School Prom Cancelled after Lesbian's Date Request Gets ACLU Support

UPDATE: Constance has been awarded $35,000 in damages.

A school district in Mississippi won’t be holding a high school prom this year after a gay female student asked to show up with her girlfriend and wear a tuxedo.

The board of the Itawamba County school district opted on Wednesday to cancel the prom due to what it called “recent distractions,” but didn’t mention the girl’s request, which has gotten support from the American Civil Liberties Union.

The student in question, Constance McMillen, 18, says the cancellation was retaliation for her efforts to bring her girlfriend, who is also a student, to the dance.

“A bunch of kids at school are really going to hate me for this, so in a way it’s really retaliation,” McMillen said.

The school’s policy states that senior prom dates must be of the opposite sex. The ACLU of Mississippi had given the district until Wednesday to change that policy, saying that prohibiting same-sex prom dates violated McMillen’s constitutional rights.

The school board instead opted to issue a statement announcing it would not host the annual event at Itawamba County Agricultural High School in Fulton, “due to the distractions to the educational process caused by recent events.”

The ACLU said McMillen went to school officials shortly before the memo went out because she knew same-sex dates had been banned previously. The ACLU said officials told McMillen that she and her date would not be permitted to arrive together, that she couldn’t wear a tux, and that she and her girlfriend might be asked to leave if their presence made students “uncomfortable.”