For those who dance to the beat of their own drum, Pride Prom was the place to be — a way for people supporting their own colors to break free of the standard and take part in a memory that all young adults should have. For those who are unaware, Pride Prom is a prom based off of welcoming terms and acceptance for LGBT members, pride prom is known for being the gay prom. President of the Manhattan High School’s Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) shared her dismay about the lack of funding for the pride prom of 2015, “We don’t have the fundings for city-wide programs, because we are only allowed to do Manhattan High School programs,” senior Beckie Carter said.

“The people who were planning it this year were more focused on the pride parade than pride prom, so they did not have the funding for it,” Carter said.

After catching wind of the pride prom not happening, GSA had to consider other activities to take part in “We decided ‘well, lets have a picnic instead’, so we’re trying to arrange a picnic in city park sometime next month,” Carter said.

When discussing functions like the pride prom, Carter stressed the point of what it all stood for in her eyes, “[the issue] Is not with people, but I have heard about issues with parents,” Carter said, by then explaining a personal friend’s parents forcing her to attend prom with a boy rather than with another girl as she would wish. “There has been a problem with administration, so it seems like the only issues are with the older generation,” Carter said.

“You get strange looks from people, [when attending a function with the same sex] and I know that some people can’t handle that, and they take that very hard,” Carter said, “but at pride prom last year, I didn’t have to dress all girly and you don’t have to feel awkward or out of place.”

Carter made a point to stress that pride prom was not strictly for GSA members and supporters, stating that anyone could go, young or old, straight or gay. The event will be missed, “I don’t want to replace pride prom but it’ll  be nice to just do something,” Carter said.