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Loading ...Lesbian student in Miss. fights for tuxedo photo
10.16.2009 11:39am EDT
(Jackson, Miss.) Everyone at Wesson Attendance Center knows 17-year-old Ceara Sturgis is gay because she’s never tried to hide it.
But when Sturgis – an honor student, trumpet player and goalie on the school’s soccer team – wanted her senior photograph in a tuxedo used in the 2009-10 yearbook, school officials balked. Traditionally, female students dress in drapes and males wear tuxedos.Now, the American Civil Liberties Union of Mississippi has gotten involved, issuing a demand letter to Principal Ronald Greer to publish the picture of Sturgis in the tuxedo. The ACLU says it’s giving the school until Oct. 23 to respond before pursuing court action, said Kristy L. Bennett, the ACLU’s legal director.
A secretary for Greer referred questions to Copiah County Schools Superintendent Rickey Clopton, who declined to comment on Thursday.
Sturgis said she should get to decide how she looks in the senior photo.
“I feel like I’m not important, that the school is dismissing who I am as a gay student and that they don’t even care about me. All I want is to be able to be me, and to be included in the yearbook,” Sturgis said in a statement.
Veronica Rodriguez, 47, said school officials are trying to force her daughter – who doesn’t even own a dress – to appear more feminine.
“The tux is who she is. She wears boys’ clothes. She’s athletic. She’s gay. She’s not feminine,” said Rodriguez during an interview Thursday at the ACLU office.
Rodriguez said Sturgis took her pictures over the summer instead of with the other students last year, but she used the same studio.
In August, Rodriguez said she received a letter from the school stating that only boys could wear tuxedos. Rodriguez said she met with assistant Superintendent Ronald Holloway who told her he didn’t see regulations about the issue in the student handbook.
But when she talked with Greer, she said he told her it was his “conviction” that Sturgis wouldn’t appear in the yearbook in a tuxedo.
Bennett said the teenager’s constitutional rights are being violated. Bennett said similar cases, including same-sex prom couples and girls wearing tuxedos to proms, have been successfully challenged in court in other states. ACLU officials said they were unaware of any other constitutional disputes involving gay teens at Mississippi schools.
“You can’t discriminate against somebody because they’re not masculine enough or because they’re not feminine enough. She’s making an expression of her sexual orientation through this picture and that invokes First Amendment protection,” Bennett said.
There’s no state policy that deals with the yearbook photo issue, said state Department of Education spokesman Pete Smith.
The deadline for the photo to be accepted for the yearbook was Sept. 30. But advertisements for the publication are still being taken so Sturgis has time for her photo to be included, Bennett said.
Sturgis lives with her grandparents in Wesson, a town of about 1,700 founded during the Civil War in southwest Mississippi. The town’s Web site said residents “pride ourselves on our quiet way of life.”
Omg, these so called teachers in the school system need to stop interfering whit the U.S Constitution i.e. the freedom of speech, freedom of expression or freedom of thought.
Freedom of speech is the freedom to speak without censorship or limitation, freedom of expression is to indicate not only freedom of verbal speech but any act of seeking, receiving and imparting information or ideas, regardless of the medium used, freedom of thought is the freedom of an individual to hold or consider a fact, viewpoint, or thought, independent of others’ viewpoints.
People need to learn that they can’t be doing this, if the need to go to court then they need to do it.
Fuck their “quiet” way of life! You really can’t stop ONE person from being who they are just because a few people are uncomfortable! People need to realize that they can’t just write off a persons personal choices because its unethical, not in the bible, not “right”, JUST NOT WHAT THEY ARE USED TO!!!! I say get used to it real quick or just stay fuckin upset about it… Couse a change is coming.
I think this is a very important instance of a made community- one where the ACLU and this woman’s family are rallying for her defense. It’s these created communities- the ones that grow around a shared sense of purpose that are going to get these grassroots efforts legitimized. I applaud Veronica Rodriguez’s support of her daughter, and Ceara’s refusal to acquiesce to her school’s antiquated views on gender roles. I hope that she is allowed the picture she knows represents her best, and I hope this gives others the courage to stand up in their own fights for equality and fair representation.