Constance McMillen and her lawyers appeared in federal court today to fight for the prom to be reinstated at Itawamba Agricultural High School in Fulton, Mississippi. So did the school board, and oh my god. For those of you who don’t live in the Third World nation of Mississippi, here’s a taste of what these dumb bigots are really like, from Dan Savage’s interview with ACLU attorney Kristy Bennett:
What’s your case based on?
There is case law that says Constance has a right to attend prom with a same-sex date, Fricke v. Lynch back in 1980. It was a Rhode Island district court case. This is a 1st Amendment issue, a freedom-of-expressoin issue. By attending prom with a same-sex date, or in a tuxedo, Constance is making a statement about her sexual and political views. The main issue the judge is looking at now is whether he has the authority to issue an order to the school forcing them to host a prom. That’ the issue the judge has to grapple with.
People have been talking about cases during the Civil Rights era, when courts ordered cities in the South to integrate public swimming pools and cities closed them—destroyed them, filling them with dirt or concrete—rather than integrating them. Did you cite those cases during the hearing?
No, we didn’t. The defense did. They cited cases where cities had closed pools and courts said back then that they didn’t have the authority to force the re-opening of pools. Courts had issued rulings that found a violation, that people’ rights had been violated, but they weren’t going to order the pools back open.
So the school board’s lawyers went to court and compared the school board’s actions to those of government officials that closed pools to block integration? They compared themselves racist segregationists in the 1960s?
Now that you say it, yeah, they did compare themselves with governments that were closing pools.
Was I kidding in the post title?
No, I was not. These birdbrains are still fighting the Civil War in their heads, and they still think they wuz robbed. They teach their children that the Civil War wasn’t about slavery, and that besides, hey, the slaves that lived in the house had it pretty good, you know, I mean, Gone With The Wind, y’all, right? Did Magnolia leave Miss Scarlett? Hell no, she didn’t! Dammit, she was happy!
(No, really. This is what many Southerners teach their children. And not just in the sticks, either. I heard it right there in the upper middle-class Republican [white white white white white white] suburbs.)
They’re still pissed off about desegregation, they’re still pissed off that black people can vote, they’re racist as hell, and they’re really too stupid to realize what is coming out of their mouths.
And they’d like to repeat their storied track record on racial issues with gays.
Welcome to Mississippi.
It’s pathetic that this country still has pockets of such grotesque ignorance, but such is reality. Aren’t you glad your liberal tax dollars support that wingnut welfare state’s existence?
Keep e-mailing those school board members, and also, drop Allstate a line, since board member Eddie Hood has been propagating pig ignorant nonsense using his Allstate e-mail (he’s an agent) as his public communication. Allstate is not happy, by the way.
“For those of you who don’t live in the Third World nation of Mississippi, here’ a taste of what these dumb bigots are really like, from Dan Savage’ interview with ACLU attorney Kristy Bennett…”
Kristy is a Mississippian, as is Constance McMillen, as am I.
The state has the highest black population of any state (37%), and downtown Jackson–the capital city, which is 73% black and 85% Democratic–has gotten a billion dollars in economic development in the past two years.
Mississippi also has a 21.3% poverty rate (the highest in the nation) and a huge education gap between urban and rural areas, which is exacerbated by people in other parts of the country who seem to have no understanding of cause and effect–that people who don’t have access to education grow up to be, duh, uneducated, and that people who are poor are conditioned to fight tribally over scarce resources.
There’s nothing genetically wrong with any identifiable group of Mississippians. There is a great deal wrong with the culture of rural white Mississippi, and it will only be cured by the sort of hard work that Kristy, Constance, and other Mississippians of good will are doing.
Mississippi never recovered from the end of Reconstruction in 1877; it hasn’t industrialized as well as most of the rest of the country. If you want to damn it, go ahead–the stupid bigots will thank you, because they don’t want the culture to change. But if you’re trying to help, acknowledge the fact that some of us are actually down here working on Mississippi’s problems, at great personal cost and great personal risk, rather than throwing spitballs at them.
I actually agree with everything you said, Tom. I’m mostly being tongue-in-cheek. You have to remember, I’m within ten miles of the Mississippi border.
Except wait…I don’t believe the part about it being other peoples’ fault that Mississippi is in the state it’s in. For the record, I don’t believe it for Tennessee, for Alabama, or any other Southern state which pays far less in than it receives back in federal benefits, i.e. the red welfare states which, despite their poverty, their lack of industrialization, etc., insist on electing people like Haley Barbour who believe that the best way to improve things is to cut taxes and social programs and education funding.
The people I feel bad for are the ones who ARE trying to make things better, but who are so grotesquely outnumbered that any real civil rights change is going to have to come from the judicial branch, like it always has in the South.
Poor, oppressed straight, white folk. My heart bleeds for them.
Constance McMillen was not banned from bringing a female date. The issue was her stated intent to violate the dress code that applies to everyone else by wearing a tux instead of a dress. She could have attended with her girlfriend with no fuss, but that doesn’t pay the bills, does it?
My sense is that she saw a chance to inflate her gay exceptionalism to gay victim status, and it works as it always does.
There are real cases of anti gay discrimination that deserve attention. This is not one of them. It is selfishness and egoism combined.
On another note, I’ve noticed since the Miss America event that gays no longer feel any type of restraint in revealing their own bigotry and hatred in the name of tolerance. What hurt me the most was the viciously racist remarks spewed by gay activists in the wake of the California vote against Black Americans who overwehelmingly supported the Propostion 8.
There seems to be a strong element of intolerance included with the “gay gene”.
Uh, actually, if you read the facts of the case, her bringing her girlfriend WAS an issue.
Otherwise, STFU. She’s a kid in a small town in Mississippi, and you think this has something to do with “gay exceptionalism”? And yes, some unfortunate things were said about black voters in California, and those of us in the gay blog community condemned it, but that’s probably not convenient for your viewpoint, so you can pretend I didn’t point it out.
STFU?? Very well put. Very tolerant.
I read the facts, you’re wrong. No one has claimed that she was forbidden to bring her female date, (except TruthWinsOut and other blogs). The trouble began over the dress code, as the court addressed.
But my attention is drawn to the casual flow of bigotry among some of your commenters. One commenter objected but by and large…
It reminds me of watching an excerpt from The View where Rosie D., a spokesperson for the gay community, proudly opined that men should not be allowed to supervise children because we are all potential perverts. Not one co-Viewer objected. Not one member of the audience objected to such an obvious pronouncement of bigotry and hatred. No one even pointed out the illegality of such discrimination.
Why? Because we have come to expect such views from members of the gay community.
Regarding the viciously racist attacks on Black Americans, it was gay bloggers themselves who spouted or spread the hatred, among others. To be sure there were those who saw the possibilities of a violent backlash against gay racism and spoke up to call for a little STFU from the outspoken gay activists, but a bit late to be convincing.
Thanks for allowing me to comment. Best wishes to you.
Links to the gay bloggers?
We condemned that behavior among those who did it.
Anyway, boo hoo, “best wishes to you, too,” don’t step on a crack, whatever.