[Rupert]

Ratlady, if you want to accomplish something for your "cause"......get off of here where few are listening to you anyhow, and the rest can't understand much of anything that you say, and get over to Virginia where the New Governor has just recently declared Open Season on LBGT's.........Apparently, he has decided that you have no rights at all, and his Attorney General is prepared to back him up. So get busy where you might do some good.....or perhaps a better way of viewing it is that you might want to try to undo the harm that you and like minded LBGT's have done to themselves with the constant ranting against Christians, Conservatives, Republicans, and Fundies.
Regards!

[deadwolfbones]

Hilariously xenophobic town reaches new lows: Fake prom staged to trick lesbian kids - Broadsheet - Salon.com

After an embarrassing glare of attention on Itawamba, it seemed a happy ending was in sight. Last Tuesday, the school agreed to host an off-campus prom and told Constance she could, per her stated intention, bring her date and wear a tux. On Friday night, McMillen and her girlfriend showed up at the Fulton Country Club ready to party. There, she says, she found just seven other revelers, including two learning disabled students.

I mean, really? The parents and school officials collaborated to stage a sham prom for the untouchable caste and keep a secret "real" prom for the master race?

[Parallax]

That is just wrong. Arguments can be made both ways as to whether the prom should have been canceled or not, but that is just plain wrong.

[deadwolfbones]

Hey, we agree on something!

[Parallax]

Crazy world, aint it?

[Ratmagiclady]

Not just the 'lesbian kids,' ...they also sent the learning-disabled ones off there, too.


What virtue.

[GeneV]

Hilariously xenophobic town reaches new lows: Fake prom staged to trick lesbian kids - Broadsheet - Salon.com



I mean, really? The parents and school officials collaborated to stage a sham prom for the untouchable caste and keep a secret "real" prom for the master race?

A scene from the beginning of Animal House comes to mind.

[Gene Temple]

I never went to the prom and can't understand why the gal in question would want to go. Come on, why waller in the mud with the necks.

[Ratmagiclady]

I never went to the prom and can't understand why the gal in question would want to go.

For the same reason they turned a town upside down for her *not* to go?

For something the opposite of the reason they also misled the learning-disabled kids' parents to take them *elsewhere?*

Come on, why waller in the mud with the necks.

Cause they don't 'own' high school?

Cause they don't 'own' 'everyone's teen years?'


Cause they don't *own* 'American Tradition?'

Cause, sport. It's the prom. Even if you're a 'dy--.'


Actually.


Anyone who puts up with *that* for twelve years *gets* to try and figure out how to dance to 'I Melt With You.' Along with the rest. Period.

[thazooo]

And the Finale of the story is.......

Lesbian student's prom a disappointment | clarionledger.com | The Clarion-Ledger


Everyone Loses.

From a Mississippian about our People.

Age of consent is 16, If your 21 and mess with a 16 year old you go to jail for something else.

No we don't inter breed with our kin.

Yes we have schools.

No we don't kill black folk. In fact most of our larger cities are run by African Americans.

It's 2010 folks, Y'all come visit, We've changed.........

[GeneV]

On the other hand, there was no way this was going to end well. Was the court going to compel all the students to attend the Prom? Would the court enter an injunction requiring the other students to smile at her and ask her to dance?

I support nondiscrimination laws in employment, restaurants and accommodations, right to attend school, etc. However, perhaps it is just my 30 years dealing with the limitations of the court system, but I did not see how this suit could really help this young woman enjoy a social event.

[Ratmagiclady]

On the other hand, there was no way this was going to end well. Was the court going to compel all the students to attend the Prom? Would the court enter an injunction requiring the other students to smile at her and ask her to dance?

I support nondiscrimination laws in employment, restaurants and accommodations, right to attend school, etc. However, perhaps it is just my 30 years dealing with the limitations of the court system, but I did not see how this suit could really help this young woman enjoy a social event.

The injustice was done at the beginning.

The school administration didn't *have* to discriminate to begin with, and they certainly didn't *have* to cancel the prom entirely and publicly blame it on the 'lesbians' (claiming fear of a lawsuit to political ends) *before* a suit was brought.

At that point, she may as well have.

Again, above, we see the *assumption* that there was sex going on (as opposed to the straight kids? Really) an *assumption* that someone was underage for that assumed sex, and an *assumption* that she started it.

I think those who decided on shunting off the 'undesirables' in general, along with their 'straights-only' prom.... (The learning disabled kids? Really?) shows who's not exactly some 'innocent victims' here.

[deadwolfbones]

Here's another fun one, also Mississippi:

http://www.jacksonfreepress.com/index.php/site/comments/school_cuts_gay_stud...from_yearbook/

When Veronica Rodriguez opened Wesson Attendance Center's Yearbook on Friday, she didn't find a trace of her lesbian daughter Ceara Sturgis after a long battle with school officials to include a photo of her daughter wearing a tuxedo in the school's 2010 yearbook.

"They didn't even put her name in it," Sturgis' mother Veronica Rodriguez said. "I was so furious when she told me about it. Ceara started crying and I told her to suck it up. Is that not pathetic for them to do that? Yet again, they have crapped on her and made her feel alienated."

Sturgis and her mother commissioned the Mississippi ACLU to protest officials' October 2009 decision not to allow Sturgis' photo to appear in the senior yearbook because she chose to wear a tuxedo instead of a dress.

The ACLU wrote an October letter demanding officials use Sturgis' submitted photo in the yearbook, but Copiah County School District officials refused. Rodriguez said she expected the yearbook to at least contain a reference to her daughter on the senior page. What she discovered on Friday, when the yearbook came in, was that the school had refused to acknowledge her entirely.

"It's like she's nobody there, even though she's gone to school there for 12 years," Rodriguez said. "They mentioned none of her accolades, even though she's one of the smartest students there with wonderful grades. They've got kids in the book that have been busted for drugs. There's even a picture of one of the seniors who dropped out of school.

"I don't get it. Ceara is a top student. Why would they do this to her?"

Copiah County School District spokeswoman Martha Traxler refused to comment on the school's reason for excluding Sturgis from the senior page, and referred all questions to Copiah County attorney Olen Bryant, Jr. Bryant did not immediately return calls.

Last year, the school gave no indication that it would withhold Sturgis' information, but said it had legal justification to not rub Sturgis' photo.

"We have had our legal counsel research the validity of the position of the School District on this matter," Copiah County Superintendent Ricky Clopton said in the statement. "We are informed by counsel that this exact issue has been litigated in federal court. The decisions of the federal courts completely support the policy of the district in this regard. It is the desire of the Copiah County School District to inform, first, the patrons of the district, and second, all other interested parties, that its position is not arbitrary, capricious or unlawful, but is based upon sound educational policy and legal precedent."

ACLU legal director Kristy L. Bennett said the district referred to a 2004 settlement of Youngblood v. School Board of Hillsborough County, Fla. In that case, former Robinson High School principal Kevin McCarthy refused to alter the school's senior photo dress code that required female students to wear a scoop-necked drape, which ruled out the possibility of student Nicole Youngblood posing in a suit.



Youngblood sued the Hillsborough County School Board that year, claiming the rule was discriminatory. The resulting settlement allowed seniors 14 days to appeal the dress code prior to photos.

 ACLU attorneys maintain that the Youngblood case made no official reference to the student's sexuality, however. Shannon Minter, an attorney who represented Youngblood in the 2004 case, said Copiah had chosen a poor foundation upon which to build an argument, considering the school settled with the plaintiff.

"The school agreed to settle the case and changed their policy. That's the only reason we dropped our appeal," Minter said. "These policies are blatantly unlawful. Any court of appeals in this country would likely find such policy to be unlawful now."

The ACLU would not confirm if it planned any legal action on the school's decision at this time.

Rodriguez said she expected the district to attempt to downplay her daughter's presence, but not attempt to erase it entirely. She said officials' position runs counter to the more accepting opinions of Sturgis' classmates

"She basically grew up here, but she feels so isolated. And it's not the students. The students love and accept her," Rodriguez said. "The kids even nominated her for prom queen, but she ducked out, knowing the officials would never let her be prom queen."

[Ratmagiclady]

Here's another fun one, also Mississippi:

http://www.jacksonfreepress.com/index.php/site/comments/school_cuts_gay_stud...from_yearbook/

Ah. Yeah. *clicking tongue.* That's one of the gloomier aspects of all this. We got a word for it:

It's called 'Erasure.'

Some certain types don't want you in the institutional records, at least not as identifiably-queer: when you disappear or after you're dead all the euphemisms turn to 'They never existed,' ...usually there's appearance of a straight person, or at least a 'spinster aunt who mysteriously 'never did anything' to hold the place. Pruning family, and institutional, trees. They want to be able to pretend folks like you never existed, later, you see.

It's part of why there's a lot about fighting anything they don't like being recorded in the census or recognized by any record-keeping or grave markers or anything like that. Religious markers for non-Christians they want to cast in other ways, 'Go ahead and get shot for us, but don't *tell* anyone that queer people serve with honor...


You know.

All that.

Kind of gloomy, really. I'm sure my own folks have a whole other narrative about me and my life all ready to go: probably they'll parade me in a box in front of the whole congregation, say any truth about me is 'speaking ill of the dead' or something. Gods, that'll drive me back to Gothdom if I think on it too long.


But, yeah, they'll do that.