner’ would convince anyone?
Religious belief, including Christianity, is the accumulation of people’s experiences, intrinsically a part of the people who experience it. My faith, the faith of any religious person, is as intrinsic to our self as sexual orientation is, or handed-ness, etc. You vilify my faith, some homophobe vilifies my sexuality, both of you are vilifying me. It is the exact same process, only the target is different.
Homophobes refuse to accept the testimony of GLBTQ people about things only we can know directly – our lives, our experiences, our feelings. Fundamentalist atheists refuse to accept the testimony of people of faith about things only we can know directly – our lives, our experiences, our feelings. It is the same process. Homophobes judge and condemn homosexuals based on a shared trait and construct elaborate, exaggerated justifications; fundamentalists judge and condemn people of faith based on a shared trait and construct elaborate, exaggerated justifications. Same process, different target.
“Religions don’t have any special right not to be criticized.”
Homophobes say the exact same about sexual orientation. Certainly homophobes have no respect for homosexuality just as several people here have no respect for Christianity. It seems to be a consistent symptom of bigots that they feel entitled to criticize and malign other people for who they are.
Of course, your argument is just a diversionary tactic – the right to criticize is not the issue – prejudice and bigotry is the issue – and maligning all people of a group because of their shared trait is bigotry. Criticism, to be decent, must be based on an accurate and full account of whatever is being criticized, and that doesn’t happen when homosexuality is criticized by homophobes, or when faith is criticized by fundamentalist atheists.
That you have a right to be a bigot doesn’t mean that bigotry is acceptable behavior.
Ex
@Cassandra: Actually religion is something you choose and decide to believe in, like political association. Sexual orientation is a neurological and biological state, like hair color.
The religious choose their hate, ignorance, and general fail. Homosexuals and bisexuals do not choose their gender-specific attraction.
Your attempt to equate religion and sexuality is pathetic and entirely self-defeating.
Cassandra
Some people are under the impression that the battle to achieve civil equality for GLBTQ people is between religion and atheism, between believers and non-believers.
That is simply wrong. Atheists and agnostics are too few in number to have much impact on this, or any, issue. It may anger you to read that truth, it may or may not be unfair, but it is the truth. Those who oppose religion cannot fight this battle, or any battle on their own. Not all people of faith are homophobes, and not all atheists support equality for GLBTQ people.
The war over homosexuality is between dominationism and liberationism. In the U.S., that battle is primarily being fought within Christianity and Judaism. Though there are people using science, and philosophy, and other spheres of human understanding, to make manifest either their desire to dominate, or their desire to be liberated, this battle is primarily between two different approaches to faith. This is primarily a battle within religion, and any hope of eradicating religion itself is counterproductive at best, and a manifestation of prejudice as well. This is a battle of theology.
Dominationism reflects the need some people have to assert control over others. It is about power first, and the vehicle for getting power, whether religion, or politics, or science, is merely a matter of what is convenient and successful.
To win through to equality, dominationism itself has to be rebuked. And in the U.S., that means rebuking conservative, fundamentalist, literalist interpretations of the Bible, i.e, dominationist theology, specifically. Rebuking religion entirely, or Christianity entirely, only feeds into the very power paradigm that dominationism is built on – fundamentalists translate the anti-Christian hate speech on threads like this one as “See, all gays are godless and evil”.
If domination theology wins out, then GLBTQ people will lose their civil rights completely, followed by atheists, and people of color, and minority faiths. If liberation theology wins, then everyone will be safer, including atheists.
Vilifying all people of faith, or all Christians, aids domination theology, by offering a non-religious version of dominationism itself, one that squelches diversity of spiritual experience rather than diversity of sexual experience. When atheists and non-Christians assert that expressions of homophobia are ‘the real Christianity’ they explicitly assist dominationist theology by embracing and spreading that interpretation.
You cannot eradicate one prejudice by celebrating another, and the harsh truth is that atheism is just another prejudice about a different grouping of people; it is not the answer to oppression.
Anyone who wants civil equality for GLBTQ people in the U.S. has a stake in nurturing and defending liberation theology, either from within religion or as an educated and informed person outside of religion.
Ex
Supplementary comment: I did not realize Cassandra was posting a massive epic of comment responses. Caring too much detected. All reasonable human beings should flee now, while there’s still time.
Cassandra
Ex
“Actually religion is something you choose”
Homophobes insist that homosexuality is something you chose. You aren’t going to win any points with that one. And like homophobes, you are asserting that you just know something about my life that is different from what I have testified to. I know that my faith, like my sexuality, handedness, and other intangible traits, is innate. The details of how I express and understand my faith, are a mix of the chosen and un-chosen. Some aspects of my faith are things that simply resonate for me intrinsically, just as I intrinsically am attracted to men and not women; while other aspects of my faith are the result of deliberation, just a some of the ways I express my sexuality are the result of deliberation.
People chose, to a degree, the way they act on and understand their faith, just as people chose, more or less, the way they act on and understand their sexuality.
“Your attempt to equate religion and sexuality is pathetic and entirely self-defeating.”
Your dismissal is a carbon copy of the dismissals homophobes routinely use. Rather than accept first-hand testimony from someone with life-experience of the thing you hate, you create a new, derogatory fantasy and foist it onto me.
In truth, were my ‘attempt’ either pathetic or self-defeating, you would not have posted.
You expended a slight effort because what I wrote was sensible, accurate, relevant, and a serious rebuke of the anti-Christian hate speech so prevalent here.
Cassandra
Homophobes routinely accuse me of “caring too much” too, Ex. It simply points out how intrinsically dehumanizing all prejudices are, including but not limited to homophobia and fundamentalist atheism.
It is sad that you seem to find fault in caring about human beings.
Kyle Bergen
where do I even begin? the pic of the two fugly chicks kissing? or the kid in the blue vest and white pants? or the guy making out with the super gross fat chick. im glad Constance didn’t go to that bs
Nick
@Kyle Bergen: For someone who seems so supportive of a girl and her right not to be discriminated due to her sexuality, I find it pretty ironic that you are judging these people so forwardly.
“super gross fat chick”? You’re just as bad as the people who held this “secret” prom in the first place.
Emily
@stogoe: “It’s the entire history of your bloodshed religion…” Actually, if you had read my comment more carefully, you would have read the part where I stated that I was raised in an atheist family (I now identify as agnostic). You don’t have to be a Christian or religious to recognise that not all Christians are assholes, just like you don’t have to be gay to support rights for gays. Just as religion can be used by assholes to justify their general assholishness, religion can also be used by good people to justify being a good person.
deb
Two posts about this:
Itawamba 2010 and the Lesbian
http://dhconcerts.wordpress.com/2010/04/08/itawamba-2010-and-the-lesbian/
Itawamba 2010 – The Bullies, The Bullied, The Bystanders
http://dhconcerts.wordpress.com/2010/04/08/itawamba-2010-the-bullies-the-bullied-and-the-bystanders/
Louisa
Everyone looked stunning @ my prom, and knew how to act, with class and dignity. Everyone was invited.
Wow, too much fatty, hormone fed, factory farmed beef in the kids’ diet these days. But, the skinny ones are even uglier. It’s obvious they’re too awkward to even know how to french kiss. They all look like Mormons, especially the “guys?” It’s hard to hide an ugly inside from the world. The longer you do it, the more permanent it gets on the outside. They look as though this is their last chance @ “dress up” before heading back for the hills.
Sky Captain
@DR: You want other secular gays to not make fun of you and say that you aren’t doing enough? Go to your fellow straight Christians of whatever denomination and tell them to stop looking at their GLBT brethren as nasty evil aliens. Tell the to stop hating gay people, and their gay children if they have any. Tell them these things, and maybe other gays will respect you. Until then, put the fuck up or shut the fuck up.
Sky Captain
@Louisa: Excuse me, but how the frack do you know what’s in their diet, body fascist? Please stop castigating then for that.