Constance McMillen is a high school student (currently aged 18) who lives in Fulton, Mississippi. McMillen attends the Itawamba County Agricultural High School. An open lesbian, McMillen requested that school allow her to wear a tuxedo to the senior prom and to bring her partner as a date. Administrators not only disapproved McMillen's request, but canceled the entire prom for all students. National attention soon became focused on the case, with a lawsuit on McMillen's behalf filed by the ACLU as well as an interview on the talk show Ellen.

On April 2, McMillen was one of only seven students to attend a private event . McMillen said the rest of her group attended another event to which she was not invited.http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iQRDDMNSipfZL1NVG-gK2OLZHJUwD9ETS0JO0 McMillen commented "It was not the prom I imagined. It really hurts my feelings. These are still people who I've gone through school with, even teachers who loved me before this all started. I've never been a bad student and I don't feel like I deserve to be put through this." McMillen didn't take the girl she originally intended, as her parents would not permit her to attend the event. McMillen decided to escort another female to the event instead.

According to The Advocate, this event was actually a "fake prom" set up for just a handful of students, while the majority of students attended a separate, private event.http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/05/constance-mcmillen-fake-p_n_525856.html

On March 19, McMillen appears on the Ellen Show. Host Ellen DeGeneres (a lesbian herself) expresses her admiration for McMillen's fight. Ellen invited McMIllen to the show to share her story and campaign for gay rights. Ellen presents McMillen with a cheque for $30,000 for college sponsorship.http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-03-19-mississippi-prom-gay-teen_N.htm

On March 24 a judge ruled in favor of Constance McMillen. The judge stated that McMillen's First Amendment rights were violated. This followed the school's refusal to let McMillen bring a female partner to the prom. The judge decided not to force the Itawamba County School District to actually host the canceled prom.http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2820412/judge_rules_in_favor_of_constance_mcmillen.html?cat=17

A Facebook group has been set-up to assist McMillen in her fight to be able to go the prom. The slogan of the Facebook site is "Constance McMillen just wants to go to prom with her girlfriend. But her school won't let her." The group is attracting a lot of attention and had over 1,000 followers in its first few hours. After 6 hours of being set-up the group had amassed 6,500 followers. On April 6, 2010 this Facebook group had 426,000 followers.http://www.facebook.com/pages/Let-Constance-Take-Her-Girlfriend-to-Prom/357686784817

On February 5, 2010 the school sent out a memo notifying students that there would be a high school promo on April 2. Also within the memo were the rules. One of those rules was that all students needed to take a partner of the opposite sex to the dance, same sex couples were not permitted.

McMillen challenged this rule and asked permission for i) Her girlfriend to be able to accompany her to the prom and ii) To be allowed to wear a Tuxedo (this was also not allowed in the school prom rules).

On March 10 and surprisingly to some, instead of the school punishing McMillen they instead cancelled the entire prom for everybody. Without issuing a reason specific to McMillen the Itawamba County School District issued a statement declaring the event was cancelled saying ""Due to the distractions to the educational process caused by recent events. However, at this time, we feel that it is in the best interest of the Itawamba County School District, after taking into consideration the education, safety and well being of our students."

With this news the American Civil Liberties Union became involved in McMillen's case. Kristy Bennett, the Legal Director for the ACLU in Mississippi said "The district was trying to avoid the issue" and that "Banning same-sex prom dates violated McMillen's constitutional rights." Bennett also said "But that doesn't take away their legal obligations to treat all the students fairly, Bennett said. On Constance's behalf, this is unfair to her. All she's trying to do is assert her rights."

Following on from this on March 11, the ACLU issued a lawsuit against against Itawamba County School District. The ACLU cited reasons of "The school are violating Constance McMillen’s First Amendment right to freedom of expression."

McMillen supporting the lawsuit said "All I wanted was the same chance to enjoy my prom night like any other student. But my school would rather hurt all the students than treat everyone fairly. This isn’t just about me and my rights anymore – now I’m fighting for the right of all the students at my school to have our prom."