18-year old Constance McMillen of Fulton, Mississippi (U.S.) is a senior in high school. She is a lesbian. But when she asked to wear a tuxedo and bring her girlfriend to her senior prom, the school board cancelled the much-anticipated event. McMillen was "one of only seven students to show up at a private event chaperoned by school officials last Friday night. [The] rest of her peers went to another private event where she wasn't invited.
'It was not the prom I imagined,' she said Tuesday. 'It really hurts my feelings. These are still people who I've gone through school with, even teachers who loved me before this all started. I've never been a bad student and I don't feel like I deserve to be put through this.'" Read more about her experience.
However unfilfilling her prom was, the ACLU took the case to Mississippi Federal Court which ruled that McMillen's First Amendment rights had been violated. This is a "'win for all the students at her school, and for all lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender students who just want to be able to be themselves at school without being treated unfairly,' said the Legal Director of the ACLU of Mississippi."
You can take action too! Join many others to support Constance McMillen's rights by signing this petition.
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