If you don't remember Constance McMillen, she's the lesbian high school student in Mississippi who was banned from attending her own senior prom with a female date. After much legal wrangling and a cruel trick in which Constance's classmates staged an alternative prom without her, and as reported recently she has won a victory, one that LGBT students everywhere can cheer.
As a result of a lawsuit brought on her behalf by the American Civil Liberties Union, Constance will be receiving $35,000 plus attorney fees from Itawamba Agricultural High School, where she was so cruelly denied the chance to attend prom with her girlfriend. Even better, and heartening for LGBT youth everywhere, the school will be instituting a brand-new policy that bans discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation.
Essentially, this is the school saying: We were really, really, wrong. So wrong, we're going to create a policy banning ourselves and everyone else from discriminating in exactly the manner we did. Constance's graduation can sparkle with the knowledge that she made a tangible difference in the school she attended, one that will help many future students to pass through its locker-lined halls. How many of us can say we did that at 18?
But while this sets a positive precedent for schools across the country, the only thing that will truly make sure that future LGBT youth don't have to undergo what Constance did is to have Congress pass the Student Non-Discrimination Act and Safe Schools Act, prohibiting discrimination and bullying in high schools nationwide. Ask your representative to get moving and protect our country's children today.
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