RockWell
07-01-06, - 10:52 PM
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GARY — A male high school student who has worn women’s clothes to school all year was turned away from his prom because he was wearing a dress.
Kevin Logan, 18, arrived Friday at Avalon Manor in Hobart for the West Side High School prom wearing a slinky fuchsia dress and heels but was not allowed inside. He believes officials discriminated against him.
“I have no formal pictures, no memories, nothing. You only have one prom,” he said. Logan, who is gay, is considering filing a complaint with the Indiana Civil Liberties Union and possible litigation.
Sylvester Rowan, assistant to Gary Schools Superintendent Mary Steele, said the decision to exclude Logan was based on “the dress code, not the student’s homosexuality. That’s his personal preference.”
Rowan said it is school policy that males can’t wear dresses. Ken Falk, the ICLU legal director, said Logan’s First Amendment rights were violated. In 1999, Falk helped an Indianapolis male teen win a court battle to wear a dress to prom.
“All students have First Amendment rights of freedom of expression. Those rights can be overcome for the legitimate needs of the school. For example, you can’t protest. That runs the risk of disrupting instruction,” Falk said. “But the court found at a prom, those risks are lessened. It’s not a scholastic activity.”
Logan said he had spent years defining and exploring his sexuality. This year, he took a major step toward self-identity by dressing as a female every day.
“Last year, I could not be myself,” he said. He said this year he wore makeup, a hair weave, nails and girls’ fitted jeans to school.
Logan received an $85 refund for his prom ticket on Tuesday but was not satisfied.
Tyrone Hanley, of the Gender Public Advocacy Coalition in Washington, D.C., said he sees cases like this often. He called it gender-based discrimination.
“Prohibiting really short skirts for everyone is a fair dress code; prohibiting them for males is not,” he said.
GARY — A male high school student who has worn women’s clothes to school all year was turned away from his prom because he was wearing a dress.
Kevin Logan, 18, arrived Friday at Avalon Manor in Hobart for the West Side High School prom wearing a slinky fuchsia dress and heels but was not allowed inside. He believes officials discriminated against him.
“I have no formal pictures, no memories, nothing. You only have one prom,” he said. Logan, who is gay, is considering filing a complaint with the Indiana Civil Liberties Union and possible litigation.
Sylvester Rowan, assistant to Gary Schools Superintendent Mary Steele, said the decision to exclude Logan was based on “the dress code, not the student’s homosexuality. That’s his personal preference.”
Rowan said it is school policy that males can’t wear dresses. Ken Falk, the ICLU legal director, said Logan’s First Amendment rights were violated. In 1999, Falk helped an Indianapolis male teen win a court battle to wear a dress to prom.
“All students have First Amendment rights of freedom of expression. Those rights can be overcome for the legitimate needs of the school. For example, you can’t protest. That runs the risk of disrupting instruction,” Falk said. “But the court found at a prom, those risks are lessened. It’s not a scholastic activity.”
Logan said he had spent years defining and exploring his sexuality. This year, he took a major step toward self-identity by dressing as a female every day.
“Last year, I could not be myself,” he said. He said this year he wore makeup, a hair weave, nails and girls’ fitted jeans to school.
Logan received an $85 refund for his prom ticket on Tuesday but was not satisfied.
Tyrone Hanley, of the Gender Public Advocacy Coalition in Washington, D.C., said he sees cases like this often. He called it gender-based discrimination.
“Prohibiting really short skirts for everyone is a fair dress code; prohibiting them for males is not,” he said.