Gay Student Banned From Wearing Tux to Prom

La. honor student says she's skipping it in protest
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 6, 2015 4:04 AM CDT
Gay Student Banned From Wearing Tux to Prom
Two transgender high school students in Kansas walk hand in hand after picking up their tuxedos for prom.   (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

At Carroll High School in Monroe, La., the principal says, "Girls wear dresses and boys wear tuxes, and that's the way it is," according to the mother of an openly gay student skipping the prom to protest the dress policy. Honor student Claudetteia Love, 17, tells the New York Daily News that the school won't allow her to wear a tux and she considers it discrimination. "I've always dressed the way I dress. I've always been open. And no one has had a problem with it," she says. "But when the time comes around to celebrate everything I accomplished in high school—I was told that I couldn't do it because of the way I am."

Love—the school's representative at the annual Scholars' Banquet for top students—tells the News Star that she hadn't planned to bring a date to the prom, and friends opposed to the policy will also skip the event. But she may get to attend after all: After her story first surfaced, the school board president contacted the News-Star to say he believes the ban is discrimination and the superintendent will be speaking to the principal about it. "As far as I know there is no Monroe City School Board policy saying what someone has to wear to attend the prom," he says. "You can't just go making up policies." (At a New Mexico high school, seniors have voted to hold a Communism-themed prom.)

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