A trans high school student in southern Mississippi on Thursday filed a lawsuit against her school district after officials told her she couldn’t wear a dress for her upcoming graduation ceremony.
The 17-year-old girl, named in court papers as L.B., was looking forward to walking across the stage at Harrison Central High School in Biloxi to receive her much-awaited diploma in the presence of her friends and family.
Several months ago, in anticipation of her graduation, L.B. and her mother, Samantha Brown, began looking for the perfect outfit for the teen’s special day.
She ended up buying “a white formal dress and dress shoes online for the graduation ceremony in accordance with the HCHS custom of students wearing white for graduation,” which she planned to wear underneath the traditional graduation gown, according to the complaint.
Last week, however, L.B.’s excitement turned into frustration after Principal Kelly Fuller informed her she would not be allowed to wear the clothes she’d chosen.
“My graduation is supposed to be a moment of pride and celebration and school officials want to turn it into a moment of humiliation and shame,” she said in a statement. “The clothing I’ve chosen is fully appropriate for the ceremony and the superintendent’s objections to it are entirely unfair to myself, my family, and all transgender students like me. I have the right to celebrate my graduation as who I am, not who anyone else wants me to be.”
When her mother called the school district for clarification, Superintendent Mitchell King told her L.B. needed “to wear pants, socks, and shoes like a boy.”
King, who repeatedly misgendered the teen, cited a written dress code policy requiring girls to wear white dresses and boys to wear black suits, the complaint alleges.
The teen’s parents are now suing the school district seeking an immediate temporary restraining order allowing L.B. to wear her chosen outfit to the May 20 ceremony.
“It’s deeply offensive the school would choose to take a celebration of our daughter and her accomplishments and attempt to ruin it with such discriminatory action,” her mother said in a statement.
The lawsuit, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and its Mississippi affiliate, also names Fuller, King, and the school board as defendants.
It comes as the state faces a “complete attack” on the rights of LGBTQ people. According to the ACLU, Mississippi state lawmakers have introduced 25 anti-LGBTQ bills this year alone.