School Kicks Boy Out For Dressing Like A Girl

[spiderdj82]

Posted: 10/7/09 at 10:31am

Wow!

[Perfectly Marvelous]

Posted: 10/7/09 at 10:36am

This is so ridiculous. So the school says it's okay, and then because of fight, it's suddenly not? It doesn't even sound like the fight was that serious - just one student making fun of the boy and the other defending him. I can understand if it was an all out brawl and someone got physically injured. And he asked what was okay to wear and what not to wear, so that makes the school look even more ridiculous.

[madbrian]

Posted: 10/7/09 at 10:49am

A couple of years ago, my daughter brought home her HS yearbook, and we were looking through it together. I stopped at one page and asked my daughter about a particular picture, and her response was, "Oh, that's Phil". Phil was dressed in women's clothes and wearing a wig and makeup. I asked my daughter if it was for something going on in school that day, and she said, "No, that's how he dresses everyday". She then turned to other places in the yearbook and showed other pictures of Phil, all in similar clothing. We then went on to look at the rest of the yearbook.

The casual manner with which my daughter handled that, and the fact that she had never mentioned anything to us about it before then, made me very proud. Stuff like this makes me confident that the next generation is going to make great social changes.

[SNAFU]

Posted: 10/7/09 at 11:56am

Madbrian, that says a lot about the maturity of your daughter, the way she was raised and taught at home and the school system! Kudos to you!

[AbbaRabbit]

Posted: 10/7/09 at 11:57am

this just makes me so angry, and very sad.

Posted: 10/7/09 at 12:16pm

He's really quite pretty, but.....A hat?

Does anyone...still wear...A hat?

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 10/7/09 at 12:24pm

The bravery of some these young kids truly astounds me, as well as the self-comfort and knowledge it takes to live your life openly in a way that's certainly going to raise eyebrows in many aspects of your life. I can sort of commiserate with growing up gay, but trans kids really fight an even tougher battle. And this one is in Georgia, of all places, the poor thing.

I guess I'm taking a leap in calling him trans, since there's no mention of it in the story, but I guess I'm using it as umbrella term more than anything.

I just worry about the dropping out of school part, with no mention of anything taking its place while this is being resolved.

[StageManager2]

Posted: 10/7/09 at 12:25pm

Girls can wear jeans
And cut their hair short
Wear shirts and boots
'Cause it's OK to be a boy
But for a boy to look like a girl is degrading
'Cause you think that being a girl is degrading...

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 10/7/09 at 12:25pm

Does anybody know if there's a Phil fan club, because I would totally join.

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 10/7/09 at 12:34pm

I love this kid! And his friends...

I do wonder about the 1982 Linda Ronstadt do w/the hat. I assume that was the only wig available.

[AbbaRabbit]

Posted: 10/7/09 at 12:45pm

"Girls can wear jeans
And cut their hair short
Wear shirts and boots
'Cause it's OK to be a boy"

i can tell you from experience that it's NOT always "girls can dress like boys with no problem"
i recently had to switch schools because of it. people can be just as cruel to a biological female who dresses and identifies as a male.

[Marianne2]

Posted: 10/7/09 at 12:50pm

Unfortunately, I live in an area where this would not be allowed. Heck, my high school would not allow my female friend to dress up as Ken in a lip sync act competition where she and another friend were doing Barbie Girl. That did not please the student body at all.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 10/7/09 at 1:00pm

Abba, I get the intent behind what SM2 posted, but I get what you're saying, too. I think the middleground is that women have a wider berth in the clothing arena than men do, simply because you can be a "feminine" woman in short hair and boots a lot easier than you could be a "masculine" man heading out in public with a dress on. But I do get your point. When people are confronted with a glaring exception to what they consider "normal" expressions of gender, many of them flip out.

Posted: 10/7/09 at 1:10pm

While, of COURSE anyone should feel free to wear anything they want, If he turned up for school in Kennesaw in an outfit similar to what he wore for his TV interview- well, all I can say if a GIRL turned up at school in that outfit, she'd invite comment.

[HollyGolightly2]

Posted: 10/7/09 at 4:12pm

Maybe they kicked him out because they got complaints from girls that he was prettier than?

No surprise this happened in Georgia. I grew up in the south and I still don't understand it. (Though, interestingly enough, there was one cross-dressing boy at my Texas high school, and nothing major ever happened. There were whispers, but not much else.)

[Schmerg_The_Impaler]

Posted: 10/7/09 at 4:17pm

All I see when I look at him is that scene from Harry Potter in which Snape is dressed up like Neville's grandmother...

But yeah, we have a cross-dressing boy at my school, and he gets picked on a lot, but mostly just verbally, because he's just so casual and flippant all the time that insults really just roll off his back. He's not transgender, he just thinks that tight girls' clothes are prettier (he doesn't wear dresses or makeup).

[Jane2]

Posted: 10/7/09 at 4:20pm

He is fabulous and gorgeous and they're all jealous.

[theaterdude87]

Posted: 10/7/09 at 4:22pm

That's sad.

But I think he was kicked out for looking like Blossom (sorry couldn't resist).