IN Community Calls for "Traditional" Prom Banning Gay Students

Students, parents, and faculty at Sullivan High School in Sullivan, Indiana, are rallying to create a "traditional" prom that would exclude gay students. The group met last Sunday at Sullivan First Christian Church to plan and created a Facebook invite-only group to discuss the event. The group has since been taken down, though screenshots of members' comments have been circulating on the internet.

Sullivan High School special education teacher, Diana Medley, has been outspoken in support of the separate prom, though the event would have no affiliation with the school itself. When asked if she believed gay students had a purpose in life, Medley told NBC 2, "No I honestly don't. Sorry, but I don't. I don't understand it. A gay person isn't going to come up and make some change unless it's to realize that it was a choice and they're choosing God."

Students have been speaking out on both sides. "If we can get a good prom then we can convince more people to come and follow what they believe," one student, Kynon Johnson, told NBC in support of a separate prom. Another student wrote in the deleted Facebook group, "Sullivan High School is ACCEPTING the same-sex couples and the staff at SHS is for the same-sex couples going and so are the majority of student and people in the community."

Media Resources: Gawker 2/11/13; The New Civil Rights Movement 2/11/13; NBC 2 2/11/13; Think Progress 2/11/13

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