I thought we were past this. The whole, "you're gay so you don't belong" thing. Perhaps I'm too modern, living in Sydney, as I do, to appreciate that in some places in the world, homosexuals are still being seen as somehow unnatural, immoral; a group to be feared*, reviled and marginalized.I have to wonder what parents are afraid of. Are they worried that their children will become homosexuals, by coming in such close contact with a lesbian couple? Perhaps they are afraid that lesbians, being, of course, immoral and sexually promiscuous by nature, will begin to perform lewd acts at the prom? Perhaps they fear God would condemn them for permitting two women to show their affection for one another?
There is no reason I can think of that does not sound ridiculous. It is plain discrimination. The fact that the school would have preferred to cancel the prom rather than let McMillen dance with her partner, while not as surprising as I would have liked it to be**, still makes me wonder what kind of people the organizers and staff at the school are, to hold such attitudes. I would say they were throwbacks to tree-swinging gibbons, but that would be to insult my uncle, Alfred.
Would the parents have objected if two heterosexual girls happened to dance together for fun, at some point at the prom? I doubt it. I almost have to wonder how the organisers found out the gender of the different people being invited to the prom as dates to the students or why they even cared.
I applaud the ACLU for supporting McMillen's legal rights to equality of freedom and expression, meaning the right to be who she is. I simply wish that it hadn't been necessary for them to do so.
Apparently we still have a way to go yet, until we get to a time when everyone realises that other people's sexual orientation is their own business.***
Yours,
Charles
* Whether some homophobes are afraid that homosexuals bring God's wrath, will rape them or are just deeply immoral people, I'm not sure.
** It is the US after all.
*** And their partner's obviously.
Do you know anything about a rumour that the band Green Day was going to give her a private concert? I heard about it briefly, but have not been able to apply any skeptical research to the subject.
ReplyDeleteI haven't heard anything, but I like the idea of people showing McMillen their support. I'd hate for her to think that the views held by the parents of the children at her school (among other people) is representative of society at large.
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