Recently in Constance McMillen Category

Remember Constance McMillen? The lesbian teen who went through a ton of crap (aka a law suit brought by the ACLU) in order to bring her girlfriend to the prom -- only to find, when she arrived, that everyone else had gone to a different prom, to which she had not been invited? (There were around five other students at the prom McMillen attended at the Fulton Country Club. Everyone else was down the street at the Evergreen Community Center.) Well, the Itawamba school district in Aberdeen, Mississippi has denied that they were involved in said perpetration of fake prom. 

Apparently it wasn't enough to ruin Constance McMillen's prom. Now, the members of the Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church will picket the school's high school graduation to protest her very existence. These people are going to a different STATE to hate on a teenage girl for being a lesbian. (This church is also known for picketing the funerals of dead soldiers, FYI.) They issued a press release that said:

"[We] will picket the graduation of Itawamba Agricultural High School to remind the parents, teachers and students of this nation that God said 'Thou shall not lie with mankind, as with womankind, it is abomination'.

"This generation has been raised to believe that they can live for the devil and still go to heaven, that God has no standards and the biggest lie of all - that God loves everyone."

There is some  crazy stuff happening in this country right now, politically speaking, but I think that Constance McMillen's story puts a face on the tangible effects of bigotry in a way that is very easy to understand. (Unfortunately, for her.) A teenager should be allowed to go to the prom. She should be allowed graduate, if she has the grades. She should be able to exist in whatever manifestation she pleases  without having to worry about crazy people crossing state borders specifically in order to harass her. I mean, doesn't it seem sort of obvious?