Only in America (or Nazi Germany)

Yesterday the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) forced an American teenager's local school district to award her $35,000 (£22,000) in damages following her school's decision to ban her bringing a female date to her prom, and enforcing a rule that only male students could wear a tuxedo to the event in Fulton, Itawamba.

For those unfamiliar to the story, Constance McMillen (who was barely 17 at the time) was intending to attend every school students right of passage - her high school prom.  The problem came when McMillen, an openly gay young woman, made it clear her intentions were to bring another female student as her date and wear a tuxedo; news got back to the school board who subsequently barred any student from bringing a date of the same gender and any female student from wearing a tux.  When Constance (rightfully) made a fuss about the issue, the school district decided to cancel the prom; turning the poor girl in to enemy number one amongst her fellow students.  However at the time, the ACLU stepped in and demanded the event be reinstated, which it was.

Then, as if she hadn't been through enough, the school secretly and unbeknownst to McMillan, held two separate proms on the same night.  Of course all the 'normal' students got to attend the main event, whilst Constance and ten other 'undesirable' students were taken to a different location - segregated from the other students like they were carrying the plague.  Naturally, she knew what had happened as soon as she turned up and once again the ACLU stepped in and took the school district to court, resulting in yesterday's monetary settlement.

I really can't imagine anything more degrading and offensive to put a teenage girl through; whoever made these series of ridiculous and extremely offensive decisions needs to be fired.  All she wanted to do was dress how she wanted and bring the person she wanted to her special night, yet somehow by just being herself and living her life the way she wanted, others who should have known better turned it in to something terrible.  Thank goodness I live in a country and went to a school where I could be who I wanted and only had to deal with the narrow point of view of other students, not of the people there to protect us.