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Gay news: 18-year-old Constance said: 'We do live in the Bible Belt'
Lesbian student: "We do live in the Bible Belt"
Prom cancelled because lesbian wanted to bring her girlfriend
A school in Mississippi has cancelled its annual senior dance after a lesbian student was denied permission to attend with her girlfriend and wear a tuxedo.
The Fulton school's district policy requires that prom dates be of the opposite sex, but the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) had given it until Wednesday to change it and allow 18-year-old Constance McMillen to escort her student girlfriend to the dance on April 2.
Instead, the school board met and subsequently issued a statement announcing it wouldn't host the event at Itawamba County Agricultural High School "due to the distractions to the educational process caused by recent events".
Kristy Bennett, legal director for the ACLU of Mississppi, said a school policy banning same-sex prom dates violated McMillen's constitutional rights and that the district was trying to avoid the issue by cancelling the dance.
"But that doesn't take away their legal obligations to treat all the students fairly," Bennett said. "On Constance's behalf, this is unfair to her. All she's trying to do is assert her rights."
McMillen said she feared she would be thrown out of the prom because "we do live in the Bible Belt".
