All She Wants To Do Is Dance

Constance McMillen attends high school in Mississippi. And like most high school girls she was looking forward to the prom; for the chance to bring her date to the dance and have a good time with all her friends. Unfortunately, for Constance, her date was to be another girl, and the school wouldn't have it. Rather than allowing her the right to attend the prom, wearing a tuxedo, and with her girlfriend, the school district cancelled her senior prom.

Yes, punish everyone, because there are lesbians at prom.

The decision to cancel the prom came after the American Civil Liberties Union [ACLU] demanded that officials change a policy banning same-sex prom dates because it violated the students' rights; the ACLU added that, in not letting McMillen wear a tuxedo, they were also violating her free expression rights. The ACLU filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Oxford to force the school district to sponsor the prom and allow McMillen to bring whom she chooses and wear what she wants.

Didn't happen, though McMillen said she never expected the district to respond the way it did. "A lot of people said that was going to happen, but I said, they had already spent too much money on the prom" to cancel it, she said. "I'm just trying to get done what I originally wanted done. Now, we're having to fight just to have a prom."

McMillen said she didn't want to go back to Itawamba County Agricultural High School after the school board's decision, but her father told her she needed to face her classmates, teachers and school officials. "My daddy told me that I needed to show them that I'm still proud of who I am," McMillen said in an interview. "The fact that this will help people later on, that's what's helping me to go on."

Well, I'm proud of you, too, Constance. For standing up for your rights, and the rights of every LGBT student. We have to start the fight somewhere, and, at least in Mississippi, it starts at the prom.