Congrats, Mississippi. Your residents just helped solidify the backwards image many Americans have of you.
Itawamba Agricultural High School in Fulton canceled its April 2 prom on March 10, not for lack of funding or space, but because Constance McMillen, a lesbian student, wanted to wear a tuxedo and bring her girlfriend.
Although the school board was probably just trying to skirt the issue of denying the two students’ entry, its members have unfairly punished McMillen and the other students. Halting the tradition less than a month before the scheduled date offers McMillen up to the actions of her angered classmates, many of whom already bought their clothes for the event.
If the school board’s actions don’t count as intentional retaliation, they remain sad reminders that people often scratch their heads over how to mesh tradition and modernity. And they sometimes make the wrong decision.
In this case, officials learned that when the rights of a group of people are concerned, there’s no half-hearted compromise to satisfy everyone. The choices remain either to grant equality or to keep stoking the country’s embers of discrimination. There is a ray of hope, though.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Mississippi has stepped in to fix the situation by suing for reinstatement.
Americans can only hope the court’s decision will acknowledge all our First Amendment rights. Whether a Mississippi school board realizes it, we don’t have to stop saying, doing or being what we wish to make others comfortable or happy.
