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Gay News: A Mississippi teenager is suing her school district after a photo of her in a tux was pulled from her high school yearbook.
By: Nigel Robinson
Ceara Sturgis
Ceara Sturgis
Lesbian axed from yearbook for wearing tuxedo
Eighteen-year-old lesbian, Ceara Sturgis, who has worn boys’ clothes all her life, was told that she would not be able to pose for her high school yearbook wearing a tuxedo.
It was school policy not to allow girls to wear tuxedoes in their photographs, the Wesson Attendance Center claimed.
Sturgis nevertheless posed for the photographic session wearing a tuxedo, but when she received her high school yearbook, neither her photograph nor her name appeared in the book.
The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit against the Copiah County School District contending that the school discriminated against her on the basis of sex and gender stereotypes.
The case has similarities with that of another Mississippi teenager, Constance McMillen, who won damages from her own school district after being forbidden from wearing a tuxedo and bringing a same-sex date to her school prom.
Sturgis said: “I went to school with my classmates my whole life, and it hurts that I'm not included in my senior yearbook as part of my graduating class.
“I never thought that my school would punish me just for being who I am.”
