The Christian conservative group
American Family Association (AFA) has called a Mississippi school's
settlement with gay teen Constance McMillen a capitulation to “evil.”
The settlement between the Itawamba
County School District and McMillen was announced Tuesday by the
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
McMillen, with the assistance of the
ACLU, sued the district in March after it decided to cancel the
annual prom dance for junior and senior students rather than allow
McMillen to attend with her girlfriend and wear a tuxedo.
School officials agreed to pay the teen
$35,000 in damages plus attorneys' fees and adopt a policy
prohibiting discrimination. Officials, however, did not admit to any
wrongdoing in their offer.
“This illustrates how evil advances
in America: It advances because kindhearted, goodhearted people
refuse to stand up against evil and stare it down; instead they
capitulate, they concede, they give in,” Bryan Fischer, director of
issue analysis at AFA, told Life Site News.
Fischer called the decision to settle
tantamount to “homosexual activists shaking down rural taxpayers
for 35 grand.”
He added that the school had
“compromised the ability of every high school in America to defend
natural norms of sexual expression” in not pursuing a court battle.
In its announcement, the ACLU said
parents, students and school officials conspired against McMillen
when they held a private prom that excluded her; a plan the ACLU
called “cruel.”
McMillen transferred to another school
before graduating in the spring.
The case drew nationwide interest,
turning McMillen into an overnight gay rights celebrity. She was
invited to present an award at this year's GLAAD Media Awards and
served as grand marshal for New York's Gay Pride Parade.
Fischer drew heat in May from gay
groups when he likened
lifting the policy that bans gay troops from serving openly to
Hitler's army of “savage gay Nazis” on his radio program.
Source: Life
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