School Prom Lesbian wins $35,000 payout

**billynomates** · 07-21-2010, 01:26 AM

The Mississippi lesbian prevented from attending her high school prom with her girlfriend has settled a lawsuit against her school district.

The Itawamba County school district will pay Constance McMillen $35,000 to settled a discrimination suit filed for her by the American civil Liberties Union (ACLU).The district also agreed to follow a non-discrimination policy as part of the settlement.

“I am really excited that it is over with and we won and things are going to change,” said Ms McMillen, 18. “People hate because they are scared and ignorant and they hate change. This will help everybody.”

Ms McMillen, who has been openly gay since she was eight years old, appealed to the ACLU after the Itawamba Agricultural High School cancelled its prom in April to prevent her from attending with her girlfriend. Ms McMillen had said she was going to the prom to challenge the school district’s rules banning prom dates of the same gender and allowing only male students to wear tuxedos.

“She was standing up for the right to be treated equally and not to be forced to wear certain types of clothing to conform to gender stereotypes,” said ACLU counsel Christine Sun.

The district later announced parents would sponsor another prom chaperoned by school officials, although ACLU lawyers claimed the event was a “sham prom” attended by only a handful of students.

The case became a cause celebre across the US, where she appeared on talk shows, visited the White House and served as a grand marshal for New York’s Gay Pride Parade.

Ms McMillen, whose suit also alleged that she had been harassed for her stand, said she believed the case resonated with so many people because ”prom is a common theme and everyone knows how it feels to want to go to prom. With my story, even if people didn’t agree with being gay, they understood. They figured out how cruel some people can be”.

Christine P. Sun, an ACLU lawyer, said the case has “inspired countless other people around the world to stand up for what’s right”.

Ms McMillen has since moved to Memphis, Tennessee, where she plans to attend Southwest Community College, majoring in psychology. She said she will use the settlement money for her college education.

When I saw headline my first thought was 'and money going to fix it?' then I read article. She was humiliated and discriminated against but had the guts to stand up for what she believes in. She deserves to have her college education paid for. Good luck to you Constance McMillen

**maverick35** · 07-22-2010, 04:33 PM

Old Mav realizes exactly it is incredible how America hides exactly how it changes and so acording to exactly how people wana things changed and so in 1944 there wuz no not any SS officier openly butt hiding Gay and so Lesbian movement and so like Germany things change exactly that way maner right RIGHT whutever and so America is just like Germany in exactly that way maner right RIGHT whutever and so butt the dirty yellow b**t**d A holes who think they may geta to be SS officiers and so who r already SS officiers better hope old Mav no not geta the miracle old Mav needs and so they may find they be the people in side the concentration camp things whutever and so they better hope the Arabs and so the J*wish people and so the Israelis do no not make the miracle move old Mav needs and so they may pay dearly for it and so they think they may put and so place old Mav in their own concenrtration camp and so cheat attack old Mav and so if old Mav escapes and so geta the miracle old Mav needs they may find they may be the people in the concentration camps and so old Mav would be a H*ll of a lota worse than they wuz r whutever and so old Mav does mean a H*ll of a lota worse and so old Mav realizes naturaly they would alow and so even give a lota money to a fellow SS officier pussy women whutever and so butt that is no not gona save them and so if old Mav geta the miracle old Mav needs before it is too late for old Mav and so they may pay dearly for it and so old Mav is lucky they no not take old Mav seriously and so old Mav needs a miracle sorry right... sorry old Mav

**billynomates** · 08-13-2010, 12:01 AM

lesbian cadet who was no longer willing to lie about her sexuality has resigned from the West Point military academy, complaining of a culture of discrimination and harassment.

Katherine Miller, 20, from Ohio, was ranked ninth in her class of more than 1,100 cadets about to start their third year at the school. Instead she will take a Yale scholarship.

In May Congress repealed the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy which allowed homosexuals to serve as long as they did not disclose their sexual orientation. The Pentagon has so far delayed the implementation of rules of conduct.

“I intend for my resignation to offer a concrete example of the consequences of a failed law and social policy,” she wrote in her resignation letter.

Miss Miller claimed that she was “coerced into ignoring derogatory comments towards homosexuals” and “endured sexual harassment for fear of being accused as a lesbian”.

She will apply to West Point next year if the policy is overturned in time. Jim Fox, a West Point spokesman, said: “She is in good standing and has done very well academically, militarily and physically while at the academy.”

It is estimated that 14,000 service members have been discharged since the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy was implemented in 1993.

While Miss Miller trained at the academy, she anonymously contributed to a lesbian website. She wrote a series of blog posts under the title Private Second Class Citizen.

“The discrimination I have faced as a cadet at the United States Military Academy at West Point, an institution regarded as the pinnacle of leadership excellence, has exposed me to the harsh reality of ramped inequality in the military and in society. As a result of this epiphany, I have redirected my life from battling terrorists in the Middle East to combating hatred and intolerance domestically,” she wrote.

**maverick35** · 08-13-2010, 02:42 PM

Old Mav realizes exactly it seems there is no not nothing butt in equality in life and so this girl sounds prety confused and so guess there possibly wuz a lota annoyances and sio aggitations around her and so happens to old Mav all the time right RIGHT and so old Mav knows cuz old Mav has always been at the bottom being a physicialy weak J*wish minority person and so even old Mavs own parents atacked old Mav and so to fit in and so be acepted by the system and so the calendar has always been against old Mav and so from birth old Mav has been atacked by both Caucasians and so all the other races like Africans Orientals whutever and so old Mav realizes they all geta the best and so there r exactly two 2 levels the get every thing level and so the atacked level and so old Mav wuz always up on the atacked level and so those b**t**ds beter hope old Mav no not geta the miracle old Mav needs before it is too late for old Mav and so old Mav no not gota leta off every body Scot free and so old Mav realizes luckily they no not take old Mav seriously and so old Mav needs a miracle sorry right... sorry old Mav

**voodoo1215** · 08-20-2010, 11:36 PM

good for her.... also nice to see that she is using the money for continued education...

but maybe somebody can answer a question for me... Just exactly how are you openly gay at 8 yrs old?

**billynomates** · 08-21-2010, 02:47 AM

Don't know about the 'openly' but my friend told me when her son was 6 'S is gay'. My uncle apparently, from the age of 3 insisted on wearing his sisters clothes, I dobtif either were 'opely gay' but they knew they'd been born into the wrong body.