the rix mix

JACKSON, Miss. – An 18-year-old Mississippi lesbian student whose school district canceled her senior prom rather than allow her to escort her girlfriend and wear a tuxedo said she got some unfriendly looks from classmates when she reluctantly returned to campus Thursday.

Constance McMillen said she didn't want to go back the day after the Itawamba County school board's decision, but her father told her she needed to face her classmates, teachers and school officials.

I have mixed reaction. It ought to be no big deal, & there are many places where it isn't . & yeah, she has the right. I admire McMillen's courage in a small Mississippi town. I wonder, how "out" was she around school before this? & why go to a prom just to make a statement when she knows it won't be any fun? But there's this:

A Feb. 5 memo to students laid out the criteria for bringing a date to the prom, and one requirement was that the person must be of the opposite sex.

If Constance hadn't made up her mind about attending the prom, that rule probably decided it. Nothing would have infuriated & challenged her more. It's like decreeing all tuxedo jackets must be powder blue. Adults took it upon themselves to protect the other teenagers from Constance, when she posed no threat to them. She might have needed protection. Going to the prom was her choice to make, not the adults' decision in a public school.

Every Spring there's a wire news story of a prom where a gay guy was elected "Prom Queen" or some other way teenagers treated homobigotry as an absurdity. They realize that when they just accept the gays & lesbians among them, not only does it all work out fine, they have more fun, too.

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