Prom cancelled because of student's homosexuality

[Buffy Summers]

No, I'm just saying that there's a history of excluding people from the prom, and now they're putting qualifications on types of dates.

I wouldn't have wanted to go by myself lol

 

[Kean]

This just really saddens me. In trying to avoid upset instead they have ensured that everyone loses. I feel for the girl because she will forever be remembered as the person that destroyed Prom and the one thing that will be remembered was that she was gay.

I also feel bad for those students who organised the Prom. I organised my schools Prom and it was seriously the most stressfull experience of my life! There's a gang war going on where I live for the last several years and we were getting death threats and all kinds of horrible things like that from the rival gangs because of which families some of our students were from. On top of that the band cancelled three days before! The point is, so much goes into these things and to have all that work be for nothing is horrible.

I genuinely struggle to see where the school was coming from.

They should do a Dawson's Creek on it and organise an Anti-Prom!

 

[Angels baby101]

I think this is a load of crap seriously. HAH this is one reason i'm glad i dropped out of highschool and just got my GED....not that I think its good for kids to drop out of school because its really not...school is important and I do regret my decision now that i'm alittle older and have a child of my own...but seriously kids in school these days are completely cruel and the teachers can be idiots. I think its ridiculous that you have to have a date to the prom and I think it ridiculous that your date cannot be of the same sex.... I mean really lets say the girl wasn't even homosexual? What happened to it being ok to go with a girlfriend and just have fun? Either way its just stupid and cruel and ridiculous. That girl is going to be hated for ruining prom and all the other kids wont get a chance to have a prom its all just really sad. I feel bad for them all well minus the idiots who think bringing same sex dates is wrong those people I don't feel sorry for in the slightest. Ugh makes me sick

 

[evo]

I think those who are out and proud should be seen as a people to look up to, these girls were brave enough to make their sexuality known to all and are being rejected for that, unfortunately i was to shy and so far back in the closet i was practically in Narnia that i didn't tell one of my best friends i actually preferred to go to the Formal with him (Turns out he's gay himself and he moved away... missed that boat) but i went with a friend of mine (Female) and we had a great time... it just kills me that this sort of thing goes on and is one of the reasons i don't come out to people yet... My plan is that i'll remain closed off until i move out, but with the ever growing prices of houses and rental properties that may be some time... My biggest fear is that my folks won't ever know and at the same time that they will find out and over react.
Its heartbreaking and refreshing to read a story like this, i'd clap them on if i knew who they were, sticking it to the community that refuses to change.

 

[Black Eye Guy]

Hmm I read that like she was saying it was the school board retaliating against her for being a lesbian, because the kids will now hate her. So like they're punishing her.

Having said that, it wouldn't surprise me if she did it for the publicity. Such is our world...

Oh right, yeah now I see what you mean. That just makes it really crappy!

I would assume they will still have a prom, someone will put something together, I'd imagine she wouldn't be invited and will suffer for it now, for something that wasn't her fault.

 

[Emzzie]

This really angers me. I go to a school where we proudly accept everyone. We have dances often and do have homosexuals who go. Our carnival queen and king last year were two good friends of mine. Both boys, who were a couple. Why is it that schools are still stuck in this? They need to learn to accept that there are people who are homosexuals and they deserve equal rights as the rest of us. Times are a changing and they need to change with it. Good for this girl though I feel terrible that she is going to be blamed for this by her classmates.

 

[Allie]

Ok that just pisses me off! I am from Alabama, and these people give the South a bad name. That is just ridiculous to cancel a prom because a girl wants to bring another girl and wear a tuxedo. People are so ignorant sometimes! Anyway, I digress.

 

[TheChosenTwo]

That's not ridiculous, there's just no word for that. I agree with all posts in this thread. Did those people forget for a minute they live in the 21th century?

 

[Chris2]

I remember in my school, you couldn't go to prom if you didn't have a date. Which is bad enough.

Wow, that's pretty unfair. I never would have got to go to my prom (which was great btw, and I was far from the only one without a date) if we'd had that rule.

This, though...to echo the sentiments of many previous posters, this is just ridiculous. What's the problem with dating someone of the same gender? I don't see where the school is coming from here.

 

[Washburne]

I do think that this is total bull. No question about it. But I'm not the slightest bit surprised. Now I'm gonna sound very old but I don't care. Things take time to change. That's just how it is. But if it's a change we want, we want it to happen over night. And with a big issue as homosexuality is it'll take generetions before it's accepted by everyone. I'm looking back to how it was when I grew up and what's happened since is nothing you could ever imagine in your wildest dreams. I remember Ellen coming out and what big deal it was. I remember the first gay (two guys) kiss on a swedish tv-show. I remember the reaction to the first openly gay person in our little village. The world, believe it or not, has come a long way in a very short time. I wish a change like this would happen over night and I feel sorry for every single person that has been hurt my people's lack of understanding.

The world shouldn't be like this. Or in many other ways it is either. But sadly it is and the best we can do is to fight it the best we can.

 

[Joan the Vampire Slayer]

Oh waow. That is just ridiculous...
They didn't need to cancel the whole thing sake, letting all those people down.
I just don't get it. :3

I agree. It is "policies" like this that make me apprehensive of going into teaching. If I had been a teacher at that school, I definitely would have had something to say about this.

It's not fair to the other kids that their prom was canceled because the "authorities" were uncomfortable with two girls going together. Give me a break, seriously.

Sometimes I think humankind is progressing as it should, then something like this happens that makes me question that assumption.

*sigh*

 

[Washburne]

I agree. It is "policies" like this that make me apprehensive of going into teaching. If I had been a teacher at that school, I definitely would have had something to say about this.

If you ask me that just shows how important it is that you actually become a teacher. Easier to make the change from the inside. Be the good influence.

 

[Harley]

Just to be the only apparent devil's advocate here, from the school board's point of view - they're justified in cancelling, not due to her orientation, but to prevent anything from happening to her. If the school was afraid she could be attacked or something, they'd want to prevent that. I don't think they'd be able to just come out and say that either. There was a line in there about one of the council members wanting someone outside the school to host the prom, so the issue may not be that they don't approve, they just may fear for her safety.

 

[Joan the Vampire Slayer]

Just to be the only apparent devil's advocate here, from the school board's point of view - they're justified in cancelling, not due to her orientation, but to prevent anything from happening to her. If the school was afraid she could be attacked or something, they'd want to prevent that. I don't think they'd be able to just come out and say that either. There was a line in there about one of the council members wanting someone outside the school to host the prom, so the issue may not be that they don't approve, they just may fear for her safety.

Call me cynical, but as much as I'd like to believe that their decision to cancel the dance was a result of their fear for her safety, I highly doubt it. I think their motivation behind canceling the prom was based on their discomfort with the idea of a girl taking a girl to their dance, and also possible negative responses from parents and alumni.

 

[Harley]

Call me cynical, but as much as I'd like to believe that their decision to cancel the dance was a result of their fear for her safety, I highly doubt it. I think their motivation behind canceling the prom was based on their discomfort with the idea of a girl taking a girl to their dance, and also possible negative responses from parents and alumni.

Eh, maybe, maybe not. I don't know that I'd necessarily just automatically throw the school under the bus (no pun, hehe) on this one though. It's not like they outright punished her for being gay. They even went as far to encourage the venue somewhere else. I don't think the issue is flat out that the school is anti-gay or whatever. I know people are wanting this kind of thing to not exist, for the world to be in a place where no one would even flinch at two people of the same gender going as dates, but we aren't there. Not every student at that school is there and the school board decided that it would hinder those kids' education to continue with the prom. So, to get everyone's mind off that and back on what school was made for (that would be learning...) they decided the prom would have to go. Was it a result of the student's orientation? Yes, no doubt. Was it to punish her for being gay? I don't think so.

 

[Professor Walsh]

Just to be the only apparent devil's advocate here, from the school board's point of view - they're justified in cancelling, not due to her orientation, but to prevent anything from happening to her. If the school was afraid she could be attacked or something, they'd want to prevent that. I don't think they'd be able to just come out and say that either. There was a line in there about one of the council members wanting someone outside the school to host the prom, so the issue may not be that they don't approve, they just may fear for her safety.

If the school has such problems with people's attitudes towards homosexuality that they fear for her safety, they ought to do a helluva lot more than just cancelling the prom.

 

[faeriegrrl27]

Wow, I hate the south. I'm from Arkansas, so we have some nut jobs, but I don't know if anything's been canceled because of it. Our unofficial state motto is actually "Thank god for Mississippi." 🙂

But wow. We are in the 21st century. We have a black president. We have had two consecutive female Secretaries of State. The idea that such a small issue as sexual orientation could get in the way of any public-school event is unbelievable. Last year in Kansas, I believe, a school held separate proms for black and white students. It's really quite sickening.

 

[ckg927]

This is the equivalent of the Vietnam-era attitude of "we have to destroy the village in order to save it."

OTOH...there's a hotel owner in New Orleans who's offering to not only bus the students, but host the prom at one of his properties.

---------- Post added at 07:26 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:22 PM ----------

Just to be the only apparent devil's advocate here, from the school board's point of view - they're justified in cancelling, not due to her orientation, but to prevent anything from happening to her. If the school was afraid she could be attacked or something, they'd want to prevent that. I don't think they'd be able to just come out and say that either. There was a line in there about one of the council members wanting someone outside the school to host the prom, so the issue may not be that they don't approve, they just may fear for her safety.

Well, she's getting that treatment NOW. The teen in question went to school yesterday, but didn't stay long...the atmosphere was tense(one person went so far as to say "thanks for ruining my senior year". Sweetheart, don't blame her-blame the COWARDS running the place). And I don't necessarily buy the "we want to keep her safe" line. Ever heard of having the cops on hand just in case?

 

[Wishing Oceans]

Wow, I feel incredibly disgusted right now. Not just because of that moronic School District, but because of some the comments about it that I read. They're honestly REVOLTING, and make me horrified to be a part of the human race. This one is the most prominent:

"a greedy lesbian insulting her state, her peers, and her country by proudly proclaiming that she is an abomination to god, if you still think homosexuality isnt dangerous look at how much trouble this greedy little whore has caused for her school."

From: chttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWPMmp2gMBE

Really? I don't feel as though there's a WORD for someone that idiotic, that cruel, that twisted, that... Pure Evil pretty much describes it, in all seriousness. She sounds like a lunatic.

How do people get those crazy psycho thoughts? HOW?

Really, this just boggles my mind. Whoever wrote that comment is a grade-A B*tch.

 

[Angelic Slayer]

Just as a follow-up, I was watching Ellen this morning and she brought this girl onto her show about the issue (she's so great, glad that somebody brought her on air):

Video of the Day: Constance McMillen Talks About Her Fight for Equality - The Ellen DeGeneres Show