A Mississippi high school senior, Constance McMillen, wanted to take her girlfriend to prom with her. Her school district refused, so she contacted the local branch of the ACLU, which then contacted the school and asked them to reverse their policy or face legal action. The school’s response? They canceled the entire prom. Because, as we all know, it’s better to completely cancel an important rite of passage for high school students than allow any lesbians access to it.

Since then, Constance has become a bit of a celebrity. Articles about her have appeared on Yahoo, CNN, and Huffington Post. A Facebook fan page called “Let Constance Take Her Girlfriend to Prom” now has almost 430,000 fans. She’s also appeared on CBS’s The Early Show and Ellen Degeneres’ talk show, talking about her experiences.

The ACLU sued to get the school district to reinstate prom but, to no avail. And, in the meantime, Constance became a walking target at her school, as fellow students blamed her for the cancellation of prom and “ruining [their] senior year.” In a sick twist, students appear to have gone so far as to set up a fake alternative prom for Constance and some other students (including students with learning disabilities) to attend, while the “real” prom for the majority of students was held elsewhere. You can read more about that here.

Situations like these are why I feel the need for comprehensive sex ed in school systems is so important to put in place. One of the facets of may comprehensive sex ed programs is a respect for diversity and tolerance of all people… which are two things that Constance’s school district (and her fellow classmates) seems to be desperately lacking. I’m under no delusion that comprehensive sex ed would have fixed all of Constance’s issues… but I do feel that, just maybe, if we begin to instill lessons of tolerance in kids from an early age, some of that sticks. And maybe some of Constance’s fellow students (along with school district employees) would have stood with her.

One day, I hope that they’ll wish they did.

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