(no subject)
Male student in dress shut out of prom
Gay Indiana teen who dressed as girl all year considers filing complaint
The Associated Press
Updated: 7:22 p.m. ET May 24, 2006
GARY, Ind. - A male student who has worn women's clothes to school all year was turned away from his high school prom because he was wearing a dress.
Kevin Logan, 18, went to the West Side High School prom on Friday in a slinky fuchsia gown and heels. He believes officials discriminated against him by not allowing him inside.
"I have no formal pictures, no memories, nothing. You only have one prom," he said.
Logan, who is gay, received an $85 refund for his prom ticket Tuesday but was not satisfied. He said he is considering filing a complaint with the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana.
Sylvester Rowan, assistant to Gary Schools Superintendent Mary Steele, said school policy bans males from wearing dresses. Excluding Logan from the prom was based on "the dress code, not the student's homosexuality. That's his personal preference."
Tyrone Hanley, the youth program coordinator for the Gender Public Advocacy Coalition in Washington, D.C., said he often sees cases like this and called it gender-based discrimination.
"Prohibiting really short skirts for everyone is a fair dress code; prohibiting them for males is not," he said.
Logan said he had spent years defining and exploring his sexuality. This year, he took a major step by dressing as a female every day, wearing makeup, a hair weave, nails and girls' fitted jeans to school.
His mother, Donnetta Logan, said she was not surprised by what she called the ignorance of school administrators.
"I tell Kevin that in society there will be those who accept him and those who won't."
I find this upsetting. They didn't even wear anythign unappropriate. I think wow this easily could of been me...well had I been out in high school. The dress looks decent and they had been dressing as a female all year long but denied entry into the prom. Nothign was even said abuot bringing a date to the prom though there have been many instances of same sex couples denied entry to proms. Though here in colorado we have a gay prom in Denver and Colorado Springs where GLBT youth can go and be themselves but it makes you wonder why is a "gay prom" really needed. It's another form of segregations. Taylor County High School in Geoergia still has segregated proms fro black and white students. A country that speaks about freedom and progress sometimes and things are so backwards some places.