A prom is suppose to be a fun event for high school students. But, if you are gay or lesbian it may be nothing but an event that causes more hurt and pain. In Utah a young girl was asked to leave a special dance because she was there with a female date. This clearly violated her rights because of the federal court cases there have been upholding the rights of same sex couples to attend the prom. Those two court cases were: Fricke v. Lynch in 1980 and McMillen v. Itawamba in 2010 ("ACLU of Utah", 2011). A public school in Mississippi cancelled the prom rather than allow a student to bring a same-sex date ("ACLU of Utah", 2011). To cancel a prom for this reason seems so completely wrong in so many ways!
We have talked so much about discrimination over the last four weeks. I feel that a school board ruling that gays/lesbians are not allowed to attend their prom is a perfect example of just that; discrimination. There are several different sexual orientations and it seems ridiculous that a school would ban certain students due to their choice of orientation. Makes me wonder how much the schools are helping to continue the bullying and discrimination of gays/lesbians in high school.
Let's look at Sullivan High School in Indiana...be prepared to be very angry!
The school board at Sullivan High School is against banning any gay/lesbian students from attending the prom. Because of this, a group of about 600 students from Sullivan High have rallied to have a prom that bans gay couples; a "traditional" prom as they are calling it. These students believe that if they make the prom "good" they convince more people to "follow what they believe" and attend the traditional prom. Not everyone in the community thinks what the students are doing is right (Anderle, 2013).
Many high school students look forward to attending their prom. It's a very big event in high school....everyone should be able to make the memory of attending it no matter who they take as a date.
American Health Information Management Association. (n.d.). AHIMA code of ethics. Retrieved from
http://www.ahima.org/about/ethicscode.aspx
Anderle, M. February, 2013. Gay ban at prom nixed, so some students try to hold their own. Newsmax. Retrieved from
http://www.newsmax.com/TheWire/gay-ban-prom-nixed/2013/02/11/id/489791
Well I can't say you didn't warn me Molly, the blonde Special Education Teacher had my blood boiling lol. First off her idea that being gay is a "choice" is something that I have argued with many people..including my mother at first. The fact that someone thinks that anyone would choose a life that comes with hate, discrimination, and obstacles of living a normal life completely baffles me. Conforming to society's social norms as being a heterosexual would be easier, but it would be completely going against everything in my heart. The only choice there is about being gay is to be true to yourself and what's in your heart or to choose a path of unhappiness to make other people happy and conform to social norms. Also the fact that she can actually sit their and say that just because someone is homosexual that they serve no purpose in life until they choose god almost made me laugh. Like I feel sad for her that she lives such a life in where that is her thought process. That someone can be defined and completely be less of a person just because of their sexual orientation. Just proves that ignorance is still out there and that our society has some way to go in accepting the gay community.
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