Constance McMillen

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Constance McMillen Update

A judge ruled today in the case of Constance McMillen, the openly gay teen whose Mississippi high school decided to cancel prom after she planned to wear a tuxedo and attend with her girlfriend. The 12-page decision boiled down to: The courts could not force the school to hold the prom, but not allowing her to attend the prom in a tuxedo violated her First Amendment rights, according to CNN.

Constance McMillen (CNN.com)
The teen went to the ACLU when her school told her she could not take her girlfriend to the prom, or wear a tuxedo. The school canceled the prom altogether as a result. The judge today denied an injunction to have the school reinstate the prom because there is already a parent-sponsored, private prom being held in place of the school function.

The ruling stated that if school officials were forced to "step back into a sponsorship role at this late date would only confuse and confound the community on the issue. Parents have taken the initiative to plan and pay for a 'private' prom for the juniors and seniors of IAHS and to now require defendants to host one as it had originally planned would defeat the purpose and efforts of those individuals."

The ACLU is calling the ruling a victory: It vindicates Constance's rights," said Christine Sun, senior counsel with the ACLU's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender project. "It sets a legal precedent for gay and lesbian students all over the country that they have the right to bring a same-sex date to the prom and also to wear gender-nonconforming clothes to the prom. We were looking for a ruling that what the school did was violate her rights."