Following a previous story that a same-sex couple would be barred from attending a Mississippi high school prom together, and the happy news that members of the American Humanist Association donated the funds to host an alternate prom, there is now confusion after the New York Times reported yesterday that the ACLU may reject the $20,000 donation.

To avoid further controversy, the American Civil Liberties Union of Mississippi has rejected a $20,000 gift intended to underwrite an alternate prom replacing one canceled by a local school district after a lesbian student demanded that she be allowed to attend with her girlfriend.

The gift, to sponsor one of several privately sponsored alternate events, came from the American Humanist Association, an advocacy group whose mission is to promote “good without God.”

“Although we support and understand organizations like yours, the majority of Mississippians tremble in terror at the word ‘atheist,’ ” Jennifer Carr, the fund-raiser for the A.C.L.U of Mississippi, wrote in an e-mail message to Roy Speckhardt, executive director of the humanist group.

According to Matthew Sheffield, a spokesman for the Mississippi Safe Schools Coalition, the organization arranging the event, the A.C.L.U. of Mississippi did not have authority to decline the gift.

“We asked someone at the A.C.L.U. to assist us in handling all the donations, and that person told them we were not interested and that is not true,” he said.

Mr. Sheffield said that after getting answers to a few questions, their board would decide whether to accept the gift.

The alternate prom is scheduled for May 8.

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Todd Stiefel, a member of the Humanist Association who donated the money with his wife, Diana, said he was “extremely disappointed in the A.C.L.U.”

“You’d think they would have learned a lesson from the very case they’ve been working on,” he said. “The school board was trying to avoid a controversy by silencing a controversial minority, and now the A.C.L.U. is making the same mistake.”

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The Humanist Association said it had placed virtually no conditions on the gift.

Full article: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/01/us/01prom.html