WARNING: screechingly liberal post ahead, and yes, this is slightly ancient news because it's more than ten minutes old, but it's still worthy to talk about. And now we have a cool logo.
OK.
Maybe you've heard about this. A girl named Constance wanted to take her girlfriend Minerva to the prom at at Itawamba County Agricultural High School in Fulton, Mississippi. She hoped to wear a tux, too.
And then the school board said no.
Get out of here. It's 2010. Nobody's going to be harmed by two girls dancing together--one of them in a tux--any more than they're going to be harmed by Internet porn, Dr. Laura, or the American Nazi party. Turn away--don't look. Let people live their lives. What about Bisphenol A in our plastics? What about pollution? What about childhood obesity? I realize all these things aren't comparable, but come on people--what the hell is there to worry about? Moral depravity? Let me tell you about moral depravity--how about run-of-the-mill child abusers, let alone priests who molest children? Step off, moral police.
This is relevant to me for two reasons: 1) I care what happens to Constance, and 2) it happens in my book. In SKY, Tessa wears a tux to prom, and she dances with Morgan, AND SHE KISSES HER. OMFG. Tons of fallout, of course--we need the conflict, people, it's fiction!--but it ends up OK. Nobody dies. Nobody even gets a headache.
If you feel so moved, e-mail tmcneese@itawamba.k12.ms.us and let her know what you think. Or donate to your local chapter of the ACLU. Something. Something to tell people that you'll be OK if two girls go to prom, and one wears a tux.
Why is this so hard? I would really, really, really like to know.
I can't help you. I don't understand why anyone cares about two girls dancing together. I am in favor of it and I wish there had been girls dancing and kissing at my own prom.
ReplyDeleteAs for your second thought, I don't know the answer to that one either, other than to say it's easy. It's not easy to fix childhood obesity or even to get insurance for them. Those things take a lot of time and passion and trial and error to fix . But stopping two girls from going to prom together? That’s one’s doable. A big group of somewhat likeminded people can single out a gay person, a person of a differing ethnicity or religion, or some other person of whatever difference from the group and fix their wagon. It’s not really curing any problems, but the gratification is instant.