'Don't Ever Change!'

One has to wonder which party is the bully in a little flap over a Mississippi high school canceling its prom rather than hand over its lunch money to the ACLU:

Lesbian teen sues to force school to hold prom

JACKSON, Miss. – An 18-year-old Mississippi lesbian student whose school district canceled her senior prom rather than allow her to escort her girlfriend and wear a tuxedo said she got some unfriendly looks from classmates when she reluctantly returned to campus Thursday.

Constance McMillen said she didn't want to go back the day after the Itawamba County school board's decision, but her father told her she needed to face her classmates, teachers and school officials.

"My daddy told me that I needed to show them that I'm still proud of who I am," McMillen told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. "The fact that this will help people later on, that's what's helping me to go on."

The district announced Wednesday it wouldn't host the April 2 prom. The decision came after the American Civil Liberties Union told officials a policy banning same-sex prom dates violated students' rights. The ACLU said the district not letting McMillen wear a tuxedo violated her free expression rights.

McMillen said she felt some hostility toward her on the Itawamba County Agricultural High School campus.

"Somebody said, 'Thanks for ruining my senior year.'" McMillen said.

Not all of Ms. McMillen’s classmates were pleased with her crusade. McKenzie Chaney, 16, said she wasn't planning to attend the prom, but "it's kind of ridiculous that they can't let her wear the tuxedo and it all be over with."

Hah! McKenzie, you sweet naif! How with your few years of life could you have learned that, when it comes to making concessions to gay rights activists, it will never all be over with.

Constance has a pleasant thank-you video posted at the ACLU. I know that Bible-believing straights are incapable of detecting who is or isn’t a genuine homosexual, although I’m still pretty sure I was right about Johnny Weir. Constance just doesn’t strike me as a person who is going to be a lesbian forever, if she even is one now.

High school is nothing if not a laboratory for adolescents to engage in reckless social and moral experimentation where they ignite the poorly-thought out actions that will haunt them to their dying days. And I don’t look down on any high school kid--there’s few enough of them--who’s got the brass to risk unpopularity and ridicule for a principle. So fair play to Constance, as her stunt at least appears to be rooted in principle, even if a misguided, silly one.

In her ACLU thank-you she says “it’s great that there are that many people out there who understand the difference between wrong and right.” But it should be noted that her battle for right over wrong was a demand to wear a tuxedo while escorting her girl date to the prom. Shallow, all things considered, but at her age that can be overlooked. The ACLU knows better, and ought to be ashamed.