This weekend I’ll be taking a long drive out to the University of Maine at Machias to present at the 5th Annual Rainbow Ball, an open and affirming prom event specifically geared for LGBT youth and their many allies. High school students and youth groups from all over Maine will be there, and while the evening prom is surely the highlight of the three-day event, there will also be a series of workshops on Saturday afternoon addressing issues most relevant to LGBT youth.
The ACLU of Maine will be leading two of these workshops: “Political Activism on LGBT Topics” and “Know Your Rights for LGBT Youth.” For the past few months we’ve been leading “Know Your Rights” presentations at high schools all around the state, so in some ways Saturday’s workshop won’t be anything new. But because of the unique challenges facing LGBT students, we’ll be covering some new and very important topics that we might not always touch on in a regular social studies classroom.
The Constitution provides some very important protections for LGBT youth, from bringing same-sex dates to the prom, to starting a Gay-Straight Alliance at school, to protecting students from unfair web filtering of pro-LGBT sites on the Internet. And the list doesn’t end there! Check out the ACLU’s Know Your Rights Guide for LGBT High School Students for a more complete list of the different rights that LGBT students have at school. (We’ve even got it available as a handy-dandy wallet card for easy carrying wherever you go.)
We think it’s important that all students know what rights they have, particularly those who find their rights trampled upon the most. Hopefully in addition to having a great time at an open and affirming prom, students this weekend in Machias will get a better understanding of their legal rights and what they can do if their school isn’t treating them fairly.
