Stigma from above

This spring, Kevin Logan, a high school senior from Gary, eagerly anticipated prom night, that special night that so many high schoolers look forward to each year. Logan spent more than $200 primping and preening, and with an $85 ticket in hand, he was ready to enjoy the evening with close friends creating lasting memories.\nUnfortunately, Logan's prom experience did not go as planned. His principal, Diane Rouse, barred his entry to the prom and called the police to force him to leave. Why? Logan arrived at the ball in a gown.\nHe will not have formal pictures to remember what should have been a meaningful night. He will not think back to fun on the dance floor, or the special last song of the evening. Instead, a possible lawsuit will mark Logan's "special" occasion. And he will not soon forget the way his principal troublingly reinforced rigid norms for gender identity and sexuality, and cast an ugly stigma on Logan and other gay or transgender youth.\nRouse's decision marked Logan as unnatural, unwanted and unwelcome. He received the clear message that non-conformity to baseless cultural norms was shameful and unacceptable. Rouse's need for clear lines and boundaries in the realm of gender identity branded Logan as an outcast, unfit even to celebrate with his friends and classmates at his prom. In spelling don't we learn that principals are our pals? Not in Logan's case, apparently!\nBut such harmful singling out is not just a random occurrence by a handful of ignorant folks. Just two days ago, President Bush once again proclaimed the need for a constitutional amendment that would stigmatize a healthy percentage of Americans (who already face enough discrimination). His unwavering support for an amendment defining marriage as only between a man and a woman marks gays and lesbians with a similar sense of "otherness" as Logan.\nEven though this marriage amendment did not pass, the leader of our country and all those who support the bill have sent a clear message to same-sex couples: "You are not welcome. Your relationship and your love are not valid. You are not fit for recognition in this country."\nApparently, many have not learned a lesson from history. At one point, anyone who was not a white, male, land-owner was treated as an outsider, as not being a "true" citizen. Even worse, for many years anyone who wasn't white was considered not-quite-human (three-fifths, to be exact).\nThe president's support of a marriage amendment is a modern-day example of an authority determining who counts and who doesn't; who is an outcast and who is fit for recognition; who is clean and pure; and who is maligned as a disease-carrying sub-human. Kevin Logan's prom nightmare and Principal Rouse's intolerance is but a small-scale manifestation of this mentality.\nBe it principals, presidents or their supporters, such harmful stigmatization and silencing of identity cannot stand.