Lesbian teen sues to force school to hold canceled prom
posted at 8:50 pm on March 12, 2010 by Allahpundit
The Headlines item is averaging about 100 comments an hour so I guess you guys want to talk (er, keep talking) about this. Offers to host a private prom for the kids are pouring in and the teen herself is getting all kinds of support online and from the media, so I assume there’s going to be a happy ending here. 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. Two videos for you below as illustrations.
Blowback
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So you are straight, conservative Republican Christian, who grew up poor. Someone who can’t conceive of the difficulty of gay teens dealing with their sexuality? Parents they can’t turn to, family members that will shun them, even trying to pray the gay away………..heck, just give them a weapon and tell them to do the right thing.
SC.Charlie on March 13, 2010 at 12:55 PM
They can read the suicide notes…………..of those who left them.
SC.Charlie on March 13, 2010 at 1:00 PM
Did you just come out?
The Race Card on March 13, 2010 at 1:01 PM
Please explain these “religious rights” you claim to have.
ladyingray on March 13, 2010 at 1:02 PM
That would not be an “estimate”.
Chris_Balsz on March 13, 2010 at 1:04 PM
Yes, all three of them.
ray on March 13, 2010 at 1:05 PM
That is why suicide is an aggressive act. “You made me this miserable, I wasn’t like this before you made the world around so bad to live in. This is your fault and I hope you’re happy that I’m dead.” But that’s bogus, it’s their fault for choosing that thinking.
Chris_Balsz on March 13, 2010 at 1:09 PM
Um, her “daddy” is the one encouraging her, so hate to break it to you, but you can’t blame those evil Christian breeders. She’s just a self centered, spoiled brat who sees a chance at her 15 minutes and doesn’t care that she’s ruining a once in a lifetime experience for her classmates.
clearbluesky on March 13, 2010 at 1:10 PM
i cant believe that with two wars raging, the economy in the toliet, banks being bailed out and keeping the money that everyone is worried that 2 chicks want to go to the prom. this is a non issue but the media is making a big deal out of this. let them dance its unamerican to cancel a dance just because you dont want a certain type of person at it. If they were canceling the dance because they didnt want a african american couple in the dance most of you would hate the school. this proves this is a country of dummies and if we dont get our prioritys together soon we are doomed to fail.
larry harris on March 13, 2010 at 1:16 PM
Your words. Not mine. And that was quite a leap.
Remove “gay” from your post an insert any other word you want and the answer will still be the same. It’s called buck up.
Life doesn’t owe anybody anything. Try telling a paraplegic or someone blind that life is fair. Tell someone who lost everything they own in a fire or lost a child, mother, husband or wife in a disaster that life is fair!
You don’t know a thing about me personally nor what I’ve have gone through.
I do understand a little about persecution. I understand a little about suffering. I think lots of people have lots of stories about suffering. To think that just because some guy feels alone and isolated because he “feels different” is justification enough for all of society to change is pretty extreme.
Lots of people feel different for lots of reasons. Lost of people are isolated and alone for any number of reasons due to any number of hardships, but that does not mean society must change to protect them from feelings of despair and loneliness.
There may be reasons for society to be more open to gays but those reasons lie in arguments based on individual freedom. Not just because homosexuals “feel bad and depressed.”
JellyToast on March 13, 2010 at 1:18 PM
In 1969 at the age of 18 I told my parents that I was gay. After two weeks being away at college. I hid it from everyone, I had told no one since the day I realized that I was gay. I was obviously suicidal to my parents. I was in a psychiatrist office within two hours. I made a pact with my parents back then that I would not commit suicide. I began seeing the psychiatrist, then stopped a couple of months later. Remember this was 1969 and homosexuality was still deemed to be a mental illness. I went back into the closet and was going to pray and wish the gayness away. I did not talk about it with anyone until 1994 when I just could not deal with the anxiety and depression anymore. He put me on Paxil. It help immensely. He retired in 2005. My internist wrote prescriptions for my Paxil, but I had no one to talk to about my homosexuality. Finally in 2007 at the age of 55 I had a bout with major depression while trying to get off of Paxil. I played Russian roulette with a nine shot revolver for about three days. I finally came out to one sister and one brother. I committed myself to the mental hospital. And, I remained there for 17 days. I could only talk to the doctors and other professionals about why I was in the hospital. I just could not get myself to tell others in the group sessions that I was a 55 year-old homosexual virgin. It took me about six months to be able to get ability to write my signature in the same manner as before.
SC.Charlie on March 13, 2010 at 1:19 PM
It’s a choice, like shoplifting or murder. It’s a choice, and the person making the choice gets to put up with what those around them think of the choice.
You can try to legislate those thoughts away, to demonize them, but it won’t work.
unclesmrgol on March 13, 2010 at 1:32 PM
You can stay home, but otherwise in the U.S. one generally has to hear a lot of ugly free speech and see a lot of people who one finds morally objectionable.
dedalus on March 13, 2010 at 1:41 PM
The school cancelled the prom, the school is ruining a once in a lifetime experience for her classmates. She just wanted to bring her girlfriend. They shut the whole thing down. I remember when schools shut down because they has black people that wanted to go to class there…by federal mandate…
Don’t try to place the blame on a teenager because the school administration made a stupid decision.
uknowmorethanme on March 13, 2010 at 1:45 PM
They don’t exist.
uknowmorethanme on March 13, 2010 at 1:45 PM
There are various laws against harassment and cruelty. Private organizations have tougher codes of conduct that require civil behavior. People tend to be happier when they are in a welcoming environment and welcomed socially.
Teen suicide is especially unfortunate b/c often those who kill themselves do so for ultimately trivial reasons–or at least reasons that would seem trivial a few years down the road.
dedalus on March 13, 2010 at 1:49 PM
I still don’t get it, what’s the endgame? Making homosexuals illegal? Or do people think that if you close your eyes and cover your eyes and sing “La La La” that the gays will disappear?
I don’t understand the outrage. I understand why Christians and other religions would frown upon it, but what are you going to do about it that doesn’t involved stomping all over someone’s individual liberty?
uknowmorethanme on March 13, 2010 at 1:49 PM
That sounds familiar, so i’ll just copy/paste my earlier comment
clearbluesky on March 13, 2010 at 1:52 PM
I’m not outrages. In fact, I don’t give a damn that this girl is gay and wanted to go to the prom with her girlfriend. She could have just gone with her friends; girls around here go in groups to prom all the time. Their classmates wouldn’t have cared.
But she didn’t. She went to the Administration to tell them what she planned to due and now is suing the school to force them to have the prom.
That isn’t someone protecting their individual liberty, that is someone trying to force their personal agenda on the community.
ladyingray on March 13, 2010 at 1:55 PM
You’re tramping on our liberty by demanding celebration of your values.
Chris_Balsz on March 13, 2010 at 1:56 PM
Stupid. Creating a tempest in a teapot.
It’s a public school. Prom is Prom. Chicks go “stag” in groups, “queer” couples will get in, life continues.
The ironic thing is that this move by the school board (shady) is the epitome of gay backbiting tactics: “You want to make a fuss? We’ll just cancel prom and blame you as the cause!”
This isn’t a private school, and there’s nothing to demonstrate that it has dress codes or etiquette rules. Homegirl wants to wear a tux and bring a girlfriend date? Who. cares.
As much as I despise the ACLU and the identity politics crying, this mess is the fault of public employees playing hardball when they should have seen the inevitable writing on the wall.
A DANCE is now re-enforcing southern, conservative stereotypes. A DANCE. So. effing. lame.
lansing quaker on March 13, 2010 at 2:02 PM
She’s a kid. It’s up to the adults to work out the rules. They are using taxpayer dollars, so they can’t simply act on their personal beliefs.
dedalus on March 13, 2010 at 2:03 PM
I’m ………….. so you other people OWE me!
Yeah, that’ll work throughout your life.
GarandFan on March 13, 2010 at 2:14 PM
it put Obama in the white house
Chris_Balsz on March 13, 2010 at 2:18 PM
Sometimes you just can’t have all you want, sometimes you need to shut up an quit proving your point. Winning battles isn’t the most important of points but, rather, choosing them.
This girl pushed too hard in the wrong place, trying to force others–and the key word is force–something exclusive to her side, and hers alone. Society has penalties for that, and this is one of them.
This girl basically, tho not literally, tried forcing change at the barrel of a gun. In a free society, that’s not going to work.
Liam on March 13, 2010 at 2:39 PM
Bring out the thread hammer. This one’s cooked. Nothing else needs be said.
Right on, larry.
nukemhill on March 13, 2010 at 2:48 PM
There were better ways to deal with his than making a Federal court case out of it.
The MSM likes saying the school is somehow ‘evil’, when it’s really not. The girl who pushed this, having other options less-contentious, didn’t do something adults would do. She’s only 18, after all.
What–we’re become a society that lets teenagers rule the roost? C’mon!
Liam on March 13, 2010 at 2:51 PM
Teenagers are basically sociopathic in their nature. That’s the price, part, and parcel of being a teen. We’ve all been there, but so many forget.
Liam on March 13, 2010 at 2:57 PM
At 700+ comments and counting this thread is a winner in APs book. I wonder if her judge doesn’t mandate that the school must throw a prom by the scheduled date will he/she require the school to throw one just for her?
DFCtomm on March 13, 2010 at 3:01 PM
The school can just tell the judge to kiss off. What’s he going to do–close the school?
This girl hurt everyone, when she had other options. Had she taken them, she’d have had the entire student body backing her against the teachers. But, NO! She hurt everyone else, then cries pity-pot.
I hope the school stands strong, even at risk of closing down at Federal order. Sure–that’ll work.
Liam on March 13, 2010 at 3:05 PM
Well, ernesto.
We may be bitter clingers, to our religion, but you are just bitter.
And pathetic.
HornetSting on March 13, 2010 at 3:28 PM
So have so little understanding, yet you claim so much. How about NOT speaking to that in which you support no belief?
It is said that, for one man to lay with another as if (he would) with a woman, it is an abomination.
The person isn’t condemned but rather the act, the event.
Speak from knowledge, if you dare, before speaking as if you have knowledge of that in which you disbelieve.
Liam on March 13, 2010 at 4:27 PM
Cross dressing at a prom is a great way to get plenty of attention and prove once again that the Gay and Lesbian culture places their sexual desires over every thing else, no matter how it effects others.
Hening on March 13, 2010 at 4:44 PM
Well if you want MY opinion on this subject, I’d like to say tha… what?!? You don’t want my opinion?
:(
Kevin M on March 13, 2010 at 5:01 PM
this student is sickeningly selfish and it makes me hate the ACLU even more..
Doogiesd on March 13, 2010 at 5:03 PM
I normally would have supported her, but she had to be a drama queen (no pun intended). It is a special formal occassion and there is a dress code. I have a feeling that a student who just wasn’t into dressing up showed up in jeans, shorts, sweats, or swim suit would have been turned away. It is a FORMAL affair.
My prom date was a guy friend. There was no declaration to the administration about attraction, relationship status, or orientation. If this girl wanted to be like anyone else, she should have just gone to the prom with her “friend” without turning it into a stunt.
Laura in Maryland on March 13, 2010 at 5:27 PM
i cant go to her prom either
guess i got a case
Chris_Balsz on March 13, 2010 at 5:32 PM
I do belive the School has the right to not host a party if it so desires.
The school is under no mandate to provide parties.
Mark was here on March 13, 2010 at 6:00 PM
In almost all of these debates there is a common thread. People don’t want things they don’t agree with shoved into their faces. It is simply the way that human beings are and probably will always be. The gays do not want to be told that they are bad or disgusting. The straight people don’t want the gays pressing their agenda either.
In the end it comes down to one important realization. There is a time and place for everything and turning a school dance into a gay pride rally is not the time or place. School is not about social protest and neither are school sponsored events. That type of stuff needs to be done on your own time and organized by your activist organizations. Using events subsidized by taxpayer funds is not the appropriate place for it.
Yes, every one of us has out right to free speech and free assembly. But every one of us also has a right to assemble in a peaceful and civil manner with an expectation that our event will not be co-opted by somebody that wants to turn it into a political circus.
Sorry, but this girl is wrong. School dances have had dress codes for as long as they have existed. Many people have been turned away from their school events for inappropriate attire in the past and it had nothing to do with their sexual orientation. Neither does this situation.
The girls was told she could attend. She was simply told that she could not wear a tuxedo because the dress code requires that all females wear a dress. The school has the ability to enforce a dress code. It is done at every school every day. The dress code is not intended to single her out, it is applied equally to all students. If a straight girl wished to wear a tuxedo to the event they would also be turned away.
But the bottom line here is that this girl needs to have perspective. She has placed her own desires and agenda above the desires of everybody around her. There is nothing about wearing a dress instead of a tuxedo that demeans her, or her sexual preference. She simply chooses to press the issue because her feelings are more important than those of everybody else. No compromise is even considered. Since homosexuality is by its very nature an expression of self-centered and hedonistic behavior, this should not surprise anybody.
Hawthorne on March 13, 2010 at 6:11 PM
Here is the real kicker. It may have never dawned on this girl that her stunts are ruining the prom for a lot of other people. In that case she is a self-centered, spoiled brat that is incapable of accepting any compromise.
It is also possible that she is fully aware that she is ruining the prom for many of her classmates. In that case she is a callous and calculating person that has decided her political agenda is worth ruining a once in a lifetime experience for many people.
What I think is even more likely is that she is a naive and immature girl who is being used by activists to push a political agenda. I would bet almost anything that she has been coached through all of this in order to allow the ACLU to establish a set of precedents through litigation. I would bet that these cases are carefully constructed by the activists to happen in districts where they are likely to get a sympathetic judge on the bench. They press for the ruling by the judge to establish precedents and the school districts do not fight in appeals because they cannot afford it. That is why they choose to do this in small towns. They want to be against relatively poor school districts.
Hawthorne on March 13, 2010 at 6:23 PM
This isn’t speech. If a girl likes old men and was an 18 year old senior, should she be allowed to grind on a 56 year old at prom?
They not only have rules about orientation, but rules about age. If one is accepted, then the others should be too.
Why stop there, does it not deny freshmen and sophomores their freedom of speech to go to the prom. After all, they may want to go and use to to speak out that they are just as good as Seniors, just younger.
Tim Burton on March 13, 2010 at 6:34 PM
That is only because or society has become degraded to the point of decadent hedonism. That is a VERY bad sign for the country because it has been a signal of death for every civilization that has embraced it for very long. If you know history, then you also know that.
Hawthorne on March 13, 2010 at 6:47 PM
She is still hawt.
MadisonConservative on March 13, 2010 at 8:14 PM
It’s the school’s own fault. If they had just followed the Bible and killed the lesbian as mandated by God, these students would still have their prom.
Vic on March 13, 2010 at 8:16 PM
Not sure which empires you are thinking of, but more have probably bit the dust due to turning inward and failing to adapt to change. However, fiscal mismanagement is probably the biggest cause.
dedalus on March 13, 2010 at 8:40 PM
I was responding to someone who asserted a right to not see gay people. My analogy to speech was to highlight the fact that we might all be affected in public spaces when someone exercises a right.
Children in school have, and should have, fewer rights than adults. When a school sets prom restrictions that discriminate against some attendees then they may have a need to demonstrate that they have a compelling interest to do so.
If there was a safety issue and a restriction was applied equally, the school would have no problem. If a restriction applies to only to one group of people, especially a group that sometimes gets “protected class” status then the school can face a tougher time in court.
BTW: I’m against most anti-discrimination law. Then again, though, I’m also opposed to public schools.
dedalus on March 13, 2010 at 8:50 PM
I’m against public schools too, but the point still stands. They are discriminating based on age, so if gay “discrimination” is not allowed, then by logical extension, there should be no restriction on age.
Tim Burton on March 13, 2010 at 9:00 PM
This brave, young lesbian needs -no, is owed- her own talk show on the Bravo channel… where I can more easily ignore it.
Doorgunner on March 13, 2010 at 9:11 PM
O.k. when is this thing gonna break 1000. Come on, baby, you can do it!
Rightwingguy on March 13, 2010 at 9:26 PM
I used to watch “Top Chef”. probably the only hetero, conservative, male doing so.
Rightwingguy on March 13, 2010 at 9:27 PM
There’s a radical homsexual political agenda which must be resisted, even if defeat is inevitable.
We may be approaching the End Times when the world becomes so wicked that the Christ must intervene.
Reagan Republican on March 13, 2010 at 9:27 PM
Because 15-year-old girls “exploring their sexuality” is a positive moral good. By all means, lets have as many teenagers banging each other as possible. That will set the country right.
spmat on March 13, 2010 at 9:29 PM
I really don’t even think this girl is gay. I think she’s an attention whore. She’s like the girls at the club that make out with their gal pals to get attention from guys. Some of the younger generation is under the impression that being gay is hip and trendy. This fat chick appears to be one of them.
moonbat monitor on March 13, 2010 at 9:32 PM
Someone could bring a case on age discrimination. They’d have a better chance if the date was over 40, less if under 40. However, a school rule discriminating only against homosexuals can cause courts to look at the “equal protection” question, since it targets a specific group that has historically faced discrimination. With any discrimination claim the school could show a compelling interest for the restriction, which might be easier with an age restriction than with a gender restriction.
dedalus on March 13, 2010 at 9:39 PM
Christ didn’t intervene during the Holocaust, the Killing Fields, or Darfur. Does it seem logical that a high school prom with girls kissing would prompt him?
dedalus on March 13, 2010 at 9:42 PM
Yeah, it’s the End Times when a girl wants to bring another girl as her prom date.
You got it. Nothing like reasoned debate.
MadisonConservative on March 13, 2010 at 9:44 PM
The backers of perversion are everywhere now and even infest HotAIr.
Our society has reached a point where the judgment of God is just a matter of time now.
Very sad to see how a once great nation which I still love has come to be degraded and perverse so quickly.
I guess a minor upside is that when judgment does come, as It surely will, It won’t be as hard to accept after seeing the widespread acceptance of such despicable, filthy, perverse behavior in mainstream America.
cjk on March 13, 2010 at 9:46 PM
Well, then put them all together. The point is that the world has become wicked, perhaps beyond repair.
When Christ returns, he said that you be able to see Him like lightening can be seen from the East to the West.
Reagan Republican on March 13, 2010 at 9:56 PM
He’s late. I see lightening… no Messiah. He said it would happen in the lifetime of his disciples which is why thy were told to abandon their wives and families… it was just around the corner.
The world today is not nearly as wicked as it was in his time.
lexhamfox on March 13, 2010 at 10:22 PM
Batting zero, everything you stated isn’t true.
What is true is that the Bible prophesies about the appearance of ‘scoffers’ that will appear in the last days such as yourself.
cjk on March 13, 2010 at 10:29 PM
Rosie O’Donnell, Jt.
bayview on March 13, 2010 at 10:40 PM
That’s just awesome. “I have this fantasy about the end of the world, but the best thing is, you can’t disprove it, because it predicts that people will say I’m bats**t insane. All bases covered! Yay! Burn the heretics!”
MadisonConservative on March 13, 2010 at 10:41 PM
When the country began slavery was legal. Teen girls romancing each other is likely not the biggest problem this still great nation has faced.
dedalus on March 13, 2010 at 10:41 PM
Yes the backers of despicable perversions are out there. And you do indeed have your fantasys such as the ridiculous ones like sodomy has nothing to do with moral deterioration of a society!
Slavery was legal and many recognized it’s evilness at the time just as many now recognize the despicable perversion of sodomy which you seem to embrace for us all!
cjk on March 13, 2010 at 10:56 PM
And you’re a witless, sniping, gigantic layabout. You’ve got little justification for saying much of anything to anyone.
ernesto on March 13, 2010 at 11:22 PM
The reality in public schools today is this: either you let everything go on or you just stop it all. Most schools just give in and allow anything with no judgements, and this school took the other path. This is why nothing gets done in public schools today…it is like what Rand warned of in Anthem, with NCLB everything is expected to be the same. Unfortunately schools which have many kids never put the group over the individual…one person, one parent, one complaint can ruin it for everyone. I am not making a judgement on the couple or the school’s choice…just letting anyone who is not involved in public schools on a day to day basis that this goes on all the time…whether it be for holidays, couples pictures in the yearbook, kids making out in the hall, or a kid allergic to balloons…this is what goes on everyday.
arizonateacher on March 13, 2010 at 11:25 PM
Just to clarify…for example take a yearbook…if they don’t want to put a lesbian couple or gay couple in the couples section of the yearbook you have simply not have a couples section. If you allow a cheerleader and football player to make out in the hallway, you have to let the gay couple make out in the hallway or you just have a no PDA policy. If you have one kid who is allergic to peanut butter than the entire school has to go peanut free….this is the state of public schools today.
arizonateacher on March 13, 2010 at 11:27 PM
And if you’re against slavery you must be pro-sodomy.
And if you believe in The Law Book of which all of Western civilization is based upon then you are lost in hopeless fantasy.
cjk on March 13, 2010 at 11:36 PM
Schools are not for dancing they are for learning how to read and write. I think every school should just do away with proms. They are a waste of money. With so many schools over budget, classes over crowded, and so many students unable to write a simple sentence or do simple math, dancing is the last thing educators should spend time on.
Dollayo on March 13, 2010 at 11:39 PM
Using the courts to do what they don’t want me to do. That is shove their morality down my throat. Homosexuality is something to be over come not encouraged.
Again Jesus said in Mark 10 6-9
6“But at the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female.’a 7‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife,b 8and the two will become one flesh.’c So they are no longer two, but one. 9Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate.”
Adam and Eve not Angela and Eve. It’s the law of the universe. Get used to it.
inchdeep on March 14, 2010 at 12:11 AM
So typical of what has happened with our country…one person with an agenda forces everyone else to conform to it. She should concentrate on getting out of the trailer more than the closet…
DCJeff on March 14, 2010 at 12:22 AM
Which, even if true, is still several notches above troll. How’s it hangin’, my young Puerto Rican friend?
Doorgunner on March 14, 2010 at 12:24 AM
Ever hear of Sodom and Gomorrah? You know, in the context of wickedness that causes the Lord to intervene? Might be somewhat relevant to a discussion of the End Times. Which I believe was the context for the statement you responded to.
There Goes The Neighborhood on March 14, 2010 at 2:09 AM
Yup. It was such a primitive society, that people surrounded a man’s house, and demanded he send out the three angels so they could rape them.
And you’re comparing this to a high school girl wanting to go to the prom with her girlfriend.
Amazing.
MadisonConservative on March 14, 2010 at 2:39 AM
There are many more important things for this country to worry about than this subject. There is no harm in requiring the fat girl confused about her sexuality from following the rules like everyone else.
ray on March 14, 2010 at 2:54 AM
And you can’t make that connection? AMAZING!
cjk on March 14, 2010 at 3:17 AM
what reasoned debate can there be? “If you don’t let lesbians crossdress for prom, America is a bigot. Discuss”
Chris_Balsz on March 14, 2010 at 5:56 AM
“layabout”? Are you watching “Dragnet” reruns?
Chris_Balsz on March 14, 2010 at 6:04 AM
I don’t know where you get that they are trying to shove it down your throat and “make you celebrate” gay values, but seriously, she is in err by asking to wear a sex inappropriate suit and likely would have had little problem if they just showed up in dresses. Its likely that the school is a bit bigoted, as many people are against gay and lesbian people, and sought the path of least resistance. Close the dance down.
I am amazed at the bigotry in some comments though. After all, Jesus didn’t condemn the woman at the well, but pharasetically, many of you choose to throw her INTO it. Its quite spectacularly ridiculous.
I wonder which of you perfect people are still eating prohibited seafood and which one’s seem to quote Genesis while ignoring that many of the cultures in the OT recognize that women were merely property so concubines and multiple wives didn’t violate the Adam and Eve thing now did it?
The ignorance is stunning in some. There are but two important commandments: Love the lord your God with all your heart and mind. The second is like unto it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
I would dare say there is not a one of you who has followed these two with any consistency to allow yourself to stand in judgement of another based on her sexuality.
And really, you think she woke up one day and CHOSE to be a lesbian. What a hoot. Its like saying you woke up one day and decided you’d like to be straight.
JP1986UM on March 14, 2010 at 6:47 AM
The Gospel quote is directly about divorce, which the U.S. recognizes and legally supports despite what Jesus (and later Paul) says. Discriminating against gay people has merit in a church that is funded by donations, but a school that is funded by taxpayer dollars has to rely on elected representatives and ultimately the Constitution, not the Bible.
dedalus on March 14, 2010 at 8:23 AM
The words ‘ignorance’ and ‘bigotry’ give you away, JP. You don’t want tolerance from Christians–you want acceptance. You want us to accept behavior the Lord calls sinful.
Yes, Jesus is tolerant. He tolerates my sins, yours, and everyone else’s–in love. He is not accepting. He did not tell the woman at the well that her behavior was excusable due to life circumstance, orientation, or any other reason.
Like Jesus, Christians are to tolerate sinners in love without accepting the sinful lifestyle. I know that offends you deeply. I know that, to you, tolerance = acceptance, and anything less is bigotry. But if you dare to step outside the relativistic culture you’ve been steeped in, you will see that it is possible to tolerate, but refuse to accept.
Grace_is_sufficient on March 14, 2010 at 9:18 AM
+1
funky chicken on March 14, 2010 at 9:38 AM
The school cancelled the prom, the school is ruining a once in a lifetime experience for her classmates. She just wanted to bring her girlfriend. They shut the whole thing down. I remember when schools shut down because they has black people that wanted to go to class there…by federal mandate…
Ok, how did the school know her plan? Was she publicly announcing that she was taking a girl and was wearing a male tux? Why did the school publicly say they were cancelling the Prom? Why didn’t she just show up there? Was her whole intent to make it a big spectacle?
If she loses this suit, is she having to pay the School’s defense cost? She should.
Redteam on March 14, 2010 at 10:30 AM
I guess if boys have no interest in her, there must be hell to pay.
Akzed on March 14, 2010 at 10:36 AM
The part where the government is brought in to compel the school district to hold a dance where she can celebrate her sexuality.
Chris_Balsz on March 14, 2010 at 11:00 AM
Yes, sexuality is a conscious construct. By which I mean, there are things you’d feel comfortable doing and things you won’t. Because you choose to feel that way about them.
Chris_Balsz on March 14, 2010 at 11:02 AM
The government runs the schools. They collect taxes from people based on the value of their property in order to pay for the kids to attend the school. Of course the parents and kids are subject to government rules since they didn’t opt for a private education.
dedalus on March 14, 2010 at 11:10 AM
I bet in 10 years, she’ll be dating a guy. Why? Because a huge majority of them (not all, but I’d say about 70%) are doing it only for attention. The “lesbians” at my school, well most ended up dating guys in college. A teenage “family member” (by marriage once removed) is a lesbian, because her mom won’t let her date. She likes boys enough, that when she turns 18, she’s going to switch back.
Another HS girl I know is a “lesbian”, but all she does is talk about boys. Sure the first 6 months I dealt with her it was all about girls, but the fad is fading fast.
Tim Burton on March 14, 2010 at 11:22 AM
Having a teenage daughter myself I feel this whole incident was contrived by the lesbian couple. Why “announce” all this? Why not just show up to the prom in a tux with her girlfriend? ME thinks this couple was more interseted in the controversy than dancing at the prom…
FS
FreedomSlave on March 14, 2010 at 1:54 PM
She must be a gay conservative to get all this ink on HA.
Akzed on March 14, 2010 at 2:35 PM
McMillen disrespected her school and her classmates by trying to circumvent the rule about females wearing a dress to prom. It’s a rule, silly or not, and she has no more right to violate it than does anyone else. McMillen did this because, in her mind, she’s special. She then made the issue public because she’s SPOILED and a drama queen. This has little to do with straight-gay. This has everything to do with a girl no one has ever said no to – witness her father.
MochaLite on March 14, 2010 at 3:08 PM
Gay atheist would be more like it.
Wade on March 14, 2010 at 4:24 PM
Electing a school board that sees it her way is persuasion; suing to order the school board to do it her way is compulsion.
Chris_Balsz on March 14, 2010 at 8:02 PM
Actually she did. There is no standard in our society that allows people to do something that is wrong just because it is in their nature. There are people with a violent nature that are thrown in jail all the time because they assault others. There are people with a covetous nature that are jailed because they steal. Civilized behavior is all about acting in a way that is against our own interests in order to benefit the community as a whole.
Even if it is in the nature of this girl to be homosexual, I say it is bad public policy to start accepting that behaviors outside the norm are acceptable just because they make us feel good. Acceptance of homosexuality DOES present a risk to society because it establishes the mindset that deviant sexual behavior is acceptable as long as it is victimless. But that is wrong because that argument also allows incest, bigamy, polygamy, and many other forms behavior that are based on individual desire instead of good social policy. Just because it seems innocent in the narrow view does not make it so in the larger view.
Hawthorne on March 14, 2010 at 8:15 PM
There are many of us here that feel government involvement in our schools is exactly what is ruining them. The more our schools become involved in producing good citizens of the world, the less they succeed at educating our children in math, science, and literacy.
Hawthorne on March 14, 2010 at 8:18 PM
The school board has to listen to voters, legislators and courts. It’s part of the job definition. They could go to court against her if they believed they had an easy case. Since the government will use the courts against citizens, it is fine for citizens to use the courts against the government.
dedalus on March 14, 2010 at 9:14 PM
The government is paying for the schools. Of course they are involved. When parents fund a school themselves, they have greater control over the rules. When parents use taxpayer dollars for the education, then there is more oversight from courts and elected officials.
dedalus on March 14, 2010 at 9:19 PM
Actually my overly pious friend, they don’t, but since I know far more about human endocrine systems than you know about biblical history let me educate you and some others in this thread.
Its laughable that you incline to believe that heterosexuality is innate, while homosexual tendencies and the like are learned behavior. Its truly a dearth of knowledge, bordering on profound ignorance that one says one thing and yet “a posteriori” ignores the other aspects of the argument, but this ain’t theology class and if you want I can devote paragraphs to polygamy in the OT and your sinning while eating shellfish if you like, I taught a Theology of the Body class at my parish, I know of whence I speak.
Your ignorance of human biology is both sad and pathetic. having been in medicine lo these 10 yrs, leads me to believe one thing, human beings are far more complex than your simplistic view point can handle. Let alone your profound ignorance of sexual practices in early Hebraic cultures.
You can slink back to Jimmy Swaggart and let him know I insulted you or whatever, but in the end I am more busy trying to follow the first two commandments more fully while you try and slink thru the eye of a needle. Its just amazing that some of you proclaim conservatism while trying to fascistically control other people’s behavior.
I’d swear some threads this place was filled with democrats.
JP1986UM on March 14, 2010 at 9:20 PM
O really, well I happen to have St. Paul here now… go on tell him…
Chris_Balsz on March 14, 2010 at 10:45 PM
That was very interesting…but you didn’t tell us, did you end up committing suicide?
right2bright on March 15, 2010 at 12:27 AM
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