Prom

Ah prom night. It's a right of passage for most high school seniors, right? The giddy excitement of picking out your dress. Finding a date who will look good next to you in the pictures. Getting just the right corsage or boutonnière. This is something that many American teenagers start thinking about around this time of year. But, what about gay teenagers? There are many, many schools that do not allow same-sex prom dates.

According to this Sex, Etc. article, this is not a new issue. In the year 1980 teenager, Aaron Fricke sued his Rhode Island high school for not allowing him to bring his boyfriend to prom. Many schools' defense is that they are worried that same sex couples may be harmed at prom and prom is meant to be safe for every student. While this is a valid point, isn't this kind of behavior, this side stepping of the homophobia issue, only reassuring the homophobic teenagers that their behavior is valid? Wouldn't it be a great example of acceptance to allow same sex couples to attend their prom?

Although it is not a new issue, there are new cases of this popping up quite often. Just today in fact I saw this USA Today article about a Mississippi high school canceling its prom after a lesbian student requested that she get to bring her girlfriend, also a student at the school. The school claims that they have chosen not to have prom this year because it is a distraction to the educational process. The school did encourage the public to plan their own prom-like activity for the high school students, but does this make their blatant homophobia okay? Now, Constance McMillen, the student who wanted to bring her girlfriend to prom, is worried about how angry the other students will be at her. Did the school take this into consideration before making the hasty decision of canceling prom altogether? And what sort of message are they sending? If a gay couple wants to come to prom, well then we just won't have a prom!

In Utah, after many same sex prom date controversies, there is now a law in effect protecting the rights of same sex teenagers to attend their prom. You can read about this law here.

While homophobia is probably always going to be a problem, just as racism and ageism will always be a problem, there are actions we can take. There are examples of acceptance and tolerance that we can provide, starting in school. While I can understand that administrators want the prom to be safe and fun for everyone, it is their duty to make sure that students are safe from harassment at prom. Under federal law, it is their duty to stop the harassment of gay students.

It makes me sad when schools like the Mississippi high school I mentioned earlier simply affirm for their intolerant students that it is okay to feel a prejudice against gay students. Every high school student should feel safe at his or her school. They should feel protected. They should feel free to be who they are. That's not the kind of example that we're setting when we ban same-sex couples from attending an old, teenage right of passage.