SCHOOL REVERSES POSITION ON LESBIAN COUPLE

A US school has reversed its position and will now allow a lesbian student to bring her girlfriend to the school prom after all.

The principal of Tharptown High School, in northern Alabama, had told Cynthia Stewart, a 17 year old openly lesbian student, that she could not take her partner to the event and threatened to cancel the prom entirely.

Following international reports on the matter and intervention by the American Civil Liberties Union (UCLA), school officials said that they had changed their mind. They claimed that they were already in the process of reviewing their decision before they were contacted by the UCLA.

Assistant Superintendent Donald Borden explained that Stewart’s girlfriend would have to go through the same screening process as everyone else’s dates and if she passed she could attend the prom.

Prom dates must be screened by school officials to ensure that students with behavioural problems do not disrupt the event or cause other trouble.

Speaking to the local TimesDaily in Alabama, Stewart expressed her happiness at the decision but added, “I don’t know why I couldn’t just bring her in the first place. It doesn’t make sense why they said no in the first place.”