Girl Yanked from Yearbook for Wearing Tuxedo

A Mississippi student’s senior portrait was pulled from her yearbook because she posed for the photo in a tuxedo (see left). That’s a problem because she’s a girl — and girls are supposed to wear girl clothes. Pretty things. Peony-print dresses. Ruched tops. Or at the very least, one of those gender-neutral nylon numbers they like to stick you in on graduation day.

(Are you taking notes, Shiloh?)

Thankfully, the American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit against the school, Wesson Attendance Center, for discriminating against Ceara Sturgis “based on her sex and unfair gender stereotypes" — a violation of Title IX. "I never thought that my school would punish me just for being who I am," Sturgis said in an ACLU press release. An honor roll student and athlete, Sturgis claims that on the day her photo was taken, she tried on the photographer-issued lady wardrobe (a drape meant to look like a dress or blouse; cool), but just didn't feel comfortable in it. At her mother's request, Sturgis was given a tux to wear instead.

Needless to say, the principal did not approve. He went Ed Rooney on Sturgis's freedom of expression and pulled her from the yearbook altogether; her name wasn't even listed among the rest of her graduating class.

Just more proof we live in a country that oppresses, sidelines and fears kids who don't follow the girl-boy behavior rules (got that, Shiloh?). This was evident back in 2006, when Kevin Logan was banned from his senior prom for wanting to dance in a dress and slingbacks; and, more recently, when Constance McMillen was sent with her lesbian date to a fake prom so that the normal kids could hit the floor elsewhere — comfortably. So low.

Of course, there's a certain degree of fetishism surrounding gender-bending, too. If we weren't in a recession, local newspapers would probably hire reporters to cover the cross-dressing beat alone. ("We need something splashy — go dig up a good cross-dressing prom story!") If people aren't disgusted by the "other," they're fascinated by it. But putting kids under a microscope — even if the microscope is rose-tinted — is cruel.

And school administrators should know better.

Photo credit: ACLU