Promgate Makes It to ABC Family, Lesbian Burlesque Twilight Exists

CONSTANCE MCMILLEN:

You thought we were done with Promgate 2010 headlines, didn’t you? No. ABC has announced that it’s developing a movie based on the saga of Constance McMillen and her girlfriend’s being denied attendance to their high school prom. The movie is being headed by Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, two openly gay producers, and it will be written and directed by the creator of Ghost Whisperer. Yeah, I didn’t really know that was a show either. (@ontopmag)

There are, obviously, many questions remaining. Who will play Constance? Will there be a homophobic Regina George character? Will Dan Choi have a cameo? Isn’t Pretty Little Liars also on ABC? Are they trying to tell us something? Will this ABC Family Original reach the same heights of cinematic excellence as the other ABC Family Originals Revenge of the Bridesmaids and The Dog Who Saved Christmas Vacation? I don’t know, you guys. This probably means something – in the wake of very real tragedy that makes the Constance McMillen story seem weirdly prophetic on top of mean-spirited and awful, this probably is a sign of something, the way the wind is blowing, etc. I can’t figure out what that thing is. It’s over my head. This was the month we had to make “gay bullying” a tag and I’m through processing it. Hey, who else thinks Ellen Page should play Constance’s girlfriend, I KNOW YOU WERE THINKING IT TOO.

PINK:

Hey, you know who loves lesbians/has only begun categorically denying that she is bisexual in interviews in recent years? It’s Pink. You guys, she has a lesbian wedding in her new music video for the single “Raise Your Glass.” You may remember her from the other music video in which she has sex with herself. Yes, I know. This lady has our best interests at heart, and we appreciate it. (@foreign)

GAY SORORITY:

Speaking of really gay universities, UCLA has a gay sorority now! It sounds pretty cool, in that it’s actively defying the common understanding that a Greek organization is by definition sexist and homophobic. Its founder says that it provides “a place to belong to, a place to call home,” and when you think of it like that, it is a) exactly what all sororities should be, as ‘sisterhoods’ and b) exactly what most gay kids need. Party on, Gamma Rho Lambda, party on. (@jezebel)

LESBIAN BURLESQUE TWILIGHT:

I have nowhere near the intellectual or emotional reserves to process this, but I give it to you in case you are different, in case you are in a place in your life where this speaks to you. This is a lesbian burlesque rendition of Twilight. I guess in a certain way it was inevitable, but in another sense, this is one thing I thought I could make it through life without ever having to grapple with. I think they did the one where she’s pregnant and everyone is crazy and there’s like a womb-rupturing demon baby? I don’t know. Someone help me out here. Why is Lesbian Edward’s hat so cute. (@io9)

FAKE JARED LETO:

This is a video of a cute girl making herself look like Jared Leto. I realize the connection to “girl-on-girl culture” is tenuous. In my defense, the video title says “cute girl” and Jared Leto was in Girl, Interrupted, which is gayer than my women’s studies discussion section, and one time, years ago, Riese wrote an essay titled Why Shane is the New Jordan Catalano, and also this is drag, you guys love that right? Mostly though I just really like time-lapse videos of people performing weird beauty rituals, idk. The soundtrack is Nine Inch Nails but I recommend muting it and playing Kaki King instead, that worked really well for me. (@jezebel)

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GAGA CAMEO:

Did you know that Lady Gaga once appeared on the Sopranos? Me neither. She was fifteen and it sounds made up. Luckily there’s video to prove it!

Lesbian Prom Case Settled, WE WON: Prizes Include Landmark Anti-Discrimination Policy, Money

CONSTANCE MCMILLEN:

A “precedent-setting lawsuit” was settled today in the case of 18-year-old high school student
Constance McMillen vs. The Itawamba County School District.

As reported by The ACLU:

As set forth in documents filed in court today, school officials agreed to implement a policy banning discrimination or harassment on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, the first policy to do so at a public school in the state of Mississippi. The school also agreed to pay McMillen $35,000 in damages and pay for McMillen’s attorneys’ fees.

McMillen’s story began in March, when school officials turned down Constance’s request to bring her girlfriend to prom and wear a tux. Constance called the ACLU, the ACLU urged school officials to reverse the policy both on McMillan’s choice of date and attire. Simple enough, right? Apparently NOT AS SIMPLE AS JUST CANCELING PROM ALTOGETHER! The school said the parents & kids were welcome to create their own private prom if they wanted to.

The ACLU then officially filed suit against the school district, asking the judge to order the school to reverse its decision. Obviously the students at Itawamba blamed Constance, not the school, for the whole thing and pretty much made her life a living hell. Then the judge ruled that the school had violated Constance’s rights, but could not force the school to hold a prom since prom isn’t anybody’s constitutional right. The students, teachers and school officials then conspired to schedule a “decoy” prom which Constance and five other kids went to while the rest of her senior class held their own private prom 30 miles away. The students “defended” themselves, saying that Constance was just doing it for attention and besides she was really annoying.

Unsurprisingly, Constance opted to get the hell out of Dodge, transferring to a new high school where she wouldn’t be tormented every day by her asshole classmates. She then filed suit against Itawamba school for the public humiliation she suffered.

Obviously only good part of this whole thing (besides Constance getting to be on Ellen and go to the GLAAD Awards and marshall the NY Pride Parade and go to special queer proms) was our super Prom Gallery, which we created to celebrate what apparently so many people are very afraid of – how cute two girls look when they go to prom together!

Well, that was the best part UNTIL TODAY.

From the ACLU:

“Constance went through a great deal of harassment and humiliation simply for standing up for her rights, and she should be proud of what she has accomplished,” said Christine P. Sun, senior counsel with the ACLU Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Project. “Thanks to her bravery, we now not only have a federal court precedent that can be used to protect the rights of students all over the country to bring the date they want to their proms, but we also have the first school anti-discrimination policy of its kind in Mississippi.”

In addition to today’s legal judgment against the school, an earlier ruling in the case set an important precedent that will help prevent other students from suffering the kind of discrimination McMillen experienced. In March, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi issued a ruling in McMillen’s case that school officials violated McMillen’s First Amendment rights when it canceled the high school prom rather than let McMillen attend with her girlfriend and wear a tuxedo.

“We’re pleased that the school district agreed to be held liable for violating Constance’s rights. Now Constance can move on with her life and Itawamba school officials can show the world that they have learned a lesson about equal treatment for all students,” said Kristy L. Bennett, co-counsel on McMillen’s case. “This has been about much more than just the prom all along – it’s about all of our young people deserving to be treated fairly by the schools we trust to take care of them.”

“We hope this judgment sends a message to schools that they cannot get away with discriminating against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students. LGBT youth just want to be treated like their peers and do all the normal high school things, like going to the prom with the date they choose,” said Bear Atwood, Interim Legal Director at the ACLU of Mississippi. “We’re very proud of Constance for standing up not just for her rights but the rights of LGBT students everywhere.”

Yay Candace!

HOMOPHOBIA: Vandals Deface Gay Florida Congressional Candidate Scott Galvin’s Campaign Signs with ‘Fag’ Slur. (@towleroad)

REF-71: Supreme Court Said Protect Marriage Washington Must Release Ref 71’s Names. Oh, This Isn’t Over? : Having lost a broad argument at the U.S. Supreme Court, the conservative group trying to shield the names of people who signed petitions seeking to overturn a new gay rights law in Washington are taking their case back to a lower court.

DAN CHOI: Dan Choi got arrested again, this time in Las Vegas. Choi was there protesting U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s perceived inaction on the federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act. Remember when Rachel wrote Is There a “Right Way” to be a Gay Activist? On Dan Choi, Obama’s Alliance & Civil Disobedience? That was good.

Uncool High Schools: Constance McMillen Transfers, Kern Votes Against Harvey Milk Day

CONSTANCE MCMILLEN:

On the downside, this sucks that she had to do this, but on the upside, at last Constance McMillen can learn some shit in peace. The Boston Herald reports:

The lesbian teenager who sued her rural Mississippi school district over a ban of same-sex prom dates told The Associated Press on Thursday that she has transferred to a high school in the capital city to graduate.

Constance McMillen said she now attends a high school in Jackson, about 180 miles away from Itawamba Agricultural High School in north Mississippi. She wouldn’t say which school she attends, but she expects to graduate June 2.

“There was a lot of stuff going on at Itawamba. It was just really hard to do my homework, so I transferred to Jackson to get my diploma,” McMillen said. “There’s a large gay community there. All the teachers are very nice and very helpful.”

HARVEY MILK DAY:

Harvey Milk Day was voted into existence last year by a Republican governor of all things, but it still won’t be celebrated on local high school campuses. The Kern High School District Board of Trustees in California voted 3-1 Wednesday to not observe Harvey Milk Day on May 22.

Perhaps the most frustrating part of this story is how much effort it took to have happen – the day was set to proceed on its own without anyone having to take any action, and probably without any real fanfare or actual observance, but a conservative trustee made the point of proposing a vote against it. The trustee in question was the Kern County chairman for Prop 8. Charming. At a special board meeting called on Wednesday, both supporters and opponents of the holiday showed up to share their feelings, with opponents arguing that he isn’t “a good role model for students,” and that we “celebrate his lifestyle, not his achievements.” Clearly these people have not seen MILK, the man’s lifestyle WAS achievement. He’s a role model for getting shit DONE, you know what I’m saying? This exchange in particular was interesting:

“I’m going to oppose the motion [to ban Harvey Milk Day],” Heinrichs said. “I think we’re basically bringing Sacramento’s culture wars down here. I think it’s a distraction, inappropriate.”

“I’m going to support the motion, because Sacramento sends their culture wars to us,” Vegas countered. “We didn’t ask them to send it to us, they sent it to us, we’re telling them, ‘No.'”

Isn’t it horrifying what a shock it is to see someone use the words “distraction” and “inappropriate” to talk about a homophobic measure instead of, say, a GSA?

Others, notably students instead of adults in administrative positions, argued that observance of the holiday was necessary:

“I ask you to allow the students of this district to go forward with their planned celebrations of civil rights hero, Harvey Milk,” Ariel Bustamante said. The student said she had experienced harassment and discrimination, and recognition of Milk would send a positive message. A policy to ban Milk celebrations would send the wrong message. “Voting for board member Mettler’s proposal will only send a message that this board wants to create safe and accepting schools for only those students that happen to be heterosexual or not transgender,” Bustamante said.

In the end, however, the motion passed, leaving us to wonder who is a good role model in a state whose governor starred in Stepbrothers, and leaving Bustamante lamenting that students don’t have “somebody in the school that they can look up to, and relate to, so that they feel safe on campuses.” (@bakersfieldnow)

KAGAN:

We’ve reached the point of meta-commentary on Elena Kagan and her sexual orientation  – Glenn Greenwald at Slate says that the left’s obsession with Kagan’s sexuality is just as bad as the right’s. “Without realizing it, they’ve completely internalized one of the most pernicious myths long used to demand that gay people remain in the closet: namely, that to reveal one’s sexual orientation is to divulge one’s “sex life.” (@slate)

MONTGOMERY:

Montgomery College of Maryland will have an out African-American lesbian as its president starting this August. Dr. DeRionne Pollard has a three-year old son with her partner of 20 years, as well as 15 years of teaching on her resume. (@theadvocate)

PORTUGAL:

The President of Portugal, Aníbal Cavaco Silva, has signed a law that gives same-sex couples marriage-like legal rights without using the word “marriage.” He [said] that, while he is opposed to gay “marriage,” he has no problem with the idea of giving special legal privileges to homosexual couples, without calling the union “matrimony.” He lamented that a consensus had not been reached to create civil unions in a manner similar to France, Germany, and other EU countries. (@lifesitenews)

WOMEN’S COLLEGES:

Margaret Eby at Salon wrote a piece called In Defense of Women’s Colleges, and Jezebel had some feelings about it. “I’ve never attended a women’s college, but the piece reminded me of advice I’ve gotten several times in my life: that I should try to be a big fish in a small pond. Well-meaning people advised me thus when I was choosing colleges, and even when I was deciding where to live as an adult. I think the advice stemmed from the perception I was shy or anxious, and even though I am often anxious and I can be shy, I always bristled at the notion that I needed special coddling.” What do you think? If you’ve had any experience at women’s colleges, has it been positive for you? Why? (@salon) (@jezebel)

CHRISTIAN CHARITIES:

A ruling in Canada questions whether religious organizations have the right to discriminate – an employee of Christian Horizons was fired for her lesbian relationship, and her case against her employer has been through a series of appeals. “Heintz went to work for Christian Horizons in 1995, but five years later she came out as a lesbian, entered into a relationship with another woman–and was fired for doing so. Heintz took the matter to the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal, which found that Christian Horizons could not practice employment discrimination and ordered the group to pay a hefty fine. But on appeal, a higher court found that the earlier ruling was incorrect, at least in part; although the appeals court ruled that Heintz should have been able to keep her job, it also found that the lower court had not appreciated what it meant for Christian Horizons to be a faith-based charity.” (@edgeboston)

On The Upside, These Gay Kids Have Awesome Parents!

The news has been a bit depressing lately. It’s the end of the school year and apparently everyone wants to get in one last shot at the gay kids before heading off to college and becoming a LUG.

But here’s one trend that’s far from depressing: parents standing up for their gay kids! Like Cheyenne Williams’ mom (here’s the update on that case — defense is claiming it was staged), and Ceara Sturgis‘s Mom, and Constance McMillen’s parents, and Debbie Novotny! And also the woman from Prayers for Bobby and Matthew Shepard’s Mom! Maybe even your mom!

These are parents that are standing by their kids and defending their daughters, refusing to relent to bigotry or social pressure. And they’re setting a positive example for other parents who might be afraid to advocate for their parents’ rights. ‘Cause the truth is that in a year, when Ceara, Constance and Cheyenne are away at college, it’s the parents who will remain in town, bravely.

CEARA STURGIS:

Remember Ceara Sturgis, the girl who wanted to wear a tux in her yearbook and the school said no? She did get into the glaad awards in Los Angeles last week, but in what seems to be a growing trend, did not find success locally:

They didn’t even put her name in it,” Sturgis’ mother Veronica Rodriguez said. “I was so furious when she told me about it. Ceara started crying and I told her to suck it up. Is that not pathetic for them to do that? Yet again, they have crapped on her and made her feel alienated.”

Sturgis and her mother commissioned the Mississippi ACLU to protest officials’ October 2009 decision not to allow Sturgis’ photo to appear in the senior yearbook because she chose to wear a tuxedo instead of a dress.

CALIFORNIA:

The California Assembly has struck down a law equating homosexuality with child molestation. The lower house adopted a measure Monday to strike a 20-year-old line of state code that directed the Department of Mental Health to conduct research into “the causes and cures of sexual deviation” including “the causes and cures of homosexuality.”

TRANS:

A trans student was slashed in a campus bathroom at CSU Long Beach, but police took 10 days to publicize it and ask for help finding the attacker. There’s no question that this one was a hate crime: the attacker called the student by name and then slashed the word “IT” into the victim’s chest. (@presstelegram)

HOUSTON:

Lesbian is making shit HAPPEN. The Houston Police Department will allow gay and lesbian officers to march in uniform in the city’s Pride parade this June!

MURDER:

You need more terrible news, don’t you? How about the story of Jerry Lee Seger, who allegedly killed his daughter’s girlfriend. Police say he allegedly blamed 24-year-old Courtney Bright for leading his daughter down what he felt was the wrong path — including a three-year lesbian affair — strangled Bright to death and left her body in an abandoned house. The world is losing its sh*t. (@cbsnews)

THE BLADE:

The Washington Blade is back after some former staff members recently bought the rights to the name and the archives. The Blade is one of the longest-running gay publications in the US. Some staff members had kept the spirit alive after the Blade was forced to close a few months ago. They’ll publish under the old moniker again starting Friday. (@washingtonpost)

TORRIES:

Despite the efforts of the UK’s conservative party, the Tory’s gay support is dropping ahead of upcoming elections. The latest of these polls from Pink News (which has its own demographically-weighted voter panel) is showing a 30-point collapse in Tory support over the last 10 months (39% in June 2009 to 9% today) and a 38-point surge for the Liberal Democrats (20% in June 2009, 58% today). (@guardian)

GAY DOGS:

It’s not the weirdest thing we’ve read all week (I know it’s only Tuesday; it’s been a weird few days), but this is still SUPER ridiculous. A restaurant in Australia refused service to a blind customer “after staff misheard his female companion, and thought his ‘guide dog’ was a ‘gay dog.'” They’ve been ordered to pay the man for damages and apologize. But for real, these people thought the dog was gay. I don’t even understand how that’s possible. (@huffpo)

FINLAND:

Finland is expected to legalize gay marriage next year!! YAY FINLAND!

Lesbian Prom Update: Constance Suing for Damages & Westboro’s Coming to Graduation

CONSTANCE MCMILLEN:
Constance McMillen is now seeking unspecified monetary damages to compensate for “public humiliation” endured by the fake prom.  In a lawsuit filed today, the ACLU names Itawamba County school district and school officials as defendants. As you probs already know, this began when Itawamba High School canceled prom rather than allow Constance to bring her girlfriend and wear a tux.

Meanwhile, just in case Contance McMillen was only slightly unpopular rather than vehimently disliked by her asshat classmates, a facebook group has been started in response to Westboro Baptist Church’s apparent plans to picket Itawamba Agricultural High School’s graduation on May 22nd, 2010. The facebook group is trying to mobilize a counter-protest.

Surely Westboro could find a place to hang out with more than two verified lesbians present? Doesn’t Lilith Fair start in May? Here’s their explanation, which is per ush chock full of logic and sense:

WBC 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.” Leviticus 18:22. 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. The parents of Fulton, MS feign outrage that a filthy dyke wants to parade her “girlfriend” around at their night of fornication called a prom. They had a duty to teach their children what the Lord requires of them. They shirked this duty. The Lord repays them to their face by sending dykes, burning in their lusts, to tyrannize them. “For this cause God gave them up to vile affections: for even their women did change their natural use which is is against nature.” Romans 1:26

Anyhow. Um, Fred Phelps needs a new intern, ’cause from where we’re sitting it seems that the outrage from bigoted parents & students is hardly “feigned.” They’ve been pretty crystal clear about it.

Maybe we’re feeling very motherly today, but is anyone else worried that Constance is now basically totally doomed w/r/t people treating her decently at school?

Since this whole thing began, Constance has been living a double life — whereas she’s been accepted and embraced by the media and the gay media in particular, she’s still hated by her classmates. Her classmates have even attempted to “defend” their decision to dupe Constance into attending a fake prom by claiming they aren’t homophobic, it’s just that they’re sick of “Constance playing the lesbian card to prove she ALWAYS gets what she wants.”

On the other end of the affectionate scale, the gays (like us!) have been giving Constance a ton of support. In March, Constance was flown to LA to appear on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, where she was given a $30,000 check for her college education.

Earlier this week, Constance was invited to present Wanda Sykes’s award at the 21st Annual GLAAD Awards in Los Angeles, where she rubbed elbows with Adam Lambert and hung out with her guest, Ceara, who made headlines last year for protesting her school’s protest of Ceara wearing a tux in the yearbook.

On May 8th, Constance will attend a gay-friendly prom sponsored by the American Humanist Association, who began planning this event for her in March. Green Day, Lance bass and Cat Cora are among the stars financially supporting the everyone-is-welcome event in Downtown Tupelo, Mississippi.

In June, Constance McMillen will be a special guest at Memphis Gay & Lesbian Community Center’s “Prom for All” event. She’s been tapped to be Grand Marshall of the New York City Pride Parade later that month.

[We’d still just really really really would like a photo of Constance & her girlfriend going to some prom somewhere for our queer prom gallery. Like a lot.]

We’re hoping Constance can hang in there with what’s surely to be a disgruntled student body during her last month of high school! and then Constance you have to run fah fah away like Forrest Gump?

MISS AMERICA:
Miss America says there’s no reason why Miss America couldn’t be a lesbian. We’ve been totally baffled why this story is news, but the linked article at Hip-Hop Wired does actually succeed in making it relevant, therefore we are now linking to it there you go! (@hiphopwired)

BISEXUALS:
Remember when someone on the L Word [Alice? Shane?] said lesbians love to eat their own? Well so do the gay boys, obvs. Three bisexual men are suing for not being deemed “not gay enough” to play in the Gay Softball World Series, and they’re suing… (@az central)

BAIOJEZEBELGATE:
Scott Baio Defends Wife’s Anti-Lesbian Facebook Rant. Because you know, she has a lot of lesbian friends. Also, Jezebel has a timeline of Scott Baio’s online meltdown. (@huffpo, @jezebel)

TOURISM:
Mount Everest and Fiji are totally down with being hot gay vacation spots. (@the australian/radio fiji)

ADVOCATE ON-AIR:
The Advocate today premiered the second episode of its television newsmagazine: Each episode of The Advocate On-Air is dedicated to examining current news, politics, lifestyle, and cultural trends. Veteran news correspondent Thomas Roberts hosts the episode, which features interviews with newly married gay couples in our nation’s capital, James Hattori’s in-depth feature on “don’t ask, don’t tell” repeal advocate Lt. Dan Choi, Roberts’s chat with the talented and handsome Cheyenne Jackson, and a special segment with Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center CEO Lorri L. Jean, who gives her insight into Social Security discrimination. (@advocate)

REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS:
According to Newsweek, our generation doesn’t care about defending abortion rights: More than half (51 percent) of young voters (under 30) who opposed abortion rights considered it a “very important” voting issue, compared with just 26 percent of abortion-rights supporters; a similar but smaller gap existed among older voters, too. Worse still for NARAL, the millennials surveyed didn’t view abortion as an imperiled right in need of defenders. (@newsweek)

NO DAD:
Two Women Wipe Father From Their Child’s Birth Certificate (@momlogic)

CENSORSHIP: Networks Ban Plus-Size Ad – “While Victoria’s Secret Angels are clearly fine to prance around the networks, the commercial for Lane Bryant’s new lingerie line has been turned down. The company is pissed — and it’s openly saying so.” (@jezebel) UPDATE: APPARENTLY IT WAS DUE TO A COPYRIGHT ISSUE, NOT THE CONTENT OFT THE AD.

HEADACHES:
Woman With A Migraine Ends Up With A Chinese Accent – “”The first few weeks of the accent was quite funny but to think I am stuck with this Chinese accent is getting me down. My voice has started to annoy me now. It is not my voice.”” (@msn)

RELIGION: Sikhism and it’s Progressive Feminist Beginnings – “A principle of Sikhism not to engage in missionary work and by writing this blog post I would like to make it clear from the outset that I am not trying to convert anyone, but simply want to explore the situation of women who belong to the Sikh religion.” HELLO! A religion that doesn’t allow anyone to evangelize! If that doesn’t make you want to read this article, you’ll just have to believe me when I say it’s fascinating. (@the f word)

GLAAD Awards 2010: Famous Lesbians With Unexpected Dates. Also, Adam Lambert.

Last night, Saturday April 17th, all the gaystars & allies came out for the 2010 21st annual GLAAD Media Awards in Los Angeles, California, hosted by Rickie Vasquez and Candis Cayne. Adam Lambert performed. Autostraddle.com sent Nat Garcia & Wingspan Pictures to the star-studded event and we’ll have their red carpet report for you later this week. In the meantime, we have web scavenger hunt coverage! (more…)

We Love Tina Fey’s Sarah Palin Impression More Than Anyone Loves Sarah Palin

Everyone Loves Tina Fey As Sarah Palin, Kittens:

Tina Fey returned to Saturday Night Live last night for some more Sarah Palin tomfoolery. In the skit Tina Fey parodied Sarah Palin’s ubiquitous media presence and alleged popularity AND Oprah’s new media ventures with a little something called “The Sarah Palin Network.”

Obviously this is a big deal, because 10 out of 10 Obama voters la-la-la-love themselves a good Tina Fey as Sarah Palin moment. I mean, we REALLY love it.

Do you know what I mean? Okay, well, let’s make an infographic to explain it for you:

Gawker noticed a CBS poll which revealed that all this Sarah Palin 2012 stuff might be sort of silly after all, because no one really likes her all that much anyhow. Only 24% of Americans view Sarah Palin favorably and 38 per cent view her unfavorably. Furthermore 43% of Republicans view Sarah Palin favorably. Granted that’s a lot of people, but it’s not nearly as many people who enjoy Tina Fey making fun of Sarah Palin, and surely that counts for something.

PALIN/BACHMANN:
The title of this article made me LOL for real. Palin and Bachmann Begin Whirlwind Love Affair at Rally – really, this is what Sunday Funday is about. “After their breathy first encounter, Bachmann could not help but point out just how beautiful Sister Sarah was by stating “And as absolutely drop dead gorgeous this woman is on the outside, I’m here to testify that she is 20 times more beautiful on the inside.” It must have been quite a good look to know that Palin is twenty times more beautiful inside than out… The love fest did not end there, of course, Bachmann, her hand on the small of Palin’s back, helped the former governor of Alaska get up there on the podium and raise her arms in joy.” (@lezgetreal)

GAGA:
There is so much Lady Gaga content on the internet today it’s not even funny. First there’s this article at the Daily Mail which is kind of weird in and of itself b/c they call her “lippy” and spend the first three paragraphs talking about her hair, but is awesome once they actually let Lady Gaga talk. It’s mostly an interview concerning Gaga’s campaign with MAC against AIDS, so a lot of the quotage involves The Sex: “‘I remember the cool girls when I was growing up. Everyone started to have sex. But it’s not really cool any more to have sex all the time. It’s cooler to be strong and independent… Something I do want to celebrate with my fans is that it’s OK to be whomever it is that you want to be. You don’t have to have sex to feel good about yourself, and if you’re not ready, don’t do it... I’m single right now and I’ve chosen to be single because I don’t have the time to get to know anybody. So it’s OK not to have sex, it’s OK to get to know people. I’m celibate, celibacy’s fine.”

She helpfully adds that if you are ready for sex, there are free condoms available at the end of her concerts. And don’t worry, actual AIDS concerns were addressed too: “‘The rate of infection worldwide is higher than ever for women in our particular demographic,’ says Gaga. ‘Those most at risk are women in my age bracket, 17 to 24 [she is 24], and Cyndi’s, which is 38 to 60 [Cyndi is 56]… This is a disease that affects everyone, not just the gay community, and right now it’s mostly affecting women.” (@dailymail)

Also, also, I’m not even really sure how to feel about this, but an apparent Gaga fan managed to get onto the crew for putting together her dressing room at a show in Wollongong, Australia, and documented the entire experience and also all of her stuff in extreme stalkerish detail, including, um, which of her wardrobe items he got to touch, like “a cream baseball jersey with spikes all over it. (I recognised it and found a picture when I got home)”

The original post at ONTD is no longer entirely public, but Gawker has reposted the content. Check it out if you need to know what color couches Gaga puts in her dressing room and/or her assistant’s names. (@gawker)

PROM:
The people over in Itawamba County have got to start feeling stupid at some point, because I swear to God every single gay celebrity in America has offered Constance McMillen her own prom by now. “Former ‘N Sync member Lance Bass will join celebrity chef Cat Cora and members of Green Day in sponsoring a gay-friendly prom in Mississippi after a lesbian teen was duped into attending a “fake prom” earlier this month. The Tupelo, Miss. event, scheduled for May 8, is being organized by the Mississippi Safe Schools Coalition and is open to all students, regardless of sexual orientation.” Maybe they can get SamRo to DJ! Riese thinks she’s really hot, you guys. (@theadvocate)

Guess what though? The same thing happened to an African-American girl in Birmingham… in 1965. My how far we haven’t come:

It was reminiscent of a story told by The Birmingham News about what happened in the spring of 1965 to the first African-American girl to integrate Jones Valley High School in that town:

“(Carolyn King) spent all Saturday getting ready, fixing her hair, slipping into the pink floral dress her mother finished the week before. … She and her date drove … toward the high school gym. They turned the corner. The gymnasium was dark, empty … White mothers of the prom planners had kept the location of the Jones Valley High prom a secret so she couldn’t attend.”

NEWSIES:
OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG: Newsies may hit Broadway! (@jezebel)

GAY CARS:
The New York Auto Show: Selling Otherwise Straight Cars to Gay People: “Isn’t it what we’ve been fighting for, all these years? With Stonewall and Silence = Death and rioting on Fifth Avenue a week after Matthew Shepard was murdered—weren’t we just demanding the right to be treated like any other schmuck with a buck in this country?” (@awl)

GAY PRIEST:
A gay Episcopal priest is one of the four in the running to become the 11th bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Utah. If he wins, this will be the gayest thing to happen to Utah since Joe Pitt in Angels in America. (@localnews8)

COLLEGE:
The newest student body president of the University of Michigan is gay, which seemed to be merely pretty cool until it turned out he’s actually going to address a lot of gay issues for students on campus. “Armstrong campaigned on pressing U-M’s administration for gender-neutral housing options that would allow students to choose opposite-sex roommates, rather than always pairing males and females with others of their own gender. It’s an issue he said would appeal to many students, including those who are transgendered and may feel uncomfortable rooming with someone of the same sex.” (@freep)

And hey, speaking of queers in college, have you submitted to OUTmedia and Campus Pride’s “Be Queer, Buy Queer” video contest yet? There are sweet prizes and also you’ll have something cool to show your mom, she’ll be really proud of you I bet!

WORKOUT:
Jackie Warner on her new book, her new show Thintervention, and the scandal that rocked Workout. (@advocate)

JON STEWART:
Jon Stewart tries to teach Mike Huckabee a thing or two about gay marriage. (@phb)

VANESSA HUDGENS:
Queerty thinks there’s a legitimate chance that Vanessa Hudgens (of High School Musical) could become a young gay icon with her role as Mimi in Neil Patrick Harris’s production of Rent. I don’t really know about that, but then again Miley Cyrus was in Palm Springs during Dinah Shore Weekend so maybe these kids really are posed to win over our gay hearts, I dunno. On the other hand, Mimi is not gay, so wtf. (@queerty)

TILA:
Oh hey Tila Tequila did something crazy and dumb. This time it was shoplifting. Eh eh there’s nothing more I can say.

Supreme Court Justice Stevens Retiring; What Happens to the Gays?

SUPREME COURT:
Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens announced his retirement yesterday by sending a letter to President Obama. At 89, he is the oldest member of the court. In case you aren’t aware, THIS IS A BIG EFFING DEAL. This means that Obama gets to appoint another justice, and that fight will probably take up most/all of his time this summer. You might remember the huge fight over Sonia Sotomayor? This probably won’t be as rough because of the Democratic Senate majority, but it certainly won’t be easy, either.

This vacancy on the court comes at a crucial time for gay rights supporters. The Proposition 8 trial is in the federal court system now, and it could reach the Supreme Court in the next few years. What does this mean for gay rights? It’s hard to tell. Stevens was generally in our corner, but Obama might find someone who is even more solidly pro gay rights.

And what kind of legacy will Stevens leave? It’s a bit hard to categorize him, as he is mostly known for being fiercely independent and somewhat idiosyncratic. The press right now is labeling him as a liberal leader on the court, but Newsweek has a more detailed analysis of his conservative and liberal sides.

The prevailing view is that “there really were two Justice Stevenses,” as Richard Fallon, a constitutional law professor at Harvard Law School, recently told Business Week: one who was “a somewhat iconoclastic moderate” and another who was a “great liberal voice.” But ultimately Stevens’s shifting status has less to do with changes in his judicial philosophy than with changes in the court. While it moved right, he stayed put. As a result, he has played a key role in defining what it means to be a liberal on the court in post-Reagan America–even though he isn’t really a liberal himself.

In his time on the Court, Stevens had a hand in a lot of important cases. He was known as a champion for womens’ rights (he voted to uphold Roe v. Wade), as well as for gay rights (he was a key figure in Lawrence v. Texas, which struck down sodomy laws).

Here’s what Obama had to say about picking Stevens’ successor: “I’ll seek someone in the coming weeks with similar qualities: an independent mind, a record of excellence and integrity, a fierce dedication to the rule of law and a keen understanding of how the law affects the daily lives of the American people. It will also be someone who, like Justice Stevens, knows that in democracy powerful interests must not be allowed to drown out the voices of ordinary citizens.”

As far as possible nominees, it’s difficult to say who is on Obama’s short list, but the Washington Post has a series of profiles on potential candidates. These top three are probably the most likely, but the others could also end up on the list:

+ Judge Merrick Garland: he’d be easy to confirm, but he’s a white dude who is less liberal than Stevens

+ Solicitor General Elana Kagan: she would most likely shift the court to the right

+ Judge Diane Wood: described by conservatives as “extremely pro-abortion”

+ Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano: she took some heat about her comments on the Christmas Day airplane bombing

+ Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm: campaigned with Obama in 2008

+ Leah Ward Sears: she was the first black woman to head a state Supreme Court, and she would be the first one to sit on the U.S. Supreme Court

+ Judge Ruben Castillo

+ Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse

+ Calif. Supreme Court Justice Carlos Moreno: he voted against Prop 8 in the California Supreme Court trial

+ Gov. Deval Patrick: they say he’s good on civil rights, and he’d be the second black man on the Court He announced today he didn’t want to be considered.

+ Sen. Amy Klobuchar

Here’s a bunch more links so you can sound really smart when people bring this up at dinner!

+ The basic news: Justice Stevens to Retire From Supreme Court (@wapo)

+ On nominees: Potential Obama Nominees for Supreme Court (@houstonchronicle)

+ Looking back: Farewell to Justice Stevens From Those Who Knew Him Well (@wapo)

+ On confirmation hearings: How Replacing John Paul Stevens Could Get Interesting (@time)

+ Some general stuff: Four Enduring Myths About Supreme Court Nominees (@time)

GAY PAPER:
The Southern Voice will reopen next week. The long-time, Atlanta-based gay publication shut down last year when publisher Window Media filed for bankruptcy. New owner Matt Neumann, publisher of Gaydar Magazine LLC, tells The Atlanta Journal-Constitution he’s going to start publishing the newspaper again Wednesday. (@walb)

CONSTANCE:
Constance McMillen will get a second shot at prom. She will be attending a dance put on by the National Center for Lesbian Rights in San Francisco in May, which apparently is a lot like a gay prom for grownups. Seriously, someone needs to take a PHOTO of this and then send it to us. (@ap)

DOMA:
A court date has been set in a trial testing the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act. Arguments will begin on May 6. Probs we will liveblog that ish, so watch out! (@advocate)

SEX TAPE:
A gay Indian professor killed himself after students filmed him having sex.

Srinivas Ramchander Siras, professor of modern languages at Aligarh Muslim University, was suspended from his job “on moral grounds” and evicted from his college accommodation after students broke in and filmed him with his partner.

He was expected to return to his job later this month after the Allahabad High Court revoked his suspension and ordered him to be reinstated at a hearing last week.

Some people are debating the suicide part and are arguing that students and some administrators drove the man to his death. (@telegraph)

Constance McMillen Fake Prom 2010 Student Rebuttal: Bigotry or Bullying? (Yes. Both.)

Constance McMillen Prom Fiasco – Welcome to the Dollhouse:

More fallout from Constance’s prom fiasco. A student from IAHS wrote a nasty Open Letter about the fake prom debacle, and it’s official, Constance McMillen Promgate 2010 has hit an all time low.

A classmate published this to defend the student body’s actions when they scheduled a prom for themselves and deliberately sent Constance elsewhere with five other kids (the **open minded readers only** disclaimer is the author’s, not our own, FYI):

**Open Minded Readers Only**

I am a senior at IAHS, and I’ve known Constance for the last 6 years. Please hear our side of the story before you decide on our fate.
The party we had in Evergreen (the county neighborhood I live in) is 30 mins away from the school. we rented out the community center, hired vendors, decorated, and our parents ran the security/chaperone staff- but it wasn’t prom. Prom was at the country club where constance and 7 other students were. The reason the senior class boycotted the actual prom was not because we hate gays.

We wanted a drama-free gathering to celebrate 3 great years and 1 lousy one together, and we wanted to lay low. We also wanted to do it without the main cause of the lousy. What people are failing to realize is that much of the fault of this whole stink lies with Constance, not her mistreatment by the school district, but her crazy-reckless need for attention. It sounds mean and horrible and like we planned it all specifically to embarrass Constance, but we didn’t. We let her have her prom with her girlfriend and her tuxedo and we went to party it up in the “boondocks” not because we wanted her rights violated, but so we could salvage what has turned into a total fiasco.

As a whole we didn’t support her decision to throw the district under the bus, or her insinuations that we’re all just a bunch ‘a hicks driving around in beater pick up trucks spitting tobacco and burning crosses. IAHS is one of the top schools in the state and I’m proud of that, and I’m proud that we took a stand and just said you know what? forget it, we have just as much right as you do to have a party for ourselves. So we did, and now we’re getting flack because poor Connie’s ego got a bit of bruising. She’s playing the lesbian card to prove she ALWAYS gets what she wants. This time, we didn’t just let her.

Take it as you will, because I’m sure it sounds like we faked her out, but understand this- the decision NOT to attend prom had nothing to do with the school or with Constance’s sexual preferences; it had everything to do with proving we weren’t going to let her and the ACLU steamroll us into doing what Constance wanted. We flexed the muscle of the majority and we’ll suffer the consequences.

DISCLAIMER PLEASE READ:

Obvs this gross letter by a classmate of Constance’s gave us a lot of feelings and so we wrote about it below. We got some pretty nasty comments about our feelings, which follow, so please read it thoroughly before commenting.

Following the mercilessly cruel and parentally-enabled actions of Constance’s classmates this weekend and the aforementioned despicable and hate-filled letter written by a fellow classmate, a few of us here started discussing our own confusion about the student body’s absolute depravity, as well as the fact that none of her friends stuck up for her and why none of her enemies spoke to the press and how anyone could start the “Constance Quit Your Whinin'” Facebook group. Could kids and parents really be this homophobic? Where were the gay haters with their anti-gay religious signs? There were also questions raised by us, and the press, as to why Constance didn’t talk about her mom being gay more often (she mentioned it once, quickly, in a radio interview).

The Constance conversation seemed notably absent of religious rhetoric, which is unusual for a case like this. Is it productive for us to blame homophobia for 100% of the actions happening here? Does that get at the root of the problem and help us combat it in the future? We suggest that it does not. This is also about being a teenager and bullying, just as the DADT discharge of Jene Newsome by some asshole cops was not just about homophobia — it was also, to a large degree, about racism — Constance’s situation is not just about homophobia, it’s about bullying and the cruelty of teenagers, and how homophobia is such an essential element of teenage bullying these days.

90% of LGBT students have been harassed in school based on their perceived sexual orientation. Yet 60% of teenagers support gay rights and gay marriage rights. This disparity is worth our attention.

We believe that we can ask these questions and that it’s responsible to ask these questions and that asking them does not negate or even challenge our absolute empathy for and support of Constance, as has been expressed in all our coverage of this so far.

We wrote this under the assumption that we all know here that we’re on Constance’s side. OBVIOUSLY M*THERF*CKERS!! OBVIOUSLY?!! Hello! Guess who we were in high school? YAAH! We were the ‘uppity feminazis’ who got eyerolls every time we raised our hands! Words like ‘feminazi’ are not words we endorse, they are words volleyed against us.

We aren’t victim-blaming! As gay press, I think when people are homophobic against us, we need to fully understand the root of the issue in order to combat it properly and strategize for a more harmonious future!

OK, let’s begin! This is our response to the student open letter:

You know what this feels like to me? I just think that for whatever [ridiculous] reason, most of Constance’s peers found her personality annoying. Constance was unpopular. And not in a quiet, unassuming reject way — Constance is not Allison in The Breakfast Club or even Dawn Weiner in Welcome to the Dollhouse or even Fern Mayo in Jawbreaker. She is disliked in a catty, teenaged way, and her queerness just makes it that much easier to ridicule her. Constance is more of a Rachel Berry or Tracy Flick, you follow?

Sure, many of them probably disliked her specifically for being gay, or suspected her of being a ‘pushy feminazi’ because her mom was gay. The Student Rebuttal loathes “Connie”‘s personality way more than her homosexuality, but damn if that ain’t convenient ’cause her church doesn’t like homos either. The students couldn’t even resist the chance to make fun of the special needs kids by sending them away from their own prom, and it’s not ’cause G-d thinks the special needs kids are sinners, it’s ’cause kids are assholes.

The Facebook group Constance Quit Your Whinin’? That wasn’t started by kids who started disliking her the moment prom got canceled. That was started by kids who disliked her already. If Constance was the most popular girl in school, the kids would’ve rallied against the school administration (kids are always more likely to rebel against authority figures than each other), but she wasn’t. This whole story started way before the ACLU showed up. It makes Constance’s strength even more admirable.

We wondered how on earth a story like this could erupt with no one from the other side wanting to speak to the press. That was one of our questions. We think we get it now: they didn’t speak out because they truly felt Constance was doing it for attention and didn’t want to show they fell for the drama by getting on TV or calling the newspaper. [ETA: Of course, students are desperately wrong to interpret activism as drama, this essay is an explanation/speculation, not a defense]

These kids had already decided that was how Constance usually did act, and this time her actions put a mean spotlight on them — bonus! church hates gays — and so they saved their biggest senior prank for Constance. The students didn’t run from the press, they rolled their eyes and walked the other way. They’re annoyed that they can’t embarrass her so much that she’ll stop telling people about it, that she prefers speaking out to being shamed when they try to shame and silence her. That’s the kind of cruelty we’ve been witnessing — bullying.

To these kids, Constance is the angry feminist lesbian their parents warned them about. She seems quite lovely to us, obvi. Teenage groupthink is merciless. Personality is important. Would this have happened if Constance was the most popular girl in school? If you think the answer to that is “no,” then you have just opened a door worth walking into. We’ve seen how differently America reacts to Rosie O’Donnell vs. Ellen DeGeneres, yes? We fucking love the hell out of both of those women (I prefer Rosie, ’cause she yells more, but that’s just me), but America doesn’t. These are worthwhile conversations to have.

Why was Constance kinda on the DL about her mom being gay (or “being ignored by the gay media” according to this article) — only mentioning it really in a radio interview most news outlets didn’t bother to listen to? Maybe Constance wasn’t sure that she wanted us to know. We are wondering if Constance’s peers had accused her of being attention-seeking from the get-go because all the moms who knew Constance’s mom told their sons and daughters to avoid Constance’s Mom’s daughter. Maybe it wasn’t the press that downplayed it. It was Constance. She said it once, on the radio. Her mom wasn’t at the Ellen taping, as far as we know. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think Constance has never mentioned her mom specifically, only her dad or her ‘parents.’ Maybe Constance was afraid that having a gay Mom would open her up for more ridicule, and she’d be taken less seriously. If so, that’s a problem, and we need to talk about that!

I mean, I have a lesbian mom, and it took me three years to tell a friend that my mom was gay for the first time. I did it because he was my best friend, and he asked me the night before he met her if she’d dislike him because he was gay. His own parents didn’t know, after all. And I laughed and wondered what would happen if I opened my mouth and told him the truth, and then I did. It was snowing; we were walking outside. He held my hand and we kept on walking until we reached a building, and he opened the door and we walked in. Life kept on going, after all. That might have been the only time it didn’t feel slightly awkward. After that, though, I told everyone.

Even now, (as far as I can remember) I’ve never mentioned my mom’s sexuality in a serious context; it’s always a throwaway line unless it’s part of an emotional essay of some sort. But in general I only let it come up as a joke. Except I guess those few sentences up there in that paragraph before the one you’re reading now.

And I didn’t feel comfortable identifying publicly as queer until I felt I was old enough and far enough from home that my sexuality and reputation would have nothing to do with hers. I also, somehow, didn’t want to play into that conservative fear-mongering concept that gay parents make gay kids.

See when I was younger, I couldn’t get this image out of my head from a bad talk show I saw in the late ’80s or early ’90s, where a few kids with gay parents were there to discuss if their parents had turned them gay or not. It turned out that SURPRISE THANK YOU PHIL DONAHUE most of these kids had indeed been turned gay by their parents. This was like a different time when people wanted to believe that Evil Gays Recruit Recruit Recruit so they produced this kind of propaganda (like this talk show) to ensure it. Before I knew that stuff wasn’t true I had to consider that it was true. And it scared me.

I don’t think these kids only hate her for her homosexuality, though they might hate homosexuality more than normal because they hate her, like how kids make fun of an annoying kid for being a redhead not b/c they necessarily hate redheads, but because they hate that kid, and use his redheadedness as yet another tool from which to craft their oh-so-clever bullying. There is more at work here than just homophobia, I think. When the school canceled prom, the students should’ve rallied behind Constance and made the school change their mind. Instead, they decided to make their own prom without her so-called “drama” and blamed Constance, not the school.

And the parents? Well, chances are they just really do hate gay people. Just enough to do this, and to endorse their children’s grotesque cruelty.

GAY PARENTS:
Speaking of gay parents, here’s a college English essay written in defense of gay parenting. (@dallasvoice)

As the child of a gay father myself, I know personally what it’s like to be worried about someone finding out that my family is different. I feared that if my friends found out my dad was gay, they wouldn’t want to talk to me anymore and would probably tease me and think I was a lesbian.

Children who grow up with a gay parent are inevitably going to be judged and ridiculed at some point in their life because of their parent’s sexual orientation. However, I believe this helps us to grow up as stronger and more tolerant individuals.

BEAUTY AND BASKETBALL:
The New York Times says Baylor University basketball play Brittney Griner is revolutionizing beauty, but Jezebel calls bullshit. “Though the piece does acknowledge that most web chatter is devoted to speculating about whether or not the teen is a lesbian or, indeed, a man. How to work around this? With “beauty arbiters” giving half-hearted endorsements!”

VISIBILITY:
Knockout Homophobia, a campaign to raise awareness about us [us being gays], is in the running to win a grant from Pepsi’s refresh project. You can vote now and every day in April!

BOLLYWOOD:
Actress Celina Jailtey has urged her followers on twitter to boycott Bombay Gymkhana after the club asked a well-known transgender activist to leave. “Apparently it is the same club where during the British rule it used to be written outside “Indians and dogs not allowed.” (@indiainfo)

COPING:

Racism can lead to depression: a new study finds that those who deny or ignore their experiences of discrimination are likely to suffer from anxiety and depression. (@science daily)

CHIEF:
Cherokee Leader Wilma Mankiller dies. Mankiller was the first female leader of the Cherokee Nation and was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in 1993. (@cnn)

SEX SHAKE DOWN:

Yale bans sex between professors and students, and the writers at Salon wonder if the administration is overstepping their bounds.

Constance McMillen Sent to Fake Prom, Itawamba Students Aren’t All That

CONSTANCE MCMILLEN:

So the Constance McMillen prom saga took an even more disappointing turn this weekend. Apparently, McMillen, her date, and five other students were directed to a fake prom. No, I’m not kidding, and this isn’t some terrible Lifetime movie, it’s real. After a judge ruled that McMillen could bring her date to the prom run by parents, that even was canceled and then Constance was directed a fake prom event at a country club while the rest of her classmates were enjoying themselves at their own prom, which was organized by parents. Constance’s prom enjoyed an attendance of seven students, two of which had “learning disabilities.” And g-damn if there’s anyone in high school who gets bullied and made fun of more than the learning disabled kids, we don’t even know.

Basically, everyone at this high school — students and adults alike — worked together to pull of this giant act of discrimination, even after they were told their actions were inappropriate and against the law. It’s kind of unbelievable that this scheme even worked. Either way, Constance has once again come out on top. Check out her reaction to the whole thing:

Two students with learning difficulties were among the seven people at the country club event, McMillen recalls. “They had the time of their lives,” McMillen says. “That’s the one good thing that come out of this, [these kids] didn’t have to worry about people making fun of them [at their prom].” (@huffpo)

If all this sh*t had happened to me when I was in high school, I probably would have dropped out and locked myself in my room for a few months. She has been super brave and mature about this whole debacle. So way to go Constance.

And she was only at this fake prom thing for like an hour, I guess, but I hope she still took a photo of her and her date in their dresses to add to our queer prom photo gallery. Did you guys know Ariel Schrag is in there now? ‘Cause she is.

Meanwhile… RENWL wrote a little article about a commenter who claims everything Constance is saying was made up. This is interesting and hopefully not true. [ETA: we reprinted a piece of that article here and asked you (our readers) if you felt it was irresponsible to include it, due to its total lack of reliability. The verdict was “yes, it is irresponsible to include it.” So we have deleted it, but wanted to give you the heads-up so you understand the comments about it.]

VADGE:
Sisters Talk wants to talk about when gay men make jokes about vaginas and how they smell/taste/whatever. What’s up with that?

I’m so fed up with this kind of sexist and hateful running off-of-the-mouth, especially from a group of people who – in my opinion – make jokes about a woman’s vagina just to prove they’re gay.   A friend of mine once suggested that gay men who repeatedly make jokes about a woman’s vagina do so because they feel the need to justify  why they’re gay.

JOBS:
The amount of unpaid internships offered every year has ballooned since the recession, for rather obvious reasons, right? People hardly have enough money to buy Starbucks, let alone to pay some kid to go get it for them. This system has worked out really well for employers, who suggest a resume line and a reference is payment enough. But now government officials are cracking down because many of these companies could be violating minimum wage laws. What we really like about this article is what it says about how this system has an inherent class bias:

While many colleges are accepting more moderate- and low-income students to increase economic mobility, many students and administrators complain that the growth in unpaid internships undercuts that effort by favoring well-to-do and well-connected students, speeding their climb up the career ladder.

Many less affluent students say they cannot afford to spend their summers at unpaid internships, and in any case, they often do not have an uncle or family golf buddy who can connect them to a prestigious internship.

SUPREME COURT:
Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens may retire soon, which would mean Obama gets the chance to appoint another justice. Here’s a breakdown of the top three candidates for the spot, should it open up. (@365gay)

STANFORD:
Is Stanford for real the most stressful U.S. university? GOOD isn’t so sure. We should probs ask Intern Zahra, she seems to enjoy it. Also, Stanford has maybe the most beautiful campus that has ever existed. I’m just throwing that out there. (@good)

IOWA:
It’s been a year since Iowa legalized gay marriage. How are things going? Well there has been no serious move to overturn the ruling. But that could change this fall after elections.

November’s legislative elections will provide an unofficial test for the court’s ruling. Moves to support or block gay marriage are contingent upon one party having significant weight in both houses of the Iowa Legislature.

“As it stands today, we have a fair-minded majority in both the Iowa House and the Iowa Senate,” said Brad Clark, a campaign manager with gay-rights group One Iowa. “A significant number of those seats are up in November … We have our work cut out for us to protect this majority.”

LAMBDA:
Lambda Legal is looking for people who have experienced discrimination in health care because of HIV/AIDS. Looks like these stories would mostly be for educational purposes. Go share your story if you have one! (@lambdalegal)

DADT:
By now, you probs know a lot about the sometimes contradictory enforcement of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. Here’s yet another story about how the military picks and chooses it’s battles w/r/t this policy. Air Force Lt. Robin Chaurasiya has decided to officially come out to her superiors because she’s tired of hiding who she is. But the Air Force has decided not to discharge her, which they can do because of this one rule that makes exceptions in DADT enforcement for service members who come out as a way to be discharged. As the Chicago Tribune blogger points out:

And while Chaurasiya’s case is not a raging injustice — she did get a ROTC scholarship and she is being allowed to serve openly as a lesbian— it does illustrate the absurd and arbitrary nature of the military’s policy toward gay people.

The law says, “the presence in the armed forces of persons who demonstrate a propensity or intent to engage in homosexual acts . . . create(s) an unacceptable risk to the high standards of morale, good order and discipline, and unit cohesion that are the essence of military capability.”

Though sometimes, apparently, it doesn’t.

The exceptions prove the rule is ridiculous.

Judge Rules: Miss. School Violated Lesbian’s Rights, But Won’t Force Prom

Constance with her family and girlfriend

THE ART OF LOSING YOUR PROM IS NOT HARD TO MASTER:
The Judge made his ruling in the case of Constance McMillen and both sides are satisfied with the verdict.

A Mississippi school district violated a lesbian student’s rights by banning her from bringing her girlfriend to the prom, a federal judge ruled Tuesday, but he stopped short of forcing the district to hold the event.

U.S. District Judge Glen H. Davidson denied an American Civil Liberties Union request for a preliminary injunction that would have forced the Itawamba County school district to sponsor the April 2 prom and allow Constance McMillen to escort her girlfriend and wear a tuxedo.

Davidson did say he will hold a trial on the issue later, but he did not set a date and any ruling would likely come too late to force the district to hold the prom when it was originally scheduled.

Davidson’s order says the district violated McMillen’s constitutional rights by denying her request to bring her girlfriend and wear a tuxedo, and ACLU Mississippi legal director Kristy Bennett called that a victory.

She said Davidson’s order allows McMillen to amend her petition within 30 days, meaning she could sue for damages because she couldn’t get the prom reinstated.

The article also mentions that Constance has kept her 16-year-old girlfriend out of the spotlight at the girl’s parents request. We hope she gets to go to the private prom so that she can be in our prom gallery and be as cute as these kids:

DAN CHOI:
Dan Choi did an interview with Newsweek following his arrest and short stint in jail for handcuffing himself to the White House fence. I continue to be impressed by him every time he talks. He also calls out the HRC and Joe Solmonese:

Why now? Because you get tired of talking. [Over the past two years] I’ve done 50 live interviews, a hundred other interviews, how much more talk am I expected to produce? When I heard Kathy Griffin was going to be a spokeswoman for Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, I wondered about that. I have great respect for her as an advocate. But if [the Human Rights Campaign] thinks that having a rally at Freedom Plaza with a comedienne is the right approach, I have to wonder. Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell is not a joking matter to me. To be at Freedom Plaza and not at the White House or Congress? Who are they trying to influence? I felt like they were just trying to speak to themselves. If that’s the best the lobbying groups and HRC can do, then I don’t know how these powerful groups are supposed to represent our community. Kathy Griffin and [HRC president] Joe Solmonese said they would march with me to the White House but didn’t. I feel so betrayed by them. (@newsweek)

PROP 8:
Judge Vaughn Walker, of Prop 8 trial fame, has ruled that Prop 8 opponents must release their internal memos and emails to the lawyers fighting to uphold the ban on gay marriage. The ruling could prolong the trial even more. Judge Walker postponed closing arguments because he wanted to go through the evidence. The defense lawyers now have until April 12 to submit new evidence for consideration, so it will probably be a few more months before we get this trial resolved. (@ap)

MARRIAGE:
Let California Ring, a group led by the Equality California Institute, took a comprehensive look at research on same-sex marriage campaigns and just released a report on their findings. Download the report, it’s worth a read. It mostly talks about what strategies are most effective in winning people over for marriage equality. It says some stuff we already knew (such as, personal conversation about your life and being gay is the most effective way to change minds or being out isn’t quite enough), and some stuff we didn’t know (it recommends talking about “fairness” instead of “equality” because more people are down with that).

If you want, you can also give EQCAI some feedback with this form, or you can join them at one of the roundtables they’re having (one is online on Thursday).

MALAWI:
A judge has ruled that there will be a trial in the case of two men arrested for “gross indecency” after they got engaged in Malawi. They have now spent almost three months in custody in what is being seen as a test case for gay rights in Malawi. The judge said a full trial would proceed in April. Homosexual acts carry a maximum prison sentence of 14 years. (@bbcnews)

ADOPTION:
The city commission of West Palm Beach has voted to overturn Florida’s ban on gay adoption. (@palmbeachpost)

Coming Soon: Constance on Ellen, Real L Word, Chloe’s Lesbian Sex Scene, Glambert & Gaga Together?

CAT CORA & ELLEN DEGENERES & CONSTANCE MCMILLAN:
Cat Cora & Ellen DeGeneres are the latest celebs to speak out in support of Constance McMillan. Ellen will be having Constance on her show on Friday and and Cat Cora told the press:

“I was that girl from Mississippi one time,” the Wingfield High School graduate (Chef Cora) said. “I hate seeing things that reinforce negative attitudes about Mississippi like this.” Cora was in Washington last week cooking dinner for President Obama and the Greek prime minister. She said she would like to make a personal appearance at the prom. “This is the 21st century. This is a time for us to unite and support each other,” she said. “This isn’t just for (McMillen’s) civil rights. This is for all Americans’ civil rights, whether they know it or not.”

Ellen DeGeneres announced on Twitter:

THE REAL L WORD:
Buckle up for this (potential) train wreck: The Real L Word is set to debut on Showtime on Sunday, June 20 at 10 p.m. (@latimes)

GLAMBERT & GAGA:
Clearly it’s too good/strange to be true, which is why everyone is doubting the recent announcement made by Entrepreneur Luke Loy that Adam Lambert & Lady Gaga will be performing together at a launch party for his new product line, Leias Hair Care, in Jefferson City, West Virginia, on April 24th.

Loy, who sounds in his quotes like a delusional idiot, says he was able to book Gaga & Lambert through J&L Entertainment and Tri-State Promotions and that they have booked thet park for a week to set up “sound” and “lighting.” The local paper has been unable to get confirmation from Gaga or Glambert’s people, and says that Loy has refused to publish proof (such as contracts) because there are bank routing numbers on the papers. And “blur” and “whiteout” and “masking tape” have not been invented yet apparently.

However, Gaga is not scheduled to perform anywhere else on April 24th as far as we can tell, so who knows?

The town’s parks & rec department website is written almost completely in Comic Sans and Papyrus and the haircare site where tickets will allegedly be sold currently sports a “mountain range” header.

ETA: According to commenter Quinn, Glambert is already scheduled to perform in London on April 24th. HMMMM.

Also speaking of Gaga; check out ‘Telephone’ Director Takes It Frame By Frame.

LESBIAN SCI-FI:
Twenty years ago the choice to have a lesbian lead would’ve been greatly deliberated. Not anymore. For director Clay Liford, it wasn’t a choice made in the writing room, but during casting — unable to find the right man for the lead role in his sci-fi film Earthling; he cast a woman, swapped the sexuality of the other romantic lead and went boldly onwards. (Interesting ’cause The L Word‘s original name was Earthlings) Sounds like a fun movie! (@queerty)

JOHNNY WEIR:
In a new Advocate piece titled The Trouble With Johnny Weir, writer Andrew Harmon details his repeated failed attempts at getting an interview with Johnny Weir despite getting quite a few text messages and examines his life & career:

“There are many people who see Weir as a hangnail to be picked at and ripped off. Their reasoning isn’t easily teased apart: Weir’s diva sensibility and annoying coyness about his sexuality are matched only by his exquisite narcissism. I’m continually impressed by how he infuriates detractors — gay or straight, skating fan or foe — on so many levels, though my current frustration with him doesn’t quite match their rage.” (@advocate)

TINA FEY: Tina Fey’s Night Out with Esquire: “I got an e-mail [from Esquire] with a list of the potential setups, and my e-mail back was like, Well, I need to decline being handcuffed to a bed. I won’t straddle anyone. I won’t make out with a cop. There are certain things, I totally get them as a premise. And they’re all good fun, and if I were a young single model, they would be appropriate, but, you know, I’m a mom. And my kid’s going to find this someday. I don’t want to be handcuffed to a bed in Esquire. What are you nuts? I’m not going to make out with a cop that I’m handcuffed to. I got to get my kid into kindergarten.” (@esquire)

JULIANNE MOORE / AMANDA SEYFRIED:
In gay-for-pay news, Julianne Moore and Amanda Seyfried talk about their sex scene in the upcoming film Chloe.

Seyfried says: “The risk factor came with the fact that the nudity could potentially create some damage with my American audience,” she said. “I had to do it. It was clearly the riskier choice but I think the better choice.” Seyfried says she’s glad she took the risk, calling it her most memorable moment on set. “The love scene,” she said. “I’ll never forget that.”   (@monstersandcritics)

JENNIFER COOLIDGE:
In preparation for her Dinah Shore debut, Jennifer Coolidge talks bonding with Jane Lynch while playing a couple in Best In Show:

“It sort of did feel like we were lovers when we got to the kissing scene because we were hanging out all the time. We had this great night in Vancouver where we went to this restaurant and a taxi dropped us off and it was in the middle of this rainstorm and we couldn’t get a taxi to get back. Jane and I had — literally it was like a monsoon — and we had to walk back over this scary bridge and I feel like we really bonded in that moment trying to make it over this bridge with lightning bolts coming at us left and right. It did feel like she was my lover.” (@shewired)

GLAAD:
Check out Joy Behar’s acceptance speech from the GLAAD Awards where she was honored this past weekend for her exposure of gay and lesbian issues on her HLN talk show. This one is pretty good for her digs at Barbara Walters, Eric Massa, Sarah Palin, and John McCain. Joy also gives credit for her success to the gay clubs in the West Village.

ELLEN VON UNWERTH:
Wanna see some sexy girls acting homoerotically in a field? Ellen Von Unwerth wants that for you, too, in the video she directed for Kenneth Bager’s “Fragment One – And I Kept Hearing”:

ELLEN & PORTIA:
Portia is happy she’s not an American Idol judge. “If I was up there, looking into the eyes of those young kids, I would probably be a pushover. I would be like a water-downed version of Paula [Abdul]. All I would be doing is applauding and telling them that they were magnificent all of the time.” @people)

HRC GALA:
Bridget McManus interviews celebs on the red carpet at the HRC gala honoring Portia de Rossi and Kathy Griffin. Bridget snags interviews with Kathy G, Mike Manning (Real World: DC), Michelle Clunie (Queer as Folk), Meredith Baxter and comedian Suzanne Westenhoefer. (@afterellen)

ANTM: fourfour recaps America’s Next Top Model: “Even though Fiercebook makes so much more sense as a pun and concept, MyFierce is awesome because there is no better way to announce that you are over than to align yourself with MySpace in 2010.”

UGLY BETTY: This week’s episode of Ugly Betty features Betty’s nephew, Justin’s first kiss with a boy! Initially unsure about the kiss at first, Justin overhears his mother Hilda giving some relatable advice to his aunt Betty about being happy with who you are and coming up with a “whole new story for yourself.” Awwww.

TEEVEE: Don’t forget to check out Scribegrrl’s recap of We Like to Watch: Television 2010 – What’s Happened So Far. (@autostraddle)

KATHY GRIFFIN:
Kathy Griffin is in Washington D.C. today with HRC to speak at a rally at Freedom Plaza in a grassroots effort to repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. (@eonline)

Also, check out our review of Alice in Wonderland — Katrina & her girlfriend Lauren go to the movies and have deep thoughts about the feminist merits of the new film.

Gay Prom Update: ACLU Schedules Hearing. Also Constance McMillen’s Mom is Gay!!!

CONSTANCE MCMILLEN’S GAY PROM:
“A hearing has been scheduled in the case of Constance McMillen, the Mississippi lesbian high school student whose story has made national headlines after her school canceled the prom because she wanted to bring a female date. The ACLU is suing the Itawamba School District.” (@towleroad)

Hey guess what! Constance’s Mom is a lesbian! She sort of just throws it out there during an interview on the Michelangelo Signorle radio show. Our editor-in-chief’s mom is a lesbian as well, and like five of our team members think their moms are secretly gay. Anyone else wanna join the Gay Mom ‘n’ Daughter Club? Also in the interview with Signorle, Constance says she figures “maybe 70% of the kids at school are taking it out on her that the prom was canceled.”

She also says that the administrators told her that they’d forbidden same-sex couples because people were going with friends to save money with the couple discount and that was making the school lose money.

Our Queer Prom Gallery has been getting heaps of linkage (from Andrew Sullivan, Good Magazine and Feministing just to name a few) so thank you to y’all spreading the word! Based on what people are saying about it on other websites, we realize that most people honestly didn’t realize so many young women are now and have been proudly bringing their gay dates to the dance. Visibility is key in making people feel like they’re not alone. We hope after prom this year we get hundreds more photos!

Constance’s story has BLOWN UP. And we’re hoping that it means other schools will hesitate before making similar decisions — because it’s not gonna make them look so good.

BODY IMAGE:
The Express UK declares that “Curvy Cover Girls are the Future” because: “Not since the supermodel hey day back in the late Eighties have we seen so much bounce on the catwalks. At the recent Prada and Louis Vuitton shows, boobs were definitely one of the defining features.”

Jezebel calls bullshit: “We’d welcome any divergence from a standard that can be hauntingly gaunt. But let’s not get carried away with the Dove-style celebrations. These women are “curvy” in the way Lara Stone is curvy: They have tiny waists and very little body fat, but they have relatively large breasts. Neither feminine ideal breaks the mold particularly.”

Yeah. Here’s some actual curvy girls for ya though, if you’re interested.

GAY BABIES:
In case you didn’t know, there’s a new trend afoot, and I’m breaking the story for you here: Many people actually want their little boys to turn out gay. (@momlogic)

TAMPONS:
Kotex’s new ad makes fun of years of ridiculous commercials (@salon)

MARRIAGE:
Chanel designer Karl Lagerfeld has some choice words about gay marriage and adoption: “I see more lesbians married with babies than I see boys married with babies. And I also believe more in the relationship between mother and child than in that between father and child.” (@towleroad)

9/11:
The gay terrorist who could have stopped 9/11: Roston theorizes that Shakir’s sexuality was part of the recruitment, since it left him open “to being flipped” under the threat of being exposed. (@gawker)

MISS ENGLAND:
The Miss England competition has replaced the bikini portion with a sports contest. (@huffington post)

GIRL GEEKS:
In this kickass response to a Guardian article praising LOTR’s few female heroines, Jezebel pretty much echoes Autostraddle’s reasoning for inventing our geeky blog Technostraddle, as it also applies to why geek culture is female/feminist-friendly in general: “Geek culture is, fundamentally, about outsiderness. It’s often literally about aliens (or, in LOTR’s case, about monsters and men/hobbits who become monsters), but it’s also a marginal subculture that appeals to people who feel marginalized.” (@jezebel)

DRUGS:
Is the war on drugs a lost cause? “Reform advocates say no other single federal policy is more responsible for gross racial disparities in the federal criminal justice system than the crack/powder sentencing disparity. Even though two-thirds of crack cocaine users are white, more than 80 percent of those convicted in federal court for crack cocaine offenses are African American.” (@racialicious)

FOOTBALL:
In case you didn’t hear, last week it was announced that the very first female football foach was hired. If that blew your mind too, you should just head on over and look at how happy she looks. (@jezebel)

BUNNIES:
Did your parents ever read The Country Bunny and The Little Golden Shoes to you when you were little? If they did, you have awesome parents who wanted you to grow up fighting prejudice! (@new yorker)

Humanists Funding Itawamba Gay-Inclusive Prom, Know How to Party

PROM UPDATE: Clearly the world loves Constance McMillen just as much as her daddy and her girlfriend do. Not only has a New Orleans restaurant owner offered to bus & host the prom, but now the American Humanist Association has offered to plan and fund a prom for the Itawamba County Agricultural High School in Mississippi:

“It’s shameful that closed-minded members of the school board are prepared to deprive an entire class of students their prom over their outdated religious mores.” said Roy Speckhardt, Executive Director of the AHA. “People can hold to any belief or no belief in this nation, but the school board misuses their position when they try to impose their beliefs on the student population in Itawamba.”

Who are these lovely humanists, you ask? Well: “Humanists and freethinkers have a history of speaking up for the rights of all. The AHA was among the first to support civil rights, equal pay for equal work, and the right of same-sex couples to marry. Recently the AHA launched the LGBT Humanist Council to advance equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people and their families.”A $20,000 grant has been made available to the AHA for hosting the prom.

And also? Wanda Sykes has invited Constance to LA to present her GLAAD award.

Someone commented on our lesbian prom gallery post that they went to a conservative school in Utah and had been nervous that the LGBT dates would be rejected by the school board but nope, all were accepted. If anything, I think it’s safe to say that the controversy surrounding Constance’s situation has definitely scared other schools out of making similar proclamations — and to realize that by doing so, they are hopelessly out of touch.

Regardless a humanist prom sounds like so much more fun!

CONTEST WINNERS:
Hey! SPEAKING OF PROM!? You guys sent us all your cutie patootie prom pictures, which pretty much warmed our hearts forever ever. We’re going to keep collecting them even though the contest is over, I mean why not? Bookmark this page, and maybe also this page. Maybe wanting to be a part of this gallery will be a motivating factor for you to take a lady! We hope to get heaps of photos in May or whenever it is that kids go to prom. INCLUDING CONSTANCE. Where’s my Seventeen YourProm issue?

In the meantime, one of the lucky already-submitted couples can buy themselves like, two new cute pairs of boyshorts. If this photo looks like you, then your faces are the faces my roommate pointed at with her eyes covered and that means you win a $25 amazon gift certificate! Email autostraddle [at] gmail [dot] com to get the special code.

GLAAD AWARDS: Saturday night was the New York City GLAAD awards. We’ll have more for you on that later this week, because Autostraddle sent our photoblogger Robin Roemer and Technostraddle Editor Taylor to the event, and we’re told that Robin took some nice photos. Also there was a giant rainstorm yesterday in NYC, so I’m sure that was fun!

Cynthia Nixon was given the Vito Russel award for a gay media professional “who has made a significant difference in promoting equal rights for the gay community,” and Joy Behar won for sitting at a table with Elisabeth Hasslebeck every day without losing her shit. I believe the people call that “an excellence in media award.”

I love Cynthia Nixon so much. Why? Because of Miranda. Really. I just REALLY LOVE MIRANDA.

The Cast of HAIR Plays a lot of gay events

TELEPHONE:
If you want more Telephone talk even after reading our extra-special set of feelings on the video (and let’s be real, you do), then take heart! First, there is the kind of hilarious experience of reading what a (presumably) straight publication had to say about it: “Lady GaGa can be seen indulging in a sizzling lesbian kiss with a female prison inmate for her new Telephone video… The crooner also gets almost naked in the promo, barring a few bits of precise pixellation and some carefully-placed gaffer tape.” I think the last person to be called a “crooner” was Frank Sinatra. (@littleabout)

Also, also, did someone say “best behind-the-scenes video ever?” It is frustratingly un-embeddable, but the good people at E! Online have in fact provided an in-depth video of the making of Gaga’s mini-movie, complete with Tyrese talking about being murdered by Beyonce, Beyonce freaking out adorably on the bed, and the thoughts & feelings of Semi-Precious Weapons. Also I think it might play “Telephone” more than the actual music video does? (@eonline)

PROM:
Are all the sad stories about queer kids who can’t go to prom getting you down? Would it make you feel better to hear about The Butterfly Ball? “The decorations were the same: confetti, sparkly centerpieces on the tables and streamers on the doorway. Outgoing couples broke the ice on the dance floor as disco lights flashed, and Pitbull, Lady Gaga and Beyonce blared from the DJ’s speakers. But the ballroom at the Sheraton Harrisburg/Hershey Hotel wasn’t a venue for any ordinary prom. On Friday night, it was a safe haven for dozens of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender high school students from across the midstate.”

Queer proms might not solve all the world’s problems, but they have much better music and are potentially much more enjoyable to go to if you want to bring your girlfriend! Also, it’s possible that this photo alone of 18-year-old John Tirado obviously doing the Single Ladies dance could melt the hearts of everyone in Constance McMillen’s hometown all by itself. (@pennlive)

GENDER NOT SPECIFIED:
Norrie May-Webley, who doesn’t identify as male or female, has become the first person in Australia to be legally documented as someone with “gender not specified.” The future is bright! Put on some sunglasses, Australia! (@smh)

WEIR:
In the ongoing did-Stars-on-Ice-exclude-Johnny-Weir-for-being-a-homo debate, Stars on Ice has spoken up to defend themselves: “”We are disappointed that there is untrue and inaccurate information being disseminated. Please be assured that the ‘gender identity and sexual orientation’ of cast members has never been a consideration in the selection of tour performers.” You can tell they’re serious because they put “gender identity” and “sexual orientation” in “scare quotes.” (@queerty)

GAY HOLLYWOOD:
The Independent addresses the irritating playing-gay conundrum: it’s hip for straight actors to play gay onscreen, but still taboo for real gay actors to come out. As Colin Firth says, “”There might be risks for a gay actor coming out,” he said. “The politics of that are quite complex, it seems to me. If you’re known as a straight guy, playing a gay role, you get rewarded for that. If you’re a gay man and you want to play a straight role, you don’t get cast – and if a gay man wants to play a gay role now, you don’t get cast. I think it needs to be addressed and I feel complicit in the problem. I don’t mean to be. I think we should all be allowed to play whoever – but I think there are still some invisible boundaries which are still uncrossable.” (@independent)

WOMEN FILMMAKERS:
What would a woman have done with Avatar’s budget? So far, no one has had a chance to find out. But now a team of six women filmmakers are putting together a movie with 82 women in film answering that question. See some of their favorite answers here! (@jezebel)

Lesbian Prom Panic: Classmates Blame Constance for Cancellation

QUEER PROM:
Predictably, Constance McMillen has been tormented by her peers at Itawamba Agricultural High School since the 18-year-old high school senior returned to school. Prom was cancelled after Constance requested permission to bring her girlfriend as her date and wear a tux, was denied, and subsequently the ACLU stepped in at which point the school just decided to cancel prom altogether, which is so passive-aggressive and irritating and a fighting technique traditionally employed by immature psycho ex-girlfriends.  (sidenote: props to Constance for already having an outfit picked out, I defo did that shit last minute.)

The teenager said she reluctantly returned to school this week after deciding that prolonging her return would only make things worse.

“My daddy told me that I needed to show them that I’m still proud of who I am,” she told The Associated Press.

Sidenote, this is her Daddy. I am pretty sure you don’t want to mess with this guy! Also look at Constance’s cute girlfriend there all like “peace, y’all!”

Constance told the press: “It’s a small town in Mississippi, and it’s run by an older generation with money — most of them are more conservative.”

Meanwhile, in New Orleans, restaurant owner Sean Cummings has offered to transport students from Itawamba Agricultural High School in Fulton in buses to the city and host a free prom at one of his properties.

Hey have you seen our queer prom gallery we’re creating because we want Constance to be in it? You should check it out… and also, you should submit if you took a same-sex date to prom! Be visible, be cute!

It’s real, girls do take girls to prom and it’s nothing people should be freaking out about!’ Also, the comments are interesting — did every lesbo bring a gay boy to prom? Perhaps.

Over at LezGetReal, fans are calling for Ellen to throw a prom for Constance: “Hey fans of Ellen, there’s a school in mississippi that has cancelled prom altogether rather than let a young lesbian student bring her girlfriend to the dance, I say let’s all ask Ellen to organize a prom in that town where students can bring whomever they want as their date!”

Constance was on CBS News this morning:

Watch CBS News Videos Online

Would you like to contact any of the fine people in charge of this mess? Well, The Stranger has that all for ya — and a lot more. Their coverage of the event has been excellent. [Go tell The Stranger about our queer prom gallery, kids!]

Then shoot an email to these peeps:

Superintendent Teresa McNeece – tmcneece@itawamba.k12.ms.us

Principal Trae Wiygul – twiygul@itawamba.k12.ms.us

School Board Member Eddie Hood – a082315@allstate.com

School Board Member Jackie Nichols – jnichols@itawamba.k12.ms.us

School Board Member Harold Martin – hmartin@itawamba.k12.ms.us

School Board Member Clara Brown – cbrown@network-one.com

School Board Member Tony Wallace –  twallace@nexband.com

60,000 people have joined the facbeook group “Let Constance Take Her Girlfriend To Prom.” Be one of them!

SCHOOLING IN TEXAS:
The Texas State Board of Education is having a three-day conference assessing the state’s social studies curriculum. Texas is the nation’s second largest purchaser of public school textbooks so this decision is important. SO important that somehow they’ve invited a bunch of evangelical Christians to participate in this monumental decision!

But elsewhere in Texas, Houston’s mayor is turning the city into a gay hot-spot.

JOHNNY WEIR:
Stars on Ice doesn’t want Johnny Weir on their tour anymore ’cause he’s not “family friendly” enough. As we know, that means BECAUSE HE’S GAY. (@phb)

GENDER BENDING IN THE BATHROOM:
Standing Up Like a Man: “This brilliant invention, obviously thought up by a female genius who hates public toilets as much as I do, is basically a piece of surprisingly thin paper rolled up like an ice cream cone. The cones lie flat until you are ready to use them; a mere squeeze opens them up to their full potential.” (@salon)

GENDER PROGRESS:
Australia is the first to recognize “non-specified” gender. (@pinknewsuk)

CHAZ BONO:
Anderson Cooper talks to Chaz Bono about the year since his gender transition.

Lesbians Take Girls to Prom: We Have a Gallery For That

So this girl Constance McMillen wanted to take a girl to prom, and wear a tux, and the principal was like hell to the no, and then the ACLU got involved, and then the school just decided it would be better to cancel prom altogether. Why are they so afraid of how cute girls look in menswear? No but srsly.

We have a feeling, even though we are old, that some girls are bringing girls to homecoming/prom/fancy-wear day dances these days. Amirite? Are you one of those girls/boys? Well let’s celebrate those photos everyone is so f*cking afraid of! VISIBILITY, LADIES!

Send us your prom photos!

1. Email your photo to autostraddle [at] gmail [dot] com.

2. We won’t publish your name [unless you give us permission] but…

3. If you can, we’d love to know when & where the photo was taken — city/state & year of the event.

4. We’ll start putting up the gallery this evening and keep building it as we get submissions. [You can see it here in this post, or on its own page.]

5. If absolutely necessary we can smiley-face over your ex-girlfriend if she’s really crazy or a famous tennis player.

6. Everyone who sends in a photo will be entered to win a $25 Amazon.com Gift Certificate, we’ll draw a name at random on Sunday and announce it in the Sunday Funday.

7. When you’re done with that, check out LezGetReal, where the ladies are putting a full-court-press on Ellen (yah, that ELLEN!) to organize a prom in Mississippi so this girl can freakin’ go!

And let’s hope that come springtime, we’ll be able to add Constance McMillan and her ladyfriend to the gallery.

Tell everyone! Tweet this, put it on your facebook, — we wanna see a bajillion cute gay faces ready to embark upon the most overrated night of their lives — fight the lesbian shaming.

Note: All of these photos used to have captions with the year, the location, and the girls in the photograph indicated. However when our photo galleries were transferred when we switched the plug-in we use for galleries in March 2013, the captions apparently weren’t transferred. We are looking into why this happened and if there’s any way to fix it.

Prom is Better Cancelled Than Ruined by Tuxedo-Wearing Lesbians

PROM: Remember last week when we told you about this years gay prom debacle? Now the school has cancelled the dance altogether instead of having to deal with the wrath of the ACLU. (@associated press)

From The USA Today:

Constance McMillan, an 18-year-old senior at Itawamba, recently challenged a school policy prohibiting her from bringing her girlfriend as her date to the April 2 prom. McMillen, who is a lesbian, and the Mississippi chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union urged school officials to reverse the policy both on McMillan’s choice of date and attire. She also wanted to wear a tuxedo to the dance.

Understandably, the cancellation has alerted McMillen, because now everyone is going to be mad at her. Luckily she’s a lesbian so basically it will be twice as bad:

“Oh, my God. That’s really messed up because the message they are sending is that if they have to let gay people go to prom that they are not going to have one,” she said. “A bunch of kids at school are really going to hate me for this.”

School officials told McMillen last month that she could not bring her sophomore girlfriend to the prom and also told her she could not wear a tuxedo. The school then circulated a memo that prohibited same-sex dates.

AUTOSTRADDLE WANTS YOU: Did you take a same-sex date to your prom / winter formal / other fancy high school event? Well we’re running a contest and starting a photo gallery full of your adorable gay faces! We’re dead f*cking serious about visibility and changing the game. Get the details here and send in your photos ASAP!

HOW KIDS FIND OUT ABOUT GAY MARRIAGE:
We put this up on our tumblr yesterday and we bet it’s already going viral but if you haven’t seen it YOU MUST.

GAY BUS:
The Annual Equality Riders Are On The Road Again You should probably check out their route to see if they’re coming to a city near you so that you can feed them and hug them. And if you haven’t seen it yet, head on over to Logo and watch their documentary, Equality U, because I did and it made me cry.

COFFEE:
Endangered Species: The New York Coffee Shop – “In my view, a city is defined by its coffee shops. As Madison Moore explored last week, coffee shops are meeting places to ogle and be seen, work and eavesdrop. They make the city less lonely. New York has always, in my mind, been associated with coffee shops… A generation of people has grown up with television shows and films romanticizing this experience—for me Woody Allen films, Felicity, Sex and the City and even Friends all played a part in creating this New York imagery.” (@racialicious) Also, a commenter at racialicious points out that the NY Times did a story today about um, burgeoning coffee culture. (@nytimes)

CATHOLIC SCHOOL:
You heard about the kid kicked out of school for having lesbian parents. But you’ll never guess who’s “sticking up” for us. (@mediaite)

BULLYING:
A New Set of Studies Look at Why Certain Kids Are Bullied So guys, the first part of the article is wholly disheartening, but there’re a couple of good bits at the end, so make sure you get to them. – “maybe being socially isolated also allows kids to focus on their talents and build up their inner worlds, making them more reflective or creative. And maybe being the butt of jokes as a child lends someone more empathy for the downtrodden later in life.” However there’s also the problem that one out of every two lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) youths are regular victims of cyberbullying. (@jezebel)

MASSA:
Glenn Beck has his best show ever interviewing recently resigned politician Eric Massa and then apologizes for wasting an hour of his audience’s time, which is funny, b/c basically Massa disagreed with him. That’s all. Haha Glenn Beck. Jon Stewart has more. (@comedycentral)

CENSUS 2010:
Are you excited for the census? I know I am; they pay $18.00 an hour and you get to go talk to strangers which is actually my idea of fun. But let’s talk about being queer and the census. The Williams Institute has some great FAQ sheets and maps that answer your questions and show where we’re living. (@williamsinstitute)

PARTY IN LONG ISLAND:
For those of you on or near Autostraddle Design Director Alex’s home base of Long Island, New York:

Got plans this Saturday, March 13th? Now you do!

Come to the PRIDE FOR YOUTH FUNDRAISER party where you can witness (or participate in) a Lady Gaga look-alike contest and dance while raising money for a good cause.

There will also be an open mic session before the DJ/dancing commences, as well as prices, snack, and give-aways throughout the night. Alex is going to support the cause and if you’re in the area you should too!

$10 at the door (21+) // Starts at 8pm at Kelli’s Bar and Grille

All proceeds benefit Pride for Youth (the first support and outreach program to exist for LGBT youth and their families on Long Island) and the Long Island Pride Chorus.