Transgender student misses graduation after Mississippi judge backs dress code

A transgender senior in Mississippi opted to skip high school graduation Saturday when the district refused to allow any deviations from the gender-based dress code.

The student, referred to in court documents as LB, was required to dress in “socks, dress shoes, pants, a button down shirt and tie” which is Harris County School District’s dress code for male graduates. In an attempt to earn more leeway in choosing a graduation outfit, LB sued Harris Central High School Principal Kelly Fuller, the Harrison County School Board, Harrison County School District, and Superintendent Mitchell King.

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U.S. District Judge Taylor McNeel upheld the dress code in a ruling Friday. McNeel is a Trump-appointed judge who oversaw the first hearing on Thursday and expedited the entire process in order to rule in time for the ceremony on the weekend.

“The loss of an opportunity to participate in a graduation ceremony is not an unconstitutional infringement on a student’s right to freely exercise his religious beliefs. A student’s interest in attending a graduation ceremony is ‘a social occasion in which students and their families and friends gather to mark an event.’ It is not ‘an important benefit’ the State confers,” Harris County School District attorney Wynn Clark wrote, quoting Smith v. North Babylon Union Free School District.

Clark also referred to the student with he/him pronouns in the opposition brief, unless the brief was directly quoting the complaint written by the student’s attorneys.

This student, meanwhile was represented by the American Civil Liberties Union who wrote on Twitter that the “decision to uphold the school district’s explicit discrimination” was “deeply disappointing and concerning.”

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“Our client should be focused on celebrating this life milestone alongside her friends and loved ones. Instead, this ruling casts shame and humiliation on a day that should be focused on joy and pride,” the ACLU Twitter thread read. “All Mississippi students should have the right and autonomy to be who they are—not who judges and school officials think they should be.”

Gov. Tate Reeves (R-MS) signed legislation in February that banned minors from accessing gender transition surgeries and hormone therapy after the bill passed the Republican-controlled state Senate.