ISSUES: Lance Bass to Sponsor Gay-Friendly Prom

This is what we mean about Unity and coming together!


Former 'N Sync member Lance Bass will join celebrity chef Cat Cora and members of Green Day in sponsoring a gay-friendly prom in Mississippi after a lesbian teen was duped into attending a "fake prom" earlier this month.

The Tupelo, Miss. event, scheduled for May 8, is being organized by the Mississippi Safe Schools Coalition and is open to all students, regardless of sexual orientation. The group's spokesman, Matthew Sheffield, told the Associated Press that Bass will be in attendance.

In an interview on Monday with The Advocate, Constance McMillen, an 18-year-old senior at Itawamba Agricultural High School, said that she and her date showed up at a prom on April 2 in Fulton, Miss. attended by a small number of her peers, including two students with learning disabilities. "They had two proms, and I was only invited to one of them," McMillen said. "The one that I went to had seven people there, and everyone went to the other one I wasn’t invited to."

Last month, the Itawamba County School district canceled its prom after a U.S. district judge ruled that the school could not bar McMillen from attending the event with her date. As a result, a parent-sponsored, private prom was organized.

The American Humanist Association will also donate $20,000 for the inclusive prom.