November 10, 2009

>AL School Tells Lesbian She Can’t Bring Girlfriend to Prom, ACLU Demands School Follows Law

>Tharptown High School in Alabama has denied the request of lesbian student Cynthia Stewart to bring her girlfriend to prom later this school year. It appears the school may have even gone so far as to cancel prom altogether to ensure that that nasty federal Constitution doesn’t get in the way.

The ACLU has sent a letter to the school district on behalf of the student and her guardian to ask the school to do the right thing and reverse the school decision. Federal law and considerable case law (including a recent decision in Alabama) prohibit schools from discriminating against students based on the sex of their date to a school event.

Says Stewart very poignantly in the ACLU’s release:

“I can’t believe my school is doing all of this just to keep me from bringing my girlfriend to the prom,” said Stewart, a 17-year-old student who, as a member of the prom planning committee, has personally raised over $200 for the prom and created the theme her classmates chose for the dance. “All I want is to be able to be myself and go to my prom with the person I love, just like any other student wants to do.”

But why stop the discrimination at prom? The principal also allegedly told Stewart that she had to remove a sticker she was wearing that said, “I am a lesbian.”

Stewart said that when she told the principal she had a First Amendment right to wear the sticker, he replied, “You don’t have that much freedom of speech at school.”

Uh, yeah, she does.