Lance Sanderson
A Christian Brothers High School (CBHS) senior was told by school administrators that he wouldn’t be able to bring his male date to the school’s homecoming dance this Saturday.
Now the private all-boys Catholic school has issued a policy on its website stating that “CBHS students may attend the dance by themselves, with other CBHS students, or with a girl from another school. For logistical reasons, boys from other schools may not attend.”
Lance Sanderson said he discussed bringing a male date from another school to the dance with an administrator last year and was told he could. But that administrator left over the summer.
“I was sitting down talking to one of the current administrators over the summer, and at the end of our conversation, I mentioned it, expecting him to say the same thing. And he had a very different response,” Sanderson said. “He mentioned a [gay] couple in Texas and said I was a lot like this one person and said that the guy’s boyfriend murdered him. It was a little rough.”
CBHS declined comment on this story through its marketing and communications director John Morris.
Sanderson said CBHS convened a committee to look into the possibility of allowing same-sex dates, and the committee drafted the current policy that says boys from other schools are not allowed to come to the dance. Sanderson said the policy has been read over the school’s intercom daily this week.
“The way they worded it is ‘for logistical reasons, boys from other schools may not attend.’ I asked about it in a meeting [Tuesday] morning, and they said they didn’t want guys from our school getting into disagreements with guys from other schools,” Sanderson said.
Sanderson said he would be able to go with a male date from CBHS if he chose to, according to the policy, but he believed the administration would “paint it as we’re just friends going together.”
Sanderson has launched a Change.org petition to convince CBHS to change their policy.
