Prom 2000
A Boost to the LGBT Community
May 2000
Prom season was approaching and as the new principal in the high school, I asked the senor class advisor for some insight into hot topics surrounding the prom.
“Every year, we get requests
for students to come solo but we don’t allow it. This is a couples only event”, he tells me inequitably.
“Why?” I want to know.
“Well, because we want to
teach them how to behave in public on a date.
We have to teach them that. And if they don’t have a date, then we can’t
teach them anything.”
“But what about the kids who
are not ready to date yet?”
“They are 17 and 18, they
should be ready by now. They will just
have to step it up and ask someone. It’s no big deal. They need to find a date
just like everyone else” he states without thought or feeling.
At the time, my niece had
just attended her prom. She had just broken up with her boyfriend and wasn’t
dating anyone and she didn’t want to ask just anyone. She didn’t want to get stuck all night with
someone she really didn’t know. So she
and a few of her friends went solo and had a great time. I mentioned this to the class advisor and he
responded, “But this is how we have always done it here at Springfield.”
I left him and went around
and talked to a few of the seniors and sure enough, there were a few kids who
wanted to go but didn’t want to bring dates.
So they resigned themselves to the fact that they were sadly left out.
A few days later, I went back
to the class advisor and told him I had thought about our conversation and
decided that kids could come to the prom without a date if they wanted. We would establish a singles’ table and we
would welcome every student to our prom. He was annoyed but complied and we had
a full table of singles.
Two weeks after the prom, a
boy stops in my office, late in the afternoon, after everyone was long gone for
the day. He wants to show me his official prom photos. He trembles a little bit and tells me, “I can
never thank you enough. It was my dream
come true. I had a great time at the
prom. I want to show you my pictures.
I’m so proud of them.”
He hands me a stack of photos. He is standing in front of the photographer’s
backdrop, wearing his black tuxedo with a purple shirt and tie. And so is the boy standing next to him. They are holding hands and gazing lovingly at
each other, in their matching colors. They came as a couple.
“I didn’t know how John and I
were going to get to go to the prom together but when you announced the singles
table, I thought, that’s it. Now we can
go to the prom. We had a great time”.
He takes the stack of photos
back and gingerly puts them in a folder. He dramatically clasps the folder next
to his heart and then puts it in his backpack.
As he is leaving, he turns to me and says, “I’m so proud of our
school. Thank you so much.”
He marvels at the tolerance of the administration while I marvel at the tolerance of the student body. I hadn’t thought that the solo table would open up options for the gay kids. But more that that, I can’t believe that the football players didn’t beat this kid up. I was proud of our school,
