School District To Pay $81,000 In Legal Fees In Lesbian Prom Case

Fulton, MS, United States (AHN) – A Mississippi school district has been ordered to pay more than $81,000 in legal fees in the civil rights case of Constance McMillen, who was barred from attending her high school prom this year with her girlfriend as a date.

McMillen won her lawsuit in March against the Itawamba County School District, which a federal judge found had violated her First Amendment rights. The school district agreed this summer to pay McMillen $35,000 in damages, her legal fees and to enforce a policy against discrimination against gays and lesbians, the first such policy in a Mississippi public school.

McMillen, who filed her suit with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union, had approached school officials about bringing her girlfriend to the prom, and was told that they would not be allowed to arrive together at the event. She was prohibited from wearing a tuxedo, and was warned that she and her girlfriend may be thrown out of the event if they made other students uncomfortable.

Shortly after McMillen’s talk with officials, the school issued a memo banning same-sex dates at the prom, garnering national attention and earning demands from the ACLU and other groups to let the student bring her girlfriend as a date.

The school district responded by canceling the prom and arguing after McMillen filed her lawsuit, “This is not an issue where anyone has been denied an education. This is a social event that is disruptive to the school environment and the core public education function of the school because people are on all sides of the issue.”

The case attracted national attention, and much support for McMillen, who gained 400,000 fans on a Facebook page devoted to supporting her cause and a $30,000 college scholarship during a television appearance. Now a freshman at a Tennessee community college, McMillen was also a guest at a White House reception marking LGBT month and served as one of three grand marshals in New York’s annual Gay Pride parade.

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