Proms and Preschools and Lesbians
Mar 12th, 2010 by nick
I’ve again been neglecting this blog, but two recent events caught my eye. The first is that a high school in Mississippi canceled its senior prom rather than let a lesbian couple attend. Evidently the school district has an official policy against same-sex couples at dances. I think the ACLU explains better than I could the blatant discrimination of such a policy, so I won’t dwell on that. But I do want to comment on the school board’s stated reason for canceling the event, “due to the distractions to the educational process caused by recent events.” I’d say the only distraction has come from the administration itself. With this policy and decision, the district is teaching discrimination and hatred, which I certainly hope isn’t their intended educational mission. As I’ve written previously, gay marriage and full-fledged gay rights are inevitable. This school district and others of its ilk around the country should give up their antediluvian battles and set aside their discriminatory policies.
The second incident is possibly even worse. Apparently a private Catholic school in Boulder has decided “not to re-enroll” two children whose parents are lesbian. Now, whatever you think about homosexuality, how could you find it reasonable to punish the pre-school and kindergarten aged children? They are not responsible for their parents’ sexuality, anymore than is a child whose parents divorce, have affairs, marry people of other faiths, or terminate a pregnancy, to name a few issues with which I suspect the Catholic church might also have objections. Would this same school reject children of those families? I find that difficult to believe. I understand that the school, as a private sectarian institution, may have the legal right to discriminate in this way, but they should reconsider the morality of their actions, and the example it sets for the children they’re trying to educate.