U.S. District Judge Taylor McNeel, an appointee of former
Republican President Donald Trump, said in filing late on Friday
after a hearing that he would not stop the Harrison County
School District from barring the 17-year-old girl, local media
reported. The girl was listed as L.B. in court papers.
"Our client is being shamed and humiliated for explicitly
discriminatory reasons, and her family is being denied a
once-in-a-lifetime milestone in their daughter's life," Linda
Morris, a staff attorney for the American Civil Liberty Union
(ACLU) Women's Rights Project, said in an email.
"No one should be forced to miss their graduation because of
their gender."
The ACLU sued the school district this week, on behalf of L.B.,
saying that it informed her she should could not attend the
ceremony while wearing a dress and heeled shoes, the Mississippi
Free Press said in a report. The school district's dress code
requires boys to wear a white button-down shirt, black dress
plants, black shoes and a tie or bowtie.
Mississippi lawmakers have introduced more than 30 bills this
year seeking to limit rights of LGBTQ citizens. In 2021,
Mississippi became the first U.S. state to ban transgender
athletes from competing in women's and girl's sports, when
Republican Governor Tate Reeves signed legislation.
The Harrison County School Board attorney Wynn Clark said in
court papers that participating in a graduation was voluntary
and not a constitutionally protected right, the Associated Press
reported.
Efforts to reach the school district and Clark on Saturday were
unsuccessful.
(Reporting by Timothy Gardner; Editing by Nick Zieminski)
[© 2023 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
Copyright 2022 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may
not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
|
|