In 1962, the city of Jackson, Mississippi realized that it would have to desegregate its five public swimming pools. Rather than face the prospect of having to share a swimming pool with blacks, the city filled four of the pools with dirt and gave a fifth to the YMCA which, as a private organization, was then free to keep it whites-only. In a profoundly wrong decision in 1971, the Supreme Court allowed Jackson to get away with, as Justice Douglas called it, "installing apartheid" by letting a private group do their segregating for them.
So when I read this story today about another Mississippi community deciding to get private groups to discriminate against people because the government couldn't, all I could think was that Phil Ochs was right: in Mississippi, "the calendar is lying when it shows the present time."
A northern Mississippi school district decided Wednesday not to host a high school prom after a lesbian student demanded she be able to attend with her girlfriend and wear a tuxedo.
...
"It is our hope that private citizens will organize an event for the juniors and seniors," district officials said in the statement.
HOW TO GIVE: To support the Mississippi Safe Schools Coalition's "Second Chance Prom Fund," and help Constance and the students of IAHS have a prom they can be proud of, click here! Funds are being handled by the Mississippi ACLU.
Let's be clear about what the bigots of Itawamba County are trying to do: they want to find a way, ANY way, to keep their gay and lesbian students from being equal. That's it. That's the sum total of their strategy. It is segregation, period.
Let's say it together: This is segregation.
I'll even go a step further than "segregation": this is Straight Supremacy. Recognizing the equality of LGBTQ people threatens the bigots, so they take whatever steps they can to ensure that non-straights are kept in a position of inferiority, cast out from society whenever possible and denied the simplest pleasures at every opportunity.
In this case, instead of filling pools with clay, they're canceling prom.
I never went to my prom. I know a lot of you might be thinking that it isn't really that big an event. But especially in small, rural communities like Itawamba County, prom is one of the most important social events many of these kids will ever attend. It's their chance, for one night out of their lives, to feel sophisticated. They'll keep prom photos on their mantels for decades. They'll show their daughters the prom dresses they wore. And yeah, for a lot of them, this is the night they'll have sex for the first time. It's a big deal for a lot of people.
So here's what I propose: we throw them a prom.
The nearest venues to the school are in Tupelo, just down the road. I've checked on rates and availability at some of them. Prom was scheduled for Friday, April 2nd, so I'm looking at that Friday and Saturday, April 3rd. Right now I'm looking at the Bancorp Arena (booked for a Three Days Grace concert that Friday, but available on Saturday, and under $500 for a suitably sized ballroom) and the Tupelo Automobile Museum (I'm awaiting a call back from their events director to check rates and availability). Personally, I think if we could get Three Days Grace (which, despite the name, is decidedly not a Christian Rock band) to agree to play prom pro bono, that would be several kinds of awesome, but I have no way of contacting their booking agent or the band-anyone with experience in that sort of work or with a contact at Jive Records want to help out?-(UPDATE: got a terse rejection email from Jive Records, saying they wouldn't do anything. Not surprising, but disappointing.)
By my reckoning, what we need is a venue, refreshments, entertainment, and probably insurance. I've done quite a bit of events planning (if you're in DC on 3/23, come to this one, by the way!), including a fair number of fundraisers and political rallies. I think that we can probably pull this one off in moderate-to-grand style for under $5,000. I know that this site can easily raise that much.
The Itawamba Bigots hoped that calling for "private citizens" to put on a prom would lead to an anti-gay group offering to throw one, keeping the event segregated just like a YMCA swimming pool. I say we shove that presumption back at them, and show these kids--all of these kids--a good time at a prom they will speak of with pride for the rest of their lives.
Assuming we can find an available venue, are you willing to help me make this happen, Kossacks?
UPDATE 3 p.m. - We may have found an organization willing to help us handle online fundraising! I'll update once we have confirmation, but I'd like to say a special "thank you" to Siri from Peace Train for the generous offer of assistance. I'd still prefer to find a local group to handle this, but if that fails it's good to know there's a backup plan in the works. We're going to find a way to make this happen--these kids WILL have a prom!
UPDATE 3:35 - I've gotten several emails from readers offering to help in one way or another, and I wanted to thank everyone for wanting to get involved. If you think you can help out, with money or planning or fundraising or just writing the school board to get them to reverse their decision (which is obviously the best possible outcome), please drop me an email at gerbilsbite (at) yahoo (dot) com, and I'll try to keep organizing. I need to go on record with this to make sure I stick to this pledge, so here it goes: come Hell or high water, these students will have a non-discriminatory prom this year!
UPDATE 3:45 - Per fivefouranonymous in the comments, here are the email addresses for the school board. POLITELY write them and let them know that they're making a huge mistake in supporting discrimination, and ask them to let these students have their prom night.
a082315@allstate.com
jnichols@itawamba.k12.ms.us
hmartin@itawamba.k12.ms.us
cbrown@network-one.com
twallace@nexband.com
BIG UPDATE: ACLU FILES SUIT!
Join the Facebook group "Let Constance Take her Girlfriend to Prom!"
BIG UPDATE 6:42 - I just got an email from Mississippi Safe Schools Coalition, and they're planning to organize in-state to make this happen! As soon as we have a way to do online contributions to them, I'll post a link here.
HOW TO GIVE: To support the Mississippi Safe Schools Coalition's "Second Chance Prom Fund," and help Constance and the students of IAHS have a prom they can be proud of, click here! Funds are being handled by the Mississippi ACLU.