World News | Transgender girl misses Mississippi graduation after being told to dress like a boy

JACKSON, May 21 (AP) A transgender girl in Mississippi did not attend her high school graduation after school officials told her to dress like a boy, and a federal judge did not block the officials’ decision, an attorney for the girl’s family said. Say Saturday.

Linda Morris, staff attorney for the ACLU’s Women’s Rights Project, said the ruling by U.S. District Judge Tyler McNeil in Gulfport, Mississippi, late Friday was “both disappointing and absurd.”

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“Our client was humiliated and humiliated for obvious discriminatory reasons, and her family was robbed of a once-in-a-lifetime milestone in her daughter’s life,” Morris said. “No one should be forced to miss graduation because of their gender.”

The ACLU confirmed that the 17-year-old girl — listed in court documents only by her initials LB — will miss Saturday’s event at Harrison Central High School in Gulfport, about 260 kilometers south of Jackson. graduation.

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Wynn Clark, an attorney for the Harrison County School District, said the student was “eligible for a diploma.”

The American Civil Liberties Union sued the school district Thursday on behalf of the student and her parents after Harrison Central principal Kelly Fuller and district superintendent Mitchell King told LB she had to obey the boy’s dress code. Graduating boys should wear a white shirt and black slacks, while girls should wear a white dress.

LB chose a dress to match her hat and gown. The suit alleges that LB wore the skirt to class and extracurricular activities throughout high school, including last year’s prom, and that she should not have been discriminated against during graduation.

According to the lawsuit, King told LB’s mother that the teen couldn’t attend graduation unless LB put on “boy-like ‘pants, socks, and shoes.'”

Participation in the graduation ceremony is voluntary and not a constitutionally protected right of any student, Clark wrote in court filings Friday. (Associated Press)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)