If Don Nickles were majority leader...

we wouldn't have problems like this.

Ill. H.S. Names 2 Girls 'Cutest Couple'

Their story has played out like the name of a popular lesbian movie: "The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love."

It started last month, when the girls - longtime high school sweethearts - were voted "cutest couple" by their fellow seniors at Crete-Monee High School in the suburbs south of Chicago.

Administrators balked, at first. Then several students walked out of class to support the girls.

It is a drama that, for a time anyway, awakened this sleepy town, lined with antique shops, churches and cafes, and still surrounded by corn fields.

In the end, the girls' parents - though a bit shell-shocked - agreed to let a photograph of the couple appear in the school yearbook.

And last week, district superintendent Roberta Berry wrote a letter praising the students at Crete-Monee High: "I am proud to say that while other schools continue to address issues such as alienation, bullying and hate crimes, we have a student body that not only accepts each others' differences, but also celebrates them."

Upset, some parents and community members have called to complain and written letters to the editor of local newspapers.