So, it’s true: Mississippi’s high school senior Constance McMillen was tricked into attending a faux prom while all the cool kids went to the real prom. She dropped in fashionably late, about 90 minutes after it started, and stayed for about a half hour. Ugh. It’s all a disgusting showing of human character, where students, parents, and the high school’s administrators appear to have colluded on an exercise in discrimination. These people danced the night away knowing they shunned a classmate because, in one small respect, she is different. In the end, the high school got what they wanted: A gay-free prom. Is everyone proud of themselves?
Some lingering thoughts.
Were school administrators and faculty aware of the other prom? McMillen’s principal and several high school teachers chaperoned the prom Constance went to, which means either they were in on the ruse (against a student! Jesus) and lent a free evening so other students could party gay-free, or were also duped by parents and thought they would be hosted a school-wide prom.
Who was behind each prom? Constance attended Itawamba Agricultural High School’s official senior prom at the Fulton Country Club, which was announced by a school attorney, but it’s unclear whether the school district was actually sponsoring it. So who put on the other event in Evergreen? Parents, evidently. We want names, and it appears the ACLU does too.
McMillen really has a deficit of trustworthy friends at school. Besides her girlfriend and the smattering of fellow students (read: all five of them, who are now dubbed outcasts, if they weren’t before), nobody else showed up at the prom. Which means everybody else knew it was a fake one, and they went to the real one. Which also means nobody has the decency to tell McMillen about the stunt — and all their Facebook profiles are locked down, since this type of thing rarely escapes Internet gossip among students. McMillen says she knew about the other prom, but after asking a classmate about it, the student told McMillen “the prom is at the country club.” So she didn’t go to the other one.
What would’ve happened if she went to the “real” prom? No, really. Would they have barred she and her girlfriend from entering?
Will there be legal repercussions? U.S. District Judge Glen H. Davidson already ruled the school violated Constance’s rights by banning her from its prom. But now that she was, technically, invited to the school‘s prom, are administrators in the clear? Even if they knew their own school prom would be a dud?
How can these kids, faculty, and parents face Constance after Friday night’s events? These people are deplorable, and anyone who acted with knowledge of the dual proms — and that they existed to exclude Constance — acted with malice. This is a shameful display of behavior from a local community.
Peg
Before anyone comes in here to defend this behavior by hiding behind their fake morality- some of the 5 other kids who were also ‘not’ invited to the “real” prom were learning disabled teenagers. So, explain that one to us. Every single argument against not having the homosexuals at the prom just became irrelevant by choosing to exclude the learning disabled as well.
Wade MacMorrighan
I’m betting that the “alternate” prom was purposefully sponsored privately by the parents, so that, if Constance *did* decide to attend, she could be asked to leave as a ‘party crasher” and no one would be liable! How cruel!
Jeremyrh2387
Wow what ever other parents or students were apart of that should be embarrassed about that. How ignorant. I just hope none of them have kids, I wouldn’t want them raising children to be just as close minded and ignorant as them.
AlwaysGay
Constance needs to realize this is going to be the way it is in that town and leave. She has been offered assistance which she needs to take and work her butt off to make sure she never has to come back to that town. She can’t hold out thinking things will change because they won’t. As we have seen the heterosexuals worked in sync to make sure they had a heterosexual-only prom to exclude her and her girlfriend. I don’t know how her girlfriend will make it through high school.
I hope every gay person has taken time to reflect on this situation and given thanks to all the gay people who have come out before them and realized what they were up against when there was absolutely no other openly gay people around them. We still have so much to face.
Yuki
This is absolutely disgusting. Absolutely.
By the way, Queerty, “What would’ve happened if she went to the “real” problem?”… I think you meant “prom” instead of “problem”.
Mike
Sad, indeed, on so many counts. I want to say to ‘AlwaysGay’ and everyone – this is a process as with everything in life. Because of how we humans have set things up it takes time to implement change, expressing acceptable behaviors around that and creating laws to support it. People have to be exposed to change and have some type of personal experience with it before it can become a part of their very core, for them to begin to accept that change and then to move to embrace it. It has happened all throuhgout our history and is happening in very this moment. Right now we are in a very ugly moment (to say the least), but apparently a necessary one…this WILL pass and change is ALWAYS coming. Constance is a shy and shining example of our finest who bring about change in our world. Bravo to her and others like her! Patience and perseverance for all of us!
BK
Sorry excuses for parents. I can’t believe that that entire school district doesn’t have a single decent person in it. It’s deplorable and despicable. What assholes!
Soakman
I do find it hard to believe that NOBODY stuck up for Constance. How big is this school district exactly, and who paid for the prom decorations and activities? Country Club? Once again, I think it’s safe to say that money has managed to spare the ignorant.
Ricky
yea, money spared them fro having to put up with the “gay thing” but money will not protect them from Karma!
Anne
Oh, that is vile. I can’t believe not one single person would tell them.
Jack
And thus is where the civil suits come in, and I say she go for the throat. This is an obvious case of discrimination, and even if it is not technically illegal, it was clearly meant to cause distress, mental harm, and put Constance in under undo pressure that may result in her decreased ability to perform at school and exist within that city’s culture.
This is such a southern thing… Not the discrimination part, that’s everywhere, but the way this went down. I am certain there are students and parents that are supportive of Constance and were not OK with the secret prom, but do to societal pressures of the South, they chose to remain silent, smile and not rock the boat. And while that is very Southern, it is also evil. Knowing what the right thing to do is and just not doing it is evil; not knowing that what you’re doing is wrong is just ignorance.
Lanjier
Wow. That is real bigotry country. It is like they never learned what America was supposed to be about! What in the world must these ape parents teach their children that they could be so cruel and mean.
DR
This is vile.
Even if we assume that Constance tried to find out about the “real” prom as some other sources have indicated, she still was told by students that the “real” prom was at the country club and totally ostracized by her classmates. I find it hard to believe the school did not know anything about the other event going on that every other student was at. Should it be proven the school did and colluded with parents to pull this stunt, I hope she does go for the jugular. This is disgusting.
ChrisM
Fucking scumbags.
I really hope she’s going away to college.
Suzygoo
I learned how to say one phrase in Southern talk! Y’all are all sonofabitches! I do declare that a boycott is in order. I, for one, will send an email to the Mississippi stating that I will not be arriving for my annual jaunt through the swamps. What y’all going to do!
k6tmk6
No, not a boycott, rather a “let’s all go to that town and show them our solidarity with her.” Someone rally the troops and let’s do a peaceful march thru their town to show that we won’t ever go away.
Stef
reprehensable. bably small town rednecks, all in their late 30s, who got knocked up in their senior year and still talk about their glory days as the high school quarterback and head cheerleader, because in the last 20 years NOTHING has changed in their lives.
I am writing a SCATHING oped to the local paper. I hope they post it. Doubt they will, but good god someone needs to slap these people.
Joe Gee
This is the sort of thing that deserves a “Carrie” ending.
terrwill
@Joe Gee: BRILLIANT!!!
NoYDB
re: “This is such a southern thing… ”
Look, this sort of this doesn’t exclusively take place in the south. This sort of hate is EVERYWHERE. Believe me, we have plenty of very vocal bigots here in the north who will happily pull sh*t of this magnitude. (Or worse.)
Also, It’a childish to boycott a whole state. A peaceful demonstration of solidarity is a much better way of getting the message across that this sort of thing is unacceptable.
Synnerman
Fuck that town and fuck those idiots. That girl and any other gay person in that town should leave before those idiot adults engineer an “accident.”
Josh AZ
C H R I S T I A N S
MB
How do you know the private party was “gay-free?”
Abel
I wonder which prom Jesus would attend?
Of course he would attend the one for outcasts and the shunned.
What I’d like to hear are the local sermons this week. Will they all just ignore this? Pat themselves on the back?
Best thing that could happen: a civil suit costs the school district so much money that they can no longer fund the football program. The courts have been hoodwinked and should take great umbrage over this.
j
Just want to add my voice to the chorus of condemnation and say that everyone that passively colluded with constance’s school should be ashamed of themselves.
TomEM
If any of those kids used Facebook in ANY way to dupe Constance McMillen, then all those who did could have their Facebook profiles disabled. Their profiles, and those of their parents/school administrators can be reported to Facebook for harassment. Their access to Facebook could then be forever blocked (see, Facebook Terms of Service http://www.facebook.com/terms.php) Welcome to the real world boys and girls…
CHIP1218
The South (and especially Mississippi) is not really America, it’s the Confederacy. There is no United States of America unless the rest of the country caters to their backwards way of thinking. Guns for all, no unionized labor, less government (which means communities are run as fiefdoms), no help for the disadvantaged and disabled, and screw everyone who is not white, Christian, and heterosexual! That is the true meaning of our Southern States.
If the terrorists are monitoring this blog chatter, stop attacking NYC, DC, LA, etc. – this is the part of America that has caused all your problems in the Middle East!
terrwill
The southern states ‘ceding from the Union during the Civil War maybe wasn’t such a bad idea after all………
Seriousley, think about the clusterfuck of thought that went into this…….It had to be approved by all the “adults” who are in positions of authority within that school district. Including the legal department, they are so full of hatred for all things Gay that they are willing to risk their jobs, the schools funding and budget to throw this litte hatefest……………..Beyond pathetic and sick
Alexa
This is just sick. I hope there is something the ACLU can do to make them suffer some consequences, but I suspect they covered all their bases before perpetuating this fraud. Disgusting.
Beck Robertson
@Peg:
actually that just makes the argument even stronger why where either of the groups excluded form the real deal?
didn’t the Nazi’s used to do something similar…..
America needs to seriously wake up man..
<<glad I live in England
By the way you have a woman, Linda Carty on Death Row right now who is being held in a Texan prison, who is sentenced to death for a crime she didn't commit purely because she could not afford a decent defence lawyer.
RagingDyke
Bad parents…. very bad parents. This is shameful. Very brave young lady, too bad the people in your hometown can’t see and appreciate this young future leader.
alan brickman
SOUNDS LIKE A JOHN WATERS MOVIE!!! … JOHN ARE YOU LISTENING??
Cam
Apparently according to this link, the other students at Constances prom were the learning disabled students who weren’t told about the other prom.
http://lafiga.firedoglake.com/2010/04/05/wheres-constance-photos-from-a-private-proms/
Also, here is an interesting comparison so that those students in Mississippi will know what the world will think of them years from now…. in 1965 the exact same prank was played on a black girl in Alabama.
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=XSAfAAAAIBAJ&sjid=qacEAAAAIBAJ&pg=6862,5131613
Storm
Someone said, “Sorry excuses for parents.” But sorry, the kids do not get off the hook for this. The students who went along with this, and apparently it’s almost all of them, are just as sorry and sick, little souless dirtbags. Their names need to be engraved on a wall and remembered. Even if your parents are embilic bigots, sooner or later you have to stand up to your parents. It what makes you a man or a woman and think for yourselves. This was a defining moment for these kids, and they failed.
Cam
Look, the kinds and the parents can laugh and feel clever all they want….because they are from a podunk town in Mississippi….it’s the last time in their lives that they are going to get to feel clever. So all of you kids, have fun graduating and going out to look for jobs on the docks, in the local Dairy Queen etc… while Constance goes off to the real world for college.
Storm
Lindsay Begley, a student at the high school, posted this at freedoglake dot com. Its all Constance’s fault, you know. “**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.”
Joseph
I agree with k6tmk6: we should rally all the gays, lesbians, transgender, drag queens and queer allies and march on this town. Be Freedom Riders all over again. I’m willing to go, are you?
jamison
@Storm: i don’t quite understand why the student believes that constance was just seeking attention. SHE WAS DENIED THE RIGHT TO ATTEND PROM! by the school district you say she “mistreated”. and why would the regular prom be “drama” anyway if you guys are as accepting as you claim. this whole thing did not occur because of “attention seeking connie”, its because your school district’s bigotry. blame them.
Cam
@Lindsay Begley,
She claims that this is all about Constances need for attention. Isn’t that odd? The girl was denied the right to attend her prom, and it’s her fault because she wanted attention. However I bet that the parents of the students at that school are the asme type of people that freak out, scream, and attend tea parties claiming that Obama is a racist and their rights are violated because health care passed. Funny how it’s defending your rights when they do it, but when it’s one lone girl at their school it’s “She craves attention.”
Yuki
@Storm:
That site you cited is not working for me.
But, if it is a real post:
Bullshit. If they’d allowed her to bring her girlfriend and wear a tux in the first place, people might think it was gross or weird but there wouldn’t be any of this drama! Hell, if even after all this bullshit they would’ve just all went to the same prom, there would still be less drama; instead, all you guys get is this continued media coverage. Regardless of if Constance is a drama queen or not, there’s no reason to discriminate against her and claim it is HER fault that all this is happening. All she wanted was to have a good prom for herself alongside the others.
MB
McMillen and her date were THE featured couple of the privately-sponsored “alternate” prom, an event that resulted from activist McMillen’s ACLU-backed law suit against the school district’s no ss couple attendance policy.
LGBT community activists brought McMillen’s suit to the attention of mainstream media, a very few of which chose to cover the story. Most did not.
McMillen’s activism and pending lawsuit guaranteed her place as center of attention at the event, regardless of who else attended.
The prom was boycotted by most other students, including other *gay* students.
McMillen can only activate and sue for tolerance, not social acceptance.
Her demand for a prom to which she could bring her ss date was provided, as had been advertised to the judge [“Although U.S. District Judge Glen H. Davidson ruled that McMillen’s constitutional rights were violated when the high school denied her permission to bring her girlfriend to prom, he stopped short of forcing the school to hold the prom, largely because parents had organized an alternate function and district officials had testified that McMillen and her girlfriend would be invited..”]
No one was required to attend the prom but everyone was required to tolerate it’s existence. And they did.
That some students threw a *private party* — with or without the help of their parents — to which Constance (and an UNKNOWN NUMBER of others) were not invited, is their legal and social perogative.
Did activist McMillen actually believe she/the court could *force* students to attend a privately sponsored event at which she and lgbt “rights” were guaranteed center stage?
Rob Moore
@Storm: What pathetic rationalizing! If all Constance wanted was attention, their foolish immaturity and their parents’ bigotry provided the attention in spades. What Princess Lindsay does not note or perhaps is too blinded by her own ego to see, is that this is a reflection of her parents’ and the school board’s bigoted response. Attending Prom along with Constance would have toned down the whole attention especially with a blase attitude would have allowed everyone to enjoy the prom without the drama. Princess Lindsay and her friends ruined their own prom by being idiots. None of them realize it is pure escapism. Most of these students will, in a few years, be out-of-shape losers with no future.
In the grand scheme of things, attending silly proms is meaningless, but if it was so fucking important to these kids why would be so detrimental to share a dance floor with. What they really wanted was a prom where it was just the cool kids and the cool-kid-wannabes who attended.
Jon
I think these people are vile and this story made me so angry, but just to be a devil’s advocate maybe there are other explanations. I find it hard to believe that not one single parent or other student came to this girl’s defense. Is it possible that Constance is just an unpleasant person to be around in general? I saw her on some interviews and she seems nice enough, but that doesn’t say what it’s like to attend school with her. Maybe she’s obnoxious, or a know it all, or rude, etc. I know that I disliked many kids in high school and it had nothing to do with whether they were straight or not. She could just be one of those people that rub you the wrong way in general and that’s why nobody took her side. Maybe it’s because she’s fat?
I’m just looking for other reasons. I find it so hard to believe that the entire school, administrators and all of the parents would behave this way. There has to be more of an explanation.
Homer
Perhaps I can understand (actually I can’t) why you didn’t want Constance there. But the fact that the two disabled kids weren’t invited- shows just what complete scum people like “Storm” are. Really, you are truly nasty people.
Homer
Oops, I didn’t mean to call out “Storm”!
RW in LGB
@MB: You are a troll. And a pig. Fuck off and die.
Storm
Yuki: try this link to the Firedoglake site, and look at post number eight.
http://lafiga.firedoglake.com/2010/04/05/the-meanest-town-in-america-fake-prom-for-lesbian-student/
Pam Bradford
I think it’s pitiful what was done to Constance. And fortunately her spirit is much cleaner and more human then any of the conspirators who excluded her from an event she (and the other excluded kids) deserved to attend – in joy. But a note to the conspirators: Watch out. Check the kids who were in attendance at your travestyProm and see who comes out over the next 5 or 10 years. You are idiots and in the long run the losers. Constance can hold her head high and be the real woman God intended her to be. You all will have to bear the shame of your dirty deeds. Have a nice life.
Cam
@ No. 41 · MB
yeah, I’ve seen all the students and others from this area coming on to the other sites. The line now is that Constance just wanted attention. But isn’t that always the case when soembody questions the status quo of bigotry? They said the same thing about the black kids that wanted to attend the white schools (They’re just trying to get attention and cause trouble), they said the same thing about interacial couples that wanted to attend prom, now they’re saying ths same thing about the gay kid.
terrwill
Lindsay Begley: Your wonderful communication skills are going to serve you well in life! Just think when you finally work your way up the ladder at WalMart and become a People Greeter you already have the skills nessessary for the job!! Someday you can achieve your dream and move into the double wide mobile home at the trailer park, maybe even in the front row!!!
terrwill
CHECK OUT THE LINK ON POST #47 AND READ HOW THAT LITTLE HATING WITCH IS GETTING BITCH SLAPPED BY FELLOW STUDENTS FROM ALL OVER……..THERE IS STILL SOME HOPE!!!!…………..
Jon
@terrwill: If you read Lindsay’s FB wall she doesn’t seem to be homophobic. She is actually anti-Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck. I think that perhaps this is just a sad case of children being influenced by bigoted adults. None of them, despite their own beliefs, had the courage to stand up to the people in their town. This is more about mob mentality than homophobia.
terrwill
@Jon: Jon, this isn’t homophobic??
“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.”
AlwaysGay
The heterosexuals down there have been advised what to say. You will see comments that say something like “Constance wanted attention”, “We had a private party”, “Constance wanted to bring a 15 year old girl”, “We seniors just wanted to enjoy ourselves and the time we had in school”, “We never tricked Constance” or “The parents set up the private party, school officials had nothing to do with it”.
The drama started when heterosexuals decided to create rules so the prom would be heterosexual-only. Constance is a student of that school and has every right to attend prom AS SHE IS which is a lesbian with her girlfriend. The haterosexuals are the ones that started the drama essentially forcing LGBT people to either pretend to be heterosexual to get into the prom or not go at all.
uncgpc
@CHIP1218: I see your bigot brush is just as wide as the one used against Constance.
B
No. 8 · Soakman wrote, “I do find it hard to believe that NOBODY stuck up for Constance.”
It’s not that surprising. Read http://millercenter.org/academic/americanpresident/carter/essays/biography/2 for former President Carter’s experience: “An organization called the White Citizens Council was formed to maintain the segregated status quo in the South, and its membership blossomed across the region-including Plains, Georgia. Carter was heavily pressured to join the organization in 1958, and was the only white male in Plains to refuse. The council’s members boycotted Carter’s business, but he stubbornly held out and over time, the boycott fizzled out.”
I read somewhere that when Carter talked to his neighbors personally (one at a time), many didn’t like the situation, particularly being forced to pressure Carter, but were afraid of what might happen to them if they didn’t go along. I bet that is a good analogy in this case too.
Jon
@terrwill: I said read her FB page. She made positive comments about Alexander McQueen. She made negative comments about Rush and Beck. That doesn’t “seem” like a homophobic person. I’m not saying that she isn’t, just that from her past comments on FB it doesn’t seem like she is.
Make no mistake, I am on Constance’s side, however there may be more to the story.
“She’s playing the lesbian card to prove she ALWAYS gets what she wants. This time, we didn’t just let her”
That comment says to me that perhaps Constance has caused problems before, not necessarily associated with her being a lesbian, and the students simply chose this issue to stand up to her.
jamison
@Jon: i want to hear these students for once say something to the lgbt community, perhaps concerning how horrible it was excluding constance in the first place. and about how they wouldn’t mind attending a prom with multiple same sex couples.
and jon, you cant deny from the student’s tone that the “problems” caused by constance before might very likely be related to other issues concerning a small, bigoted town. don’t be so quick to jump on that bandwagon.
D
That is terrible…thank goodness for Karma!
As for it being “a Southern thing” check out http://www.firstcitynetwork.net Click on the current (April) edition of the Network News to read a nice article about a teen in small town Cochran, GA being allowed to take his boyfriend to the prom. Page 7.
Jon
@jamison: I’m just searching for a reason that an entire town would be against this girl. It’s just the most bizarre story. There has to be more that we don’t know. What is the history before the prom issue came up?
Dale
Now we just need Constance to somehow arrange a fake graduation location and she can show up at the real one!
jamison
@Jon: you must live in some sort of bubble” where this type of hatred doesn’t seem possible. as a former resident of a small southern town i’m sorry to say that this is a very real situation. i cant imagine the fate of anyone from my old school district that tried to tell people they were openly gay, much less attend prom…
Jon
@jamison: I guess I am in a bubble. I’m 35 yo and have never experienced anything like this firsthand. I certainly understand that there is still homophobia in this country, but AN ENTIRE TOWN??? And…homophobia does not explain why the “disabled” students were also excluded from the other prom. That is just general hatred. Nothing to do with being gay. This is just high school peer pressure and a bunch of kids unwilling to stand up to their parents.
terrwill
There is a very ugly secret that has to come out about this vile little community……..How can so damm many people keep a secret in this day and age???? One would think that at least one person in the entire community would have leaked word about this wicked little plot. With all the avenues now available to get info out, one could have done so anonymously and yet not a single person spoke out?? Can that entire community be that evil, to cast out a single girl??????
Luke
“I wonder which prom Jesus would attend?
Of course he would attend the one for outcasts and the shunned.”
Classic. That remark had me laughing out loud.
seth
have you even READ the very article you cited?! she wasn’t “duped” into going to a fake one, she wasnt invited to the “real” one. the article says she knew about the prom the parents sponsored. anyways, this doesnt excuse the atrocious conduct of the ENTIRE community, but, you’re lying. don’t lie.
Nick
This is incredibly sad. Unfortunately it says so much about humanity.
The kids are to blame as much as the parents, you can only deferr responsibility so much. But bloody hell, not one parent stood up for this girl? A girl the same age as their own children. That’s really, really shameful.
CHIP1218
@uncgpc:
Nope, I am just agreeing with what the majority of white residents in the southern states agree, that there should be two countries, that Lincoln got it partially wrong. Emancipation, great idea. Keeping the union together, not so much. My family fought in WW1 and WW2 and relatives settled down in the south because that’s where their military bases were. All they encountered was discrimination and being “token” non-Christians, even up to present day.
But there is always some group that causes right-wing lunacy in Western countries. In Canada, they still burn crosses on non-white’s lawns. In England there is Islamaphobia. In France, the same – they keep the Muslims in slums and don’t give them full citizenship. In Germany, its anti-Turkish sentiment which they also don’t give citizenship to, and that’s the main reason why Turkey is finding it impossible to begin full membership agreements into the EU. And then there is Sweden, that couldn’t even hold a tennis game with Israelis because they were afraid the Muslim minority would torch the city. You got bigots and freaks everywhere. No place is perfect. We are all humans, if we were perfect, we wouldn’t be on Earth. It’s just that some of us are educated and compassionate enough to care about others around us and how our decisions impact others.
CHIP1218
Here’s a question – what is the sociological makeup of this High School? Is it almost all white? If so, it seems that it’s just following the trend in the south – a fear of anyone different, be it gay/lesbian, black, non-Christian, non-American.
As for that local student who dislikes Glen Beck, that could be just because he’s Mormon…
kanga
Jon,
You are right to spot something between the lines in the history of the town.
At least one historical point is Juin Baiz, a boy who dressed as a girl, and got kicked out of the school, and then the town.
Constance stood up for him at the time, and I suspect that Constance is not just fighting for her own rights, but also for people like Juin.
Matt
Did you know the only other students NOT invited to this prom had learning disabilities? Making it even sicker.
If you’d like to contact the Superintendent, her web site clearly lists her contact info as:
Teresa McNeece – Superintendent
Email: [email protected]
Phone: (662)862-2159 Ext. 14
http://www.itawambacountyschools.com/staff/superintendent.htm
MB
@71 Matt . . . Do you have access to the private party guest list?
How do you know that the only people other than McMillen NOT INVITED to the private “parents prom” party were learning disabled? It’s not true, btw.
Just because they didn’t show up at the all-inclusive prom open to all students doesn’t mean they were invited to and attending the private party.
*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.
As a “lone lesbian activist student in a Southern school” she has a much more marketable media story than as a well connected and supported agent of older, experienced lgbt activists.
The gay media “mafia” has been called out on repressing this information for their own purposes.
But 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 agenda, many of her senior classmates (including non activist inclined gays)chose to celebrate their high school years with a party elsewhere, privately, *without* an lgbt agenda.
Shira
Sure – and how many of those “non-activist” gays brought same-gender dates to the “non-prom”? I think what you mean to say is “gays willing to remain silent in exchange for not being beaten down.”
Who cares if she was encouraged? Rosa Parks was an activist within a movement before she ever refused to give up her seat. It was still a remarkable act.
John
An “LGBT agenda” consisting of what exactly, MB? The right to attend prom with her girlfriend while wearing a tux? My, how insidious! Look, you can use all the buzzwords from the Religious Right wackos all you like but that doesn’t change the fact that what this town did to McMillion (and Bruin before her) as well as the other 6 who ended up at the “official” prom was despicable. I don’t question their right to hold private events away from public property as they see fit, but we also have the right to call them the disgusting bigots that they’ve shown themselves to be.
MB
@74 John
RE: “LGBT agenda:” Here’s a sample on this specific story (McMillen) for which I’ve provided the link, and you can find plenty more from a google search.
There is usually much much more going on behind LGBT stories reported on blogs, which are often — as is the McMillen story here — simply taken from other LGBT sources.
From RENWL: Restore Equality Now~West Adams/LA South Marriage Equality And Community Activists
“Gay Press Busted: Lesbian Mom Of Constance McMillen No Small Oversight
We found it strange that since the story about gay teen Constance McMillen broke no mention has been made whatsoever about her parents. It’s not like this kid just took off on her own and decided to hold a press conference extolling on her outrage about not being able to take her girlfriend to the prom…
Instead, they [the gay press] have trivialized the scenario as this teen kid taking matters into her own hands and creating a national sensation…
Shame on you gay press mafia for once again sidestepping the simplistic and all encompassing power of truth in your desire to sensationalize and manipulate the LGBT civil rights journey.”
http://renwl.org/news/gay-press-busted-lesbian-mom-of-constance-mcmillen-no-small-oversight
Cassandra
how nice, MB provides hearsay, conjecture and opinion as evidence. And much of it is simply wrong.
Cam
@ No. 75 · MB
MB, I think your problem is, you don’t seem to realize that you aren’t in your little sewing circle here. What YOU and YOUR GROUPS see as horrible acts, nobody else in the world agrees with you about.
Here is your problem.
1. You hate gays, therefore your mind is set to try to find a reason that this situation with Constance is bad. You sound ridiculous trying to tweeze out anything that somehow in your woarped reality changes the situation.
2. Nothing matters except that the school was behaving illegally and she challanged them and won.
3. It doesn’t matter if anybody helped her or not. Was Rosa Parks any less brave because the NAACP backed her up?
4. The site you link to isn’t outlining any conspiracy, it merely says that mentioning her mothers sexuality would have made the story more touching as it would be about a gay family seeking to fight injustice.
5. Again, you hate gays, so when you sit there and see ANYTHING that you didn’t know before, you use it as an “AH HA!” moment. If you hated cats I’m sure you would be saying the same thing if you found out that the cat on the 9 Lives Commercial wasn’t the origional cat, but nobody announced this. You would go They covered it up! It’s a consppiracy! You’re so desperate to hate gays, discriminate etc… that you don’t realize all these little issues you’re pulling up are completely irrelevent.
6. It wouldn’t make a bit of difference if Constance was sent down to Mississippi just to enroll in this school and one day later sue to be allowed to bring a girl to the prom. It wouldn’t change the fact that the school was breaking the law. End of story.
MB
@77 cam: End of story.
Really??
What’s all this gay-generated hatred targeted to the school, the town and the students then?
Theblood
Ha Ha Haaaaa!!!!1 She got her comeuppance! That was fantastic! I applaud the parents and the kids who made this happen. Well done. The little wench doesn’t realize that you CAN’T FORCE PEOPLE TO LIKE YOU AND ACCEPT YOUR HORRIBLE WAYS! It’s not normal. It’s nauseating. Guess what? She got what she deserved.
Let’s keep the backlash against gays going! Deny them in subtle ways. ROFLMAO!!!!!
Sky Captain
@Joe Gee: So in other words, you want the kids at the party to be killed off and the entire place burned to the ground? What the frack will that accomplish?
Guest2
Yeah, I mostly do feel sorry for the ADHD kids because this whole media shebang was not their fault.
Constance had the chance to throw a real prom for the other kids when the high school cancelled. Instead she kept the $50 grand that was raised for that for herself and she went on national television and called all of her classmates “backwards hicks”. So that may have played some role in their decision to ditch her.
Then Constance attended 20 replacement proms, flights and hotel stays provided free of charge, all over the country without inviting anyone from the school who’s prom was ALSO cancelled. One of those was Perez Hilton’s birthday party in Hollywood. This too could have led to the cruel decision of her classmates.
Now she’s got another $35 grand for suing the county, bringing the total up to $85 grand in all from this dirt-poor poverty stricken town, since her initial refusal to obey the school’s dress code and just go without making a big fuss, but since her mother is also a lesbian, I think a big part of this fight was also for her. It is also important to note that people all over the world, out in London, etc, were pushing for her to win so she couldn’t very well give up the fight early.
She’s got reality TV shows in the works now. She is going to become a rich Hollywood icon over this, just like Perez Hilton making $800 grand a year for capturing crotch shots of Miley Cyrus and posting the kiddie porn in his magazine.
Constance will lead a good life. The kids who “snubbed” her will always struggle, they will always be dirt poor and be treated to everyone’s ire over this.
WOW
This is horrible. I’m glad she sued that damn “school.”