Designed Sustainability

We all remember prom:  the disco ball, the awkward slow dances between friends, the spiked punch.  For most of us, we could bring anyone we wanted to prom, with no worry that the school would disapprove of the pairing.  But what would you have done if the school had told you that you couldn’t bring your significant other?

I'd be angry.  Especially if, like 17-year-old Cynthia Stewart, I had planned the prom and raised the money to throw it.  So why was Cynthia’s choice of prom date an issue?  Because she’s an out lesbian who wanted to bring her girlfriend.

No matter where you stand on the issue of same-sex partnerships, you’ve got to admit that there’s something wrong with this picture.  Why should it matter that someone wants to bring their girlfriend? 

Why shouldn’t Cynthia be allowed to take her girlfriend, her best friend, or anyone else she chooses?  Since when do public schools regulate the personal life choices of their students? 

Rather than allow an obviously driven and school-spirited young woman bring the person she cares for to the prom she helped plan, the school has announced that it plans to cancel prom for everyone.  Yeah, you read that right.  Because a girl wants to bring another girl to the prom, the school has decided no one gets a prom.  How the two things are connected, I’m not sure, and why exactly this is even an issue for the school, I truly do not understand.

Elucidate me, I beg of you, dear readers.