Spectrum

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Let-Constance-Take-Her-Girlfriend-to-Prom/357686784817?ref=mf

This is the link to the ACLU page of a girl who wanted to go to the prom. With her girlfriend. In a tux. In Mississippi. Her fatal mistake was ASKING PERMISSION!! Which from personal experience I have learned it's just best to do what you want and apologize later since the answer is probably going to be an unreasonable N O no matter how far in the right you are. I decided to post this even though I read of at least 3 or 4 civil rights violations a month because it reminded me of something similar that I myself have experienced (only less severe) while at point loma. Constance is a high school senior who wanted to go to the prom with her girlfriend... a very normal thing for a high school senior/lesbian to want. What’s the big deal This needs no freaking out or gasping. Girl just wants to get her hair did and have a night on the town with someone special to her and go to that dance that we all look forward to at that age and remember for the rest of our lives (well not me, I never went to prom, but all of everyone else hahahahah)! So she decides to be polite give the principle of that prestigious institution a heads up about her girlfriend coming and con permisio of the school administrators they would simply go together for a nice night; she in a tux and she in a dress. She didn't ask to film a gay porn on the dance floor. She didn't ask to tackle other women and make out with them. She asked to have a nice night with her lady friend. So the school says no because surprise surprise, the great progressive and forward thinking state of Mississippi seemed to take issue with a pair of girls lezzing out on their twice lacquered rented dance floors from the partyshack usa in the strip-mall next to the pizza joint. So Constance does what anyone would do in her spot and thats shine a light in the sky and shadow puppet someone being discriminated against and BOOOOM the ACLU shows up like Adam West and Burt fucken Ward and basically waved their finger at the school that they are violating this girl's constitutional rights by not allowing her go to the prom (they filed no lawsuit but simply informed through a strongly written letter). The school says fine. Then the school says, prom... CANCELLED. No more prom, to the lament of their students, because of Constance. "That's right school full of angry pubescent tweens who wanted to get it on but now can't. Y'all got c--- blocked because of that girl over there, so direct all of your tweeny tweeny anger at her." (its a paraphrase in progress). So they name the girl, they cancel the prom, the whole school is PISSED at Constance, and basically shifted all of the blame and pressure and aggression and hate from the administration onto her by her peers, and the school's parting little nugget was that "they hope some private group could host the prom for their students." Because, of course, a private group wouldn't have to give a flying rats ass about Constance-the-prom-destroy

er and they could allow or block anyone from attending, such as a lesbian who wants to bring her girlfriend and wear a tux. So now this whole mess is in the court system and the ACLU has gone into full swing to stop the injustice at Hickville Mississippi because of course this is all about letting a big ole scary lesbian come to prom and not "educational distractions" which was the school's official reason for coincidentally canceling the prom right after the ACLU told them they are violating the constitution.

It reminds me about this one time my Junior year at Point Loma when everyone used the TV to watch movies. Most of these movies were rated R. Most of them had violence, sex, nudity, drug use, and profanity; you know, the things that get a movie the rated R status. And pretty much everyone used the TV in the common room because it had tons of couches so all your friends could hang out and the snack store was like 3 feet away so you had direct access to munchies. It was very popular. So one evening on a particularly slow night up at the snack area I ask an RA if he wanted to watch Brokeback Mountain (which will go down on the list of the top 25 westerns of all time as number 13 maybe). The RD gets wind of this and says absolutely not. When I asked why he said because there is gay sex in the movie (there isn't) and that nudity isn't allowed at the box (area with the snacks and tv and couches and shit). So I asked him if he saw the movie. he said no. Then I asked him how he knows there is gay sex in the movie since he hadn't seen it. He said it was really controversial. I informed him that I had seen it and there is no gay sex in Brokeback Mountain. There is a tent scene where you see them get started but seriously. There is no gay sex scene in Brokeback Mountain. So he says the movie is still REALLY controversial and there should be no controversial movies in the box. He also said that it is rated R and he won't allow it (even though he had been letting everyone else watch their dumb action sex flicks all year). That night he sent a letter to the dean of students and asked if his actions were uncouth. The dean replied that they could not discriminate based on movie politics because that is a form of real discrimination but they could raise the MPAA standard. So magically and totally coincidentally, right after I tried to watch brokeback mountain and faced light discrimination the MPAA standards changed and a new sign appeared below the TV saying "no rated R movies" word got around, and people were mad for about a week I think before midterms showed up to screw us all in the ass. Does this compare to Constance's struggle? not really. But the similar rhetoric and reasoning and shifting just reminded me of my time at loma and how formulaic the tactics of delaying social progress are.

Constance should go to the prom and I should go watch Brokeback Mountain in the common area. But I'm lazy and I've already graduated so I prolly won't.


http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6292187n&tag=api%20