SALON

Wednesday, Jun 23, 2010 5:12 PM UTC

Constance McMillen: Prom victim to Pride hero

The Mississippi teen never got her dance, but she's the toast of the gay world this month

By

Topics: LGBT, Broadsheet, Love and Sex,

Constance McMillen: Prom victim to Pride heroConstance McMillen arrives at the GLAAD Media Awards in Century City, California on April 17.

High school is rarely a bed of roses for anybody, but Constance McMillen, you won yourself an extra heaping of crap this year when you declared the person your wanted to take to the prom — your girlfriend. That didn’t fly with the folks at Mississippi’s Itawamba Agricultural High School, who first canceled the dance altogether, then threw a big party while rerouting you to a sparsely attended “official” event elsewhere.  They created a “Quit Yer Cryin’” Facebook page about you. They booed you in the halls. Your best friend dumped you. Things got so bad you had to finish out the year in another school.

You probably didn’t want to become a public figure. You certainly didn’t expect to. But your story attracted national attention and became a lightning rod in the fight for gay rights. As you said at April’s GLAAD Media awards, “All I wanted was for me and my girlfriend to go to prom like any other couple.” But despite the attention, despite the kids at school who said you “ruined” the prom, you never backed down or gave up. You filed suit via the ACLU for the simple right of students to bring whomever they want to their own proms. “If you want change,” you said, “you have to speak up.” With a courage and dignity that few among us, of any age, possess, you kept doing just that. And along the way, you won yourself a whole lot of hearts.

Your Facebook fan page has over 400,00 members. Ellen DeGeneres had you on her show and presented you with a $30,000 scholarship from Tonic.com. On Tuesday, you got to hang with the president at a Pride reception at the White House. You met this week with Sen. Al Franken to discuss his anti-bullying bill, saying, “I’m trying to … make people want to be inspired and stand up.”  And on Sunday, you’ll be a Grand Marshal at New York’s Pride March. It ain’t the prom, but we can guarantee plenty of dancing.

At Tulane’s commencement speech last year, Ellen DeGeneres said that “Some of the most devastating things that happen to you will teach you the biggest lessons.” Nothing will ever give you back a decent senior year, but the past few months have earned you the life experience equivalent of a Ph.D.

Though you say you want to attend junior college in your hometown, in part to be near your girlfriend, it should be clear by now that it’s a big world out there, full of people inspired and amazed by you. And in a culture dominated with reality stars and viral sensations and the famous for being famous, you’ve done something special: At age 18, you made a name for yourself by being a bona fide hero. You wouldn’t settle for being a victim of discrimination. You became a warrior for change. Happy Pride Week, Constance McMillen. Happy rest of your life.

Mary Elizabeth Williams

Mary Elizabeth Williams is a staff writer for Salon and the author of "Gimme Shelter: My Three Years Searching for the American Dream." Follow her on Twitter: @embeedub. More Mary Elizabeth Williams.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 26 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

vote
From global warming to fluoride: Why do people deny science? An interesting question.
47 points48 points | 61 comments
vote
Developers evict historic women’s shelter to build luxury hotel - The 104-yr-old Anna Louise Inn has ended its 2-year legal battle with a Fortune 500 company & will now move. Many view the victory of the insurance company over a community touchstone as a major blow to the city.
37 points38 points | 2 comments
vote
Anonymous rallies behind Kaitlyn Hunt
32 points33 points | 35 comments
vote
The GOP Is the 'Party of Crybabies' for Demanding No One Criticize Their Policies or Donors
21 points22 points | comment
vote
Illinois' fracking and coal rush is a national crisis: Illinois and its Mississippi River banks are becoming another ground zero in the war over climate change.
22 points23 points | comment

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: Chekhov's story mirrors Russia's own

Recommendations