Constitutional Law

Make School Safe for Everyone!

By Sam Ritchie, LGBT Project

Be on Constance's side. Be on every student's side.

Constance McMillen, whose school canceled her prom rather than let her take her girlfriend, will be in Washington, D.C., this weekend with student leaders from all over the country for GLSEN's Safe Schools Advocacy Summit. They're there to advocate for legislation that will make schools safer and more accepting for all students and prohibit the kind of discrimination that Constance has experienced. Support Constance and students across the country by taking part in the Safe Schools for Everyone weekend.

Take just three easy steps and in ten minutes, you can make a big difference for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students in America's schools.

1. Show Your Support!

Show your support for Constance by changing your profile picture on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and other online sites to our "Prom is for Everyone" logo for the weekend. Not only will you be letting all your online friends know that you support the right of Constance and other students to bring same-sex dates to prom, but you'll also be generating awareness online.

To download the logo, right click the image (Ctrl-click on a Mac) and choose "Save Image As..." Save the image somewhere you'll be able to find it easily, like your desktop. Then log in to your social networking site and upload the image as your profile pic. Facebook, MySpace and Twitter have instructions on how to upload a new profile picture.

2. Take Action!

The Student Non-Discrimination Act — a bill pending in Congress — would prohibit LGBT discrimination in K-12 public schools and provide remedies when schools discriminate the way Constance's school has. Use our action page to send your member of Congress an e-mail asking them to sign on to this important piece of legislation.

3. Spread the Word!

Let your friends know about Constance's story and how they can help and you multiply the amount of support you're putting behind her. Post this page to MySpace, tweet about it on Twitter and share on Facebook and help spread the word. Use our official URL:

aclu.org/prom4all

On behalf of Constance and the ACLU, thanks for participating in the Safe Schools for Everyone weekend. We know that with your help, we can make schools safer and more accepting for all students.

Full post as published by Blog of Rights on March 19, 2010 (boomark / email).