Prom is one of the most popular high school traditions in the United States. You dress up, take pictures, eat dinner and dance the night away. Well, this won’t be the case for students at Itawamba Agricultural High School in Fulton, Mississippi.

After learning that 18-year-old Constance McMillen would wear a tuxedo and escort her girlfriend to prom, the school sent around a notice, saying that students could not bring same-sex dates to prom. Constance went to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Mississippi for help. The ACLU sent a letter to the school demanding that Constance be allowed to bring her date to prom. The school board responded by cancelling the event all together. The ACLU is still fighting to have the school reinstate the prom and allow Constance to wear a tuxedo and bring her girlfriend.

Students should have the right to wear a tuxedo or dress to prom and to bring dates, no matter their dates’ gender. Do you want to support Constance and take a small step in tackling the issue of homophobia? Dress You Up in My Love/The Nationwide Equality Prom is a virtual prom that will be held on April 2nd, the day that Constance should be having her prom. People everywhere are encouraged to dress up as if they were attending prom to draw attention to this issue. Why should prom be limited to teens with a specific sexual orientation or gender identity? Teens everywhere should be free to express themselves and be comfortable being who they are.

—Chelsea Sirico, 17, Staff Writer

Girls can wear dresses or pants. Right? Apparently not at prom. Sex, Etc. magazine recently reported that a 17-year-old girl in Indiana wanted to express her gender by wearing a tuxedo to prom. She was denied this right, because her school’s dress code required girls to wear dresses to prom. The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit that resulted in the elimination of clothing restrictions based on sex.

You might be quick to blow this off as a rare occurrence, but issues like this come up more than you would think. At all-male, Morehouse College in Atlanta, GA, there’s a new “Appropriate Attire Policy” that prohibits students from carrying purses or wearing dresses, makeup or high heels. A few weeks ago in Wesson, MS, a female student wore a tuxedo in her school picture, but the school would not allow her photograph to be published in the yearbook.

It is very discouraging that so many people and institutions are not accepting or understanding of how people choose to express their feelings of being male or female. Sadly, people often do not approve of things that they are not used to. There are many people in the world whose gender expression does not match our expectations of how guys or girls should act or dress. If we keep educating people and exposing them to the different ways that people choose to express their gender, perhaps we can eliminate the kind of discrimination these students faced.

-Melanie Johnson, 17, Staff Writer

If you watch TV, then you’ve probably seen two women kissing, from Madonna and Britney to the O.C.’s Marissa and Alex. On “That’s So Gay,” a segment on the weekly show infoMania, Bryan Safi questions (with more than a little sarcasm) what all this girl-on-girl action is really about. Women in real relationships with other women? Or two heterosexual women providing some girl-on-girl action for ratings gold and the pleasure of a few heterosexual guys?

Check out this clip and decide for yourself.

Maybe you know someone at your school who’s been bullied for being gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender (GLBT) or maybe you’ve been bullied yourself. Homophobia and transphobia can create an unbearable environment for GLBT students, the people who care about them and students with GLBT parents or family members.

It’s no surprise then that a GLBTQ Online High School is planning to open in early 2010. While there are schools for GLBT students, like the Harvey Milk High School in New York City, this is the first online school for GLBT students. The school is committed to providing a good, college-preparatory education for GLBT students in a safe and welcoming virtual environment.

An online high school seems like a great alternative for those GLBT teens who go to school in a hostile environment. Everyone deserves the right to learn, and everyone deserves to be treated with dignity and respect. It’s great that this school is an option, but wouldn’t it be great if one day we didn’t need special schools because everyone was respected?