Constance McMillen is quickly becoming a poster child for gay rights in the United States, as she fights to bring her girlfriend to her Mississippi high school prom. In the past day, more than 80,000 people have joined a Facebook Fan Page in support, and her case has attracted international headlines.
McMillen was on CBS this morning:
McMillen's story may remind you of Oshawa teen Marc Hall's 2002 fight to bring his boyfriend to his Catholic high school prom.
From Xtra's archives, on the media storm surrounding Hall's case:
"When Marc Hall was told that he
couldn't bring his boyfriend to his prom, he had no idea that he would
set off a media and political firestorm that would turn him into a
poster child for gay rights.
Politicos are stepping over each other to form a buffer around him that seems to grow bigger by the day."
Hall was able to attend his prom, thanks to a last-minute decision by an Ontario judge:
"Just hours before the May 10 prom at
Monsignor John Pereyma High School in Oshawa, Superior Court of Justice
Robert MacKinnon granted Hall an injunction preventing the Durham
Catholic District School Board from barring the gay couple from the
prom. The board had argued that Hall was setting a bad example for
other Catholic students."
Aaron Ashmore (left) as Marc Hall in the 2004 TV movie, Prom Queen.
And of course, there was the made-for-TV movie, Prom Queen: The Marc Hall Story. Xtra contributor Brent Ledger wrote in 2004:
"I've said it before and I’ll say it
again: Fiction is always better than real life. If any gay news story
bored me these past few years, it was the Marc Hall I-want-to-go-to-the-prom story, and if any movie has entertained me, it’s the
dramatized version of same."
Hall dropped the case against his former Catholic high school in 2005.
