Grrl Power

Following on the heels of the 13-year-old Florida girl who bravely fought the state for her right to get an abortion comes this story of a teenage girl in Montgomery, Alabama, who was banned from participating in the graduation ceremony at her Roman Catholic high school, but decided to announce her own name and walk across the stage anyway.

Alysha Cosby's decision prompted cheers and applause Tuesday from many of her fellow seniors at St. Jude Educational Institute.

But her mother and aunt were escorted out of the church by police after Cosby headed back to her seat.

"I can't believe something like this is happening in 2005,'' said her mother, Sheila Cosby. "My daughter has been through a lot and I am proud of her. She deserved to walk, and she did.''

The school's guidance counselor delivered Cosby's degree to her house earlier Tuesday, but she still wanted to participate.

"I worked hard throughout high school and I wanted to walk with my class,'' she said.

This girl is awesome. Not awesome: that girls like Cosby and the girl known only as LG in Florida are forced into such bravery because they are treated like either property or dirt for wanting to make their own choices about childbearing. Even less awesome: that the elected members of the opposition party show not half of the guts and fortitude of these two teenage girls when faced with pressure from conservatives; if they had protected our rights and our country half as well as these girls protected themselves, we’d be in a much different place right now.

As a side note, I find it interesting that the Roman Catholic church refuses still to endorse or even allow birth control, and yet when a student at a Roman Catholic school turns up pregnant, they ban her from school citing “safety concerns,” bar her from the graduation ceremony, and even refuse to list her name in the program. Here’s the kicker:

The father of Cosby's child, also a senior at the school, was allowed to participate in graduation.

Pricks.