Sexual Orientation

Remember Constance McMillen? She’s the lesbian teen in Fulton, Miss., who fought to take her date to the prom and wear a tuxedo. Her case drew national attention after she and the American Civil Liberties Union challenged the Itawamba County School District. The district had banned same-sex prom dates and decreed that only male students could wear tuxedos.

By now, most people have heard about Constance McMillen. Last week, her school in Fulton, Miss., cancelled its prom because Constance wanted to bring her girlfriend and wear a tuxedo. The American Civil Liberties Union has taken up Constance’s cause. So have a bunch of celebrities. Today, for instance, Constance will tell her story on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. 

A school district in northern Mississippi has cancelled its high school prom rather than let a lesbian student wearing a tuxedo attend with her girlfriend.

A couple of years ago, an acquaintance who worked at the local college where I was teaching had trouble sending and receiving emails. She couldn’t, for the life of her, figure out why. Then an IT administrator clued her in: Her first name—Gay—triggered the school’s Internet filters. They were set to block any references to homosexuality, gender identity, etc.

If you lined up all the small-minded people on the planet, the first thousand or so would probably be school board members. For proof of that, look no further than Wheatland, Wyoming.

Many gays and lesbians feel understandably frustrated right now. The U.S. military’s “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy has yet to be repealed. And over the last 13 months, voters have approved gay marriage bans in Arizona, California, Florida and Maine.

Today is the 11th anniversary of the death of Matthew Shepard. I don’t think anyone can contemplate this date without a mix of strong emotions. But for me, the date always brings a special blend of anger, shame and guilt.

I teach classes on children’s literature at a university in California. I always say that, although I’ve been teaching now for 30 years, what I really want to be when I grow up is a children’s author. It’s a genre that we teachers love and spend a great deal of time specializing in because we want to thrill our students with a passion for reading so that they too will become lifelong readers. Students love this class for that very reason. That is, until I get to the topic of contemporary children’s books that have non-normative gender roles as a subject.