Followup: Constance McMillen’s classmates confirm prom ruse, the fact that they’re bigoted

[meegbear]

Rumors that the teenage lesbian from Mississippi who was banned from attending her prom only to be re-directed to a fake prom with a mere five other students in attendance have been confirmed, quite hatefully, by McMillen’s classmates.

A classmate of Constance’s named Lindsay Begley wrote a rather lengthy explanation of why she and her classmates are a bunch of horrid bigots, and if following this story from the outset hasn’t brought back the wretchedness of the highschool hierarchy, Begley’s message certainly will. (And if you’re the type of person who would throw rocks at McMillen and call her names, you can join the Facebook group "Constance, quit yer cryin’.")

Begley says:

**Open Minded Readers Only**

I am a senior at IAHS, and I’ve known Constance for the last 6 years. Please hear our side of the story before you decide on our fate.

The party we had in Evergreen (the county neighborhood I live in) is 30 mins away from the school. we rented out the community center, hired vendors, decorated, and our parents ran the security/chaperone staff- but it wasn’t prom. Prom was at the country club where constance and 7 other students were. The reason the senior class boycotted the actual prom was not because we hate gays. We wanted a drama-free gathering to celebrate 3 great years and 1 lousy one together, and we wanted to lay low. We also wanted to do it without the main cause of the lousy. What people are failing to realize is that much of the fault of this whole stink lies with Constance, not her mistreatment by the school district, but her crazy-reckless need for attention. It sounds mean and horrible and like we planned it all specifically to embarrass Constance, but we didn’t. We let her have her prom with her girlfriend and her tuxedo and we went to party it up in the “boondocks” not because we wanted her rights violated, but so we could salvage what has turned into a total fiasco. As a whole we didn’t support her decision to throw the district under the bus, or her insinuations that we’re all just a bunch ‘a hicks driving around in beater pick up trucks spitting tobacco and burning crosses. IAHS is one of the top schools in the state and I’m proud of that, and I’m proud that we took a stand and just said you know what? forget it, we have just as much right as you do to have a party for ourselves. So we did, and now we’re getting flack because poor Connie’s ego got a bit of bruising. She’s playing the lesbian card to prove she ALWAYS gets what she wants. This time, we didn’t just let her.

Take it as you will, because I’m sure it sounds like we faked her out, but understand this- the decision NOT to attend prom had nothing to do with the school or with Constance’s sexual preferences; it had everything to do with proving we weren’t going to let her and the ACLU steamroll us into doing what Constance wanted. We flexed the muscle of the majority and we’ll suffer the consequences.

Still don’t see why the en masse actions of McMillen’s classmates were so shameful, bigoted and horrible? The same thing happened to a black girl 45 years ago in Birmingham. Have you been buying the story that these kids and their parents just wanted a “drama free” prom? You can read some of their Facebook comments after the event here. Still okay with it? The blog Global Shift explains how this kind of institutionalized discrimination parallels the “separate but equal” racial struggles of the past:

Of course, this goes beyond helping the football team shove a science nerd in a locker; we’re discussing an active and willful plot to publicly separate and shame McMillen and (presumably) Itawamba’s other socially “undesirables” from fraternizing with the mainstream popular kids. The kind of emotional depravity that could justify for a mob mentality to ruin one girl’s high school prom rivals the Old Culture South’s reliance on separate but equal to avoid racial integration (which, apparently, few of the school district officials and none of the Itawamba parents knew had been overturned 56 years ago by Plessy v. Ferguson).

<snip>

http://www.inquisitr.com/69069/constance-mcmillen-fake-prom-confirmed/

[Ian David]

1. See also: MS heteros-only prom attendee's lesson from the Blend about thinking before posting ..

MS heteros-only prom attendee's lesson from the Blend about thinking before posting on Facebook
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=221x158374

[joeybee12]

8. Nice photo...I see lots of "young ladies" like that in Vegas...

...that's your future, you brainless bigots.

[BanzaiBonnie]

2. Makes me think of "Carrie"

Yep, mob mentality. Making a fool of the person who is different.


Not gonna let some "uppity girl" have her way. Not gonna accept that at all.

[bluestateguy]

3. This is why there is so much animus on DU toward the rural South

Do we overdo it sometimes? Yes, but they do bring it on themselves.

If those are the values of the "heartland" then I am proud to be an effete elitist liberal.

And Praise the God of Secular Humanism and pass the cafe espresso!

[tbyg52]

5. It's not that, it's tarring all with the same brush.

Please consider that Constance herself is from the rural South. Please consider civil rights activists from the rural South. They took (and take) a lot of chances and had (and have) a lot of guts.

Please consider - who is this "they" of which you speak? 100% of the residents of the Southern states? If not, please say what people you mean, not what geographical area.

Thank you.

[Toasterlad]

Not One Student, Parent, or Teacher Let Constance Know She Was Being Set Up. Not One.

How many bigots do there have to be before it's acceptable to say that a place is full of asshole bigots?

[ProgressiveProfessor]

15. I find that very surprising

High school students can rarely keep secrets well, especially in large numbers.

[Toasterlad]

16. Never Underestimate the Bonds of Bigotry.

[tbyg52]

23. Of course Mississippi (wasn't it?) is full of them. So is TX. So are other places.

And I don't object to anyone saying that. I say it myself. But some posters go well past that. I've even seen suggestions that if you don't leave the South you have only yourself to blame (not from you - I'm just giving a for-example), which I thought was based on a pretty astounding assumption, that we all have the wherewithal to just pick up and leave our residence and jobs any time we like.

[Toasterlad]

24. I Respect People Who Stay In the South And Try To Affect Change.

They have more guts than I.

[tbyg52]

25. In my case, it's not guts - just the inability to leave..... ;-> nt

[Toasterlad]

6. Dupe

[Ian David]

9. Constance and 6 other classmates out of her whole senior class of HOW MANY?

What percentage is that, then?

And we're being generous by including the Special Ed kids who were also victims of this as being among the good guys. After all, they didn't flee in terror in the face of lesbianism.

[joeybee12]

10. Well, if they all worship the same ignorant brush...

...tar them all! We're not talking about a few people, we're talking about the whole fricking school and town.

[Berry Cool]

17. Truly, don't just blame the South. Blame the small-town high-school mentality.

And the mentality of the parents in towns like that.

I grew up in a little hick town in the North and I can easily see the same scenario taking place there.

[Mopar151]

20. True dat!

I went to a rural, regional school in NH. This incedent (Punking the Prom?) and the Phoebe Prince case, are driven by similar cultures. High school hierarchies get f'n UGLY when challenged - you could end up on the wrong side in my school by being from the wrong town. I've heard young adults talk about beating up gay kids like it was a duty.

[monmouth]

4. Teabaggers of Tomorrow....n/t

[Jim Lane]

7. Pedantic correction about the history of racially segregated schools

The blog quoted in the OP had it right but was misquoted in the OP.

What the blog Global Shift wrote was:

The kind of emotional depravity that could justify for a mob mentality to ruin one girl’s high school prom rivals the Old Culture South’s reliance on separate but equal to avoid racial integration (which, apparently, few of the school district officials and none of the Itawamba parents knew had been overturned 56 years ago in the reversal of Plessy v. Ferguson).

The "Inquisitr" website misquoted this in saying that separate-but-equal was overturned by Plessy v. Ferguson, and the OP picked up Inquisitr's error.

Plessy v. Ferguson was an 1896 decision of the U.S. Supreme Court, holding that "separate but equal" facilities for people of different races satisfied the Constitutional requirement of equal protection of the laws. It was overruled in 1954 by the landmark decision in Brown v. Board of Education.

For further reading, Wikipedia has articles about:

[Hong Kong Cavalier]

11. Don'tcha just love how she couched the entire thing with her title:

"**Open Minded Readers Only**"

And then shows her narrow, closed, bigoted, ugly mind for everyone to see. I hope she drowns on the negative publicity this brings to her, her parents, her classmates, and her bigoted school

"Flexed the muscle of the majority". What total bullying bullshit.

[chollybocker]

13. What he said.

:thumbsup:

[joeybee12]

19. Irony is lost on such a tiny-minded fool...

Yeah, that was amusing.

[TheWraith]

12. I believe these people may have just seriously fucked themselves.

From what I've read, most of the other people they put with her at the fake prom were special needs students. That would make their actions an apparent conspiracy to violate the Americans with Disabilities Act, and potentially makes everyone who participated in the covert prom subject to inclusion as a co-defendant in a civil suit. That said, I'm not a lawyer, so I couldn't speak to the details.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

14. Not sure that would hold up

Given that the larger event was a private party sponsored by parents without school involvement, there is no discrimination case. That the vast majority of people boycotted the official event in favor of the private party does not figure in either. If the school knew about it there was no affirmative duty to tell non invitees. Even if the school supported it directly in some manner, there would be a very limited cause of action since GLBT is not a protected class in that state. ADA may impact the last scenario, but even then sovereign immunity would apply. The school could also screw themselves by allowing the yearbook, school paper etc to refer to the private party as the prom, but its doubtful they would be that dumb. The above is from a law school colleague. He tends to be pragmatic about such things.

I would like to see more information about how this got pulled off with such secrecy. High school kids can rarely keep a secret, particularly en masse. Also be interesting to know if the school gave refunds to those who chose not to attend and therefore had clear foreknowledge that at least *something* was happening.

The shame value of this may be the best we can hope for. There looks to be little that can be done legally after the fact. Its a good bet that some of the parent organizers had legal advice on how to keep themselves and their kids out of legal trouble. What the school does next year is the crux of the matter, a welcoming prom or none at all. We already know what some of the parents will do.

[amb123]

18. My reply to Lindsay Begley and her co-conspirators in hate is . . .

SEIG HEIL! SEIG HEIL! SEIG HEIL!

:nuke:

[One_Life_To_Give]

21. Joke is on the bigoted kids

20 years from now, what are these kids going to be remembering? That two girls danced together? Probably happened anyways as it does in so many night spots/weddings etc across the country. Or that they saw a girl wearing pants and a jacket? Yeah that never happens.
Or will their memories focus on all the effort put into pulling one over on Constance?

[Ian David]

22. Bwahaha! Guess who gets to party with Green Day!

Celebrities sponsor gay-friendly prom in Miss.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=221&topic_id=158490&mesg_id=158490