Proms, Lesbians in Tuxedos, and the ACLU
Not sure how many of my 5 readers have heard about this story, but I wanted to comment on it. The gist of it is this: A school district in Mississippi canceled the high school prom because the ACLU filed a lawsuit on behalf of a lesbian student, named Constance McMillen (18 years old). She wanted to bring her girlfriend (another student) to the prom and wear a tuxedo. The school said no to the tux and no to the “date” (they apparently could go separately?). The school, at the time they canceled, said that they hope a “private party” would step-forth to hold the prom. Presumably, this was their way of taking the legal and political (remember, small-town Mississippi politics in the middle of the Bible-belt) issues surrounding the lawsuit out of their hands. I cannot fault them for this decision, and several private parties have stepped-up to help these kids have a prom, including a hotel owner from New Orleans who offered to bus the kids down from northeastern MS and hold it for free at one of his properties.
A few points:
1) My issue with this is on tactics and not on whether the girl should be allowed to go to the prom with the date of her choice. I think that’s an issue for the parents within the community to decide. This is about kids, not adults, and even their freedom is limited until they are 18 (and even at 18, if they are attending a school function).
2) The ACLU is known to use these bullying tactics to push their agenda. Instead of working for social change by dialog and other forms of speech, they push a lawsuit. The school district, whether you agree with their reaction or not, was responding to the bullying when they canceled the prom. The girl said that she didn’t think the school would react the way it did, which I find amusing.
3) Now since the ACLU didn’t get their way, they are pressing another lawsuit to force the school to hold the prom. More bullying. This would be like the government passing a law that you cannot discriminate against gay couples for adoption and then forcing the Catholic adoption agencies to stay open instead of closing due to moral obligations.
4) The original lawsuit was not claiming discrimination. As Ed at Hot Air points out:
It’s interesting to me mainly as a legal matter: Per the ACLU’s complaint, this is not a discrimination claim. It’s a First Amendment claim, alleging that McMillen would essentially be engaged in a form of speech (“communicative content”) about her orientation in wearing a tuxedo and bringing a girl to the prom. That’s weak — she’s not going to prom to make a statement, she’s going because she wants to dance and have fun with her girlfriend — but because the Equal Protection Clause has never been held to apply to sexual orientation, the ACLU really has no choice but to try the speech argument. Not sure it’ll work, but then the point isn’t to win the suit. It’s to turn up the heat on the school district until the bad publicity makes them cave or, at the very least, scares other districts that might do this into thinking twice. Working like a charm so far.
The bottom line is this: Coercing people to do what you want even if they don’t does NOT bring about good will and social change. It puts people on the defensive, and actually hurts whatever progress you are trying to make.
