A different take on Prom.....

The school year is coming to a close and with that, anyone who has a child in Grade 12, by now is exhausted from all the graduation festivities.

I was reading in our local paper yesterday about a "special prom", or should I say "Gay Proms". According to this article, gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender(GLBT) students were feeling discriminated against as they felt they couldn't go to their own proms. Some they say fear harassment. Others say they were told by their schools that they could not attend with a same sex date. According to the article there is legislation stating that GLBT have a legal right to bring a same sex date to prom or other school events. However many school districts ignore this legislation and won't allow same sex couples to prom. So what to do? Apparently now there are organizations and youth groups that support a separate GLBT prom.

The article titled these proms as Rainbow Prom. The participants of these proms say they really enjoy them and it provides them with an arena where they can be themselves. The author of the article interviewed a young student of 15 who will be attending his second prom this year.

I like to think of myself as open minded,liberal and that everyone has a right to freedom of speech and personal expression(as long as it doesn't hurt someone else I might add). With that being said this "Rainbow prom" just pushes the envelope for me.

High School is never easy. Students can be cruel I don't accept that, but unfortunately it does happen. Teenagers seem to fear people or things that are out of the norm for them, it pushes their personal comfort zone, and challenges them to think socially and responsibly. Some students excel in this others don't, and hence I gather the need for separate proms.

I can't help but wonder though that while the GLBT group want to be inclusive they also want to be separate. They don't want to be singled out and want the same rights as others and yet they feel it necessary to have their own prom. If they just want to be accepted and included why is it that they find the need to hold separate proms? And what about the 15 year old student who is attending the "Rainbow prom" for the SECOND time? What's up with that? As far as I know high school graduation happens once..not twice...and most certainly not when you are 15. So I ask you, is it truly a prom that these youths' are looking for or is it just an arena where they can hang out with similar minded people and genders? I don't know. It makes me wonder if they don't discriminate against themselves and the so called "straight group".

Most school districts have youth support groups and are far more open and accepting to GLBT individuals. I know that one of my daughters best friends during high school was gay and they had a great time and she never questioned his sexuality, she just loved his flamboyant bubbly personality.

High school can be a hard and cruel environment, a school of hard knocks, but I can't help but wonder if GLBT don't set themselves up by signally themselves out having their own prom.

This certainly gives me food for thought....what do you think?