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Spring can be an exciting time for students - prom, senior trips, and graduation are all in the cards. But it can also be stressful and upsetting if you are prevented from taking part in the prom or graduation, or stopped from wearing what you want. These guidelines can help keep your happy memories of high school from being transformed into painful reminders of prejudice.
The First Amendment, constitutional guarantees of equality and New Jersey's Law Against Discrimination protect public school students' rights to choose your prom date and what you wear.
- You have the right to bring a same-sex date to the prom.
- Public schools cannot require that your date be of the opposite sex.
- You do not have to be gay to bring a date of your own sex.
- You can't be subject to different rules or standards based on the sex of your date. If there is a professional photographer taking prom portraits, feel free to get one.
- Girls can wear tuxedos and boys can wear dresses to the prom.
- Public schools can implement certain rules about what to wear at a prom, but they can't be different for girls and boys. So, if you're a boy, you have the right wear a dress, but you still have to comply with school rules about formal wear or skirt length.
- Public schools cannot have gender-based dress requirements for graduation.
- Just like at a prom, schools can't enforce rules on what to wear based on gender. Girls can't be required to wear dresses under their graduation gowns and boys can't be stopped from wearing dresses.
- Yearbooks can't be censored by removing photos of gay students or couples.
- Other things to know:
- You have the right not to be bullied or harassed.
- Your school is required to have an anti-bullying policy in place and an effective way to handle complaints about bullying.
- Students have the right to establish Gay Straight Alliances.
- If your school has other non-curricular clubs (like the Key Club or Drama Club), you can form a GSA. Blocking a GSA from forming or treating it differently from other non-curricular clubs is against the law.
You can find prom-specific information at http://www.aclu.org/lgbtprom. For more information about student rights, read the ACLU-NJ's Rights of Public School Students (13mb PDF). If you run into any problems over these rights or are disciplined for how you express yourself, contact the ACLU-NJ at 973-642-2084 or http://www.aclu-nj.org/complaint.
Download the ACLU-NJ's The Prom: Know Your Rights (85k PDF) factsheet.
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