A California high school is not allowing a same-sex couple to be nominated as prom queens, arguing it would amount to discrimination against boys.
The principal of Foothill High School, Jim Bartow, said it would be unfair to prevent a boy from being named prom king, and argued that the tradition has always been about nominating individuals rather than couples, according to Towleroad.
But one of the girlfriends, Hayley Lack, says the school is discriminating against her and her girlfriend. In an interview with Mic, Lack said, “Couples are always nominated by the students. Me and Jenna were nominated as a couple alongside two other straight couples by the student body vote… The way this is set up is insinuated to vote for couples.”
Last year, a same-sex couple were nominated for prom queen and queen at the school, but despite one of the women receiving more votes, the girl was paired with a boy who finished fourth place, according to Towleroad. In response, this year’s same-sex couple is collecting signatures for a petition proposing that the school change its rules and allow the couple to be nominated. It has 500 signatures. The ACLU is also reportedly looking into the situation.
Derek Black, a professor of law at the University of South Carolina School of Law, told ThinkProgress that it’s unclear at this point whether the school discriminated against the couple. According to Black, the strength of a hypothetical case against the school really hinges on whether the school is nominating individuals or couples.
“I really think the student herself hits the nail on the head when she says ‘couple,’ so when you have a homecoming queen and homecoming king,” Black said. “If its about picking a couple, I don’t think the school, without discriminating, can say it can only be a heterosexual couple. If what we’re saying is, ‘Well, we’re not picking couples. We’re just trying to pick the most popular boy and girl in the school,’ then they can probably do that.”
Of course, that is exactly the argument the school is making, but it’s unclear whether the school has always chosen prom king and queen that way. Black said the students’ case would be bolstered if, for example, the prom king and queen participated in rituals that mark them as a couple or if the school said that one half of the same-sex couple couldn’t bring her girlfriend with her on the stage or field during their moment in the sun.
“If I was the attorney involved, the question would be, ‘Do they make you walk onto the field or show some kind of connection to the person?’ If so, it would be highly problematic to make them engage in some heterosexual ritual,” Black said. “But if the school said, ‘You can bring your own escorts,’ the students would have to accept that. If the school said no to that, then I think they’d have a slam-dunk win because the school is clearly signaling that is acting based on gender discrimination rather than something else.”
ThinkProgress reached out to Lack to get a better understanding of the process for nominating prom king and queen. Lack told ThinkProgress that students nominate prom king and queen by choosing two people at the same time. They are given a piece of paper that says “king” and “queen” written next to each other and nominees always go on stage together during prom and take photos posing together. The dates of the king and queen have never gone on stage with the king and queen to her knowledge, Lack said. As far as she knows, the winners have always been a heterosexual couple.
“There are no rules about this that I know of, other than the principal deciding that this was now a rule. It is not written down as it is supposed to be a couple nominated, but that’s usually how it is. So yes, it is seen as a couple activity,” Lack said in an email to ThinkProgress.
When asked whether students have largely been supportive of Lack and her girlfriend’s efforts to be considered for prom queens, Lack said, “The students here and all over our area are extremely supportive of us. It is great to hear positive comments from them.”
ThinkProgress reached out to the U.S. Department of Education and the ACLU for clarification on this specific case, but did not receive comment by the time of publication.
But the couple’s experience is definitely not an isolated incident. Every year, there are stories of administrators trying to enforce heteronormative ideas about what prom, and prom couples, should look like. Same-sex couples are often prevented from either being nominated as the royal prom couple or are told they can’t attend with a same-sex partner or dress in a way that doesn’t conform to a gender binary.
For instance, a same-sex couple in Colorado was nominated as prom “prince” and “princess” by a landslide, but the teacher running the prom committee said it was too “untraditional,” according to the local television station KDVR. Eventually, after receiving more public scrutiny, the school said it would reconsider. Arizona students were also prevented from being nominated as homecoming queen and queen in 2014; the school district in that case made a similar argument that students do not elect a couple, and that the girls represent the female students and the boys represent the male students.
Dress has also been a longstanding issue for LGBT students. Last year, a lesbian student in Louisiana was told she couldn’t wear a tuxedo to her senior prom. The student, Claudetteia Love, said she wouldn’t go if it meant she had to wear a dress. After students circulated a petition and Love received support from LGBT advocacy groups, the principal reversed his decision. During the same season, a lesbian student in Texas, Samantha Amelle Lopez, was told she had to sign a form promising to wear a dress to her prom, but she refused and her mother contacted LGBT groups. Again, after public pressure, the principal reversed his decision.
Update: On Monday, the ACLU sent a letter to the school telling the principal that the policy “violates the constitutional and statutory rights of gay and lesbian students” and requested a response by noon on Tuesday given that the prom takes place Saturday. The attorney for the school, Anne Collins, said the district “disagrees with the representations made in your letter” and said the process nominated individuals not couples even though “it may be the case that the people nominated are also a couple.” However, the letter from the attorney still stated that Lack, having received enough votes to be considered a candidate for prom royalty — a title that is now gender-neutral — will be considered with the five other candidates who were nominated for prom king.
Update:
This piece has been updated with comments from Hayley Lack, one of the students asking to be nominated as prom queen with her girlfriend.