Prom & Diversity

Both of us come from schools within Ohio; however, are schools are quite different, especially when it comes to the issue of public individuality and prom.

Michael - My school was in a small town in the southern part of Ohio, right along the border of West Virginia. It was definitely the typical "hick" school- funding, attention, and praise always went to the sports teams and Christianity was twisted to be used in what I believe was a not so Christian method. This small town seemed (to me) deprived of arts. Of course you had those few angels who taught a variety of arts excellently and fought to bring culture to the town, but the battle was quite one sided.
Diversity in the town was at a minimum. Within the school cliques and prejudice were quite apparent. I considered myself lucky; I have always been extremely outspoken and for that reason nobody messed with me. But I believe most everyone else within the school was not as lucky as I. Name calling and labeling were a constant, and the term "gay" was used as a put down along with many other quite vulgar terms. Homosexuality was defiantly suppressed in the school - in fact there was only one openly homosexual person in the school. For privacy sake, I'll call him "Bob."
Bob was a senior when I was a freshman. I played on the soccer team and performed decently so I was lucky enough to go to prom with an upper class man. Bob had invited his boyfriend to the prom; his boyfriend, however was from a different school. When you bring someone from a different school to the prom you must sign them in. The stipulation was they had to be of the opposite gender because you could not just bring a "friend" that had to be a "date" and my school being ridiculous would not allow Bob's boyfriends entrance.
Bob and his boyfriend ended up sneaking in and getting away with it, but the fact that they faced such problems just trying to attend prom is completely ridiculous. My school is a public school and therefore should not be able to use their moral reasoning (even though they said it was not for moral reasons but because they did not want "friends" from other schools over crowding the prom) to selectively choose admittance. Bob had been more than bothered enough throughout the high school; the added drama was not needed.
I think my town and their "hick" sense of Christianity also gives the religion a slightly bad name. There was alot of hypocrisy and I found many children did not believe in a religious manner but rather in a "this is what my parents say and therefore that's how it is" kind of mindset. It is quite sad for me because I hate to see something so special and valuable as religion be brought to such a superficial level.
Bob ended up being fine. I'm not sure where he is now, but I think he moved to a bigger city. My old school is still what it used to be; what's funny is that "political" or "sport" position can defy almost anything there and yield any exception which is often unfair to the rest of the student body. This contrasts NCSA directly, considering that I would guesstimate at least 35% of the population at our prom are homosexual.