Why? Because the school district didn't stick its nose in the kids' dating decisions, because people shrugged off other individuals' dating decisions as their own individual choices, and at the end of the day, no one got so prejudiced and alarmed about teh ghey that they had to hold a secret prom to avoid the contagion of homosexuality. That's not to say there wasn't some conflict and resistance:
After discussion with the superintendent and school board, officials eventually granted permission, saying they had no policy in place against it. “You don’t have the right to say no,” principal Michelle Masters said in a previous interview.In other words, at the end of the day, most of the people in Bleckley County, Georgia decided to adhere to the classicly American ethic of live and let live. Sadly, the young man's own parents were not among them, which tells me that there is still a long way to go in terms of fostering and encouraging tolerance. But the school district here, and pretty much the rest of the community here, did the smart thing by shrugging off one individual's decision which did not materially affect them in any way and in so doing both avoided a rash of bad national publicity and served as an example for other communities to follow.
The move had been met with some conflict, such as talk of a separate prom.
A few weeks back, a small group of students held an opposition rally in front of the town courthouse to protest. Martin’s parents also kicked him out of his home after the publicity.
But a rally in support of Martin was also held in a Macon park and supporters have donated more than $5,000 for college this fall.
Hopefully this sort of thing becomes repeated more often than the sort of thing we saw a few weeks ago in Mississippi.
Hat tip to Box Turtle Bulletin.
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