Fricke v. Lynch
| Fricke v. Lynch | |
|---|---|
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| Court | United States District Court for the District of Rhode Island |
| Full case name | Aaron Fricke v. Richard B. Lynch, in his official capacity as Principal of Cumberland High School |
| Decided | May 28, 1980 |
| Citation(s) | 491 F.Supp. 381 |
| Court membership | |
| Judge(s) sitting | Raymond James Pettine |
| Keywords | |
| LGBT rights | |
Fricke v. Lynch, 491 F.Supp. 381 (1980), was a decision in the United States District Court for the District of Rhode Island that upheld the right of a gay student to bring a same-sex date to a high school dance. The Court ruled that existing free speech doctrine protected gay and lesbian students' rights to attend their proms with same-sex dates of their choice. The case was "one of the first successful victories in the courtroom for an LGBT issue involving young people, and is routinely cited each year in numerous cases surrounding the rights of students to bring same-sex dates to school functions."
In April 1979, a gay high school junior named Paul Guilbert sought his principal's permission to bring a male date, Ed Miskevich, a senior at Brown University, to his junior prom at Cumberland High School in Rhode Island. The principal, Richard Lynch, "denied the request, fearing that student reaction could lead to a disruption at the dance and possibly to physical harm to Guilbert." The Cumberland School Department denied a public hearing to Paul Guilbert because his father opposed his plan to attend with a male date. Guilbert and Miskevich did not attend the prom.
The next year, Guilbert's friend Aaron Fricke, who was also a gay student at Cumberland High School, again asked Lynch for permission to bring a same-sex date to a school dance. Lynch denied the request in a letter to Fricke citing the "real and present threat of physical harm to [Fricke], [his] male escort and to others."
Lynch also wrote that "the adverse effect among [Fricke's] classmates, other students, the School and the Town of Cumberland, which is certain to follow approval of such a request for overt homosexual interaction (male or female) at a class function" was sufficient ground for rejecting the request.
Fricke, represented by John Ward of Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, filed suit in the United States District Court for the District of Rhode Island, seeking a preliminary injunction that would allow him to attend the dance.
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