Crossdressing at school, legal advice?

[Dallas]

(I'm putting a duplicate copy on the WA site to get some other opinions.)

I was wondering what the laws where about gender variant students (such as myself) and crossdressing?

My dress code says:

... 5. Students are expected to wear clothing and accesories in keeping with their gender. ...

Is this legal for a public school? Because I think I read once that with gender variant students, you must allow them to crossdress.

Not that I'm neccissarily going to crossdress, I just wanted to know the laws and stuff. But I might. I really don't care. People hate because I'm me and I don't care what people think about me. But then again, being in the "Scene" crowd I guess it goes with the job.

But in the end... I know that it's not a good idea to crossdress at school unfortunately...

[Amanda (SO)]

I don't believe that there are any statutory cases regarding this subject. It is perfectly legal for a school to set a dress code. If that particular rule hasn't been or isn't challenged, it probably won't change.

If a case were to be had in regards to this, and the individual who wanted to CD won, it would THEN become illegal (as a matter of statutory law) for them to have this dress code.

I can double check with a few people though and make sure the information I've given is correct.

Hope this helps some!

[Absaroka]

I don't know what the laws say and they probably vary from state to state. But I imagine that someone who has presented as the wrong gender for their body would get one reaction and the person who wants to dress as the opposite gender from what they primarily consider themselves would get another. And the person who rejects the whole either/or dichotomy would get yet another reaction.

Absaroka

[Connie]

I was wondering what the laws where about gender variant students (such as myself) and crossdressing?

My dress code says:

... 5. Students are expected to wear clothing and accesories in keeping with their gender. ...

Is this legal for a public school? Because I think I read once that with gender variant students, you must allow them to crossdress.

Dallas,

I am definately not a lawyer, but often wondered about dress codes. Does your school's happen to specify what is "clothing in keeping with their gender" for the females? i.e. skirts, dresses and such.

I'm fairly sure there would be an extreme uproar if that was spelled out specifically. As such, females probably have the option of dresses, skirts, or pants, where males are restricted to pants (even if it is not specified in writing).

If I were to try to challenge a dress code, I would try to pin someone down to defining in detail the differences between male-appropriate clothing and female-appropriate clothing, and then attack the imbalance in options from there.

Just my opinion of course,
Connie

[DonnaT]

As long as there is a dress code, then it must be followed.

However, some dress codes are extremely vague and can be challenged.

I would suggest letting the ACLU make the challenge, however.

[Dallas]

Now note that I know that it's impossible for me to do this. I probably wouldn't even dream of doing it. Because I know that it is suicidal.

But yeah, I've heard of people actually being able to do it. Or even winning cases over this matter. It's very interesting.

Thanks for the response to the topic. I didn't expect this much attention towards the matter.

[Paulie]

This same type of issue came up not too long ago.

A guy in a school (I can't recall what state) wanted to wear a kilt. His heritage was Scottish. The school went crazy over it, said he could not wear a kilt. This was on the news and I believe the family was going to push the issue, although I didn't hear any more or follow up on it.

You could prob search out for more info.

[Amanda (SO)]

But yeah, I've heard of people actually being able to do it. Or even winning cases over this matter. It's very interesting.

If this is the case (people are winning in court), then a precedent has been set. Because of this precedent being set, when the next person goes to court to fight it, it should (hypothetically) be ruled in favor of due to statutory law.

The argument that is being used against it, I believe, is in regards to it being distracting and taking away from the educational experience.

I hope that made sense, lol

[Becky]

here locally, the school dress codes are set by the various boards- I honestly dont know if theres been a precedent here re cding/transgendered students. when i was growing up, wouldnt have thought to do it however because of the backlash. hopefully, times have changed a bit there.

[Gaven McLaren]

I am not a lawyer so anything I say take with a grain of salt. Contact your school board. As a transgender student you do have rights. It is also a matter of how much you are willing to publicly cross-dress. Are you going to try to fully pass or are you going to wear female clothes and not worry about what passing. I am now in the latter category. I know I look like a man in womans clothes because that is what I am. Good luck in what ever you decide.

[Dallas]

Eh... I'm not likely to dress at school. But I suppose you're right, as a trans gendered student I would have rights.

[Stephanie W]

Dallas, when a school has a dress code, they are entitled to enforce it. However, recent challenges to these rules by TG students have been met with increasing success because as Donna said, those dress codes have been far too vague. It's not enough to 'assume' the male dress code begins and ends with a shirt and tie and women's dress code is pretty much anything else.

When a student challenges the code, the schools are being forced to be more specific BUT they are also having to justify why a male cannot wear something that would fall into the cross gender realm. In some cases, they must also qualify what they consider a "distraction". That's where the courts will decide whether to either agree with the school's argument or uphold a person's right to freedom of expression and/or gender equality. You school dress code, which states. " clothing in keeping with your gender" is still relatively vague, so if you were serious about it, it's maybe worth a try. Good luck!

Stephanie

[Dallas]

You have an exelent point Stephanie. They are allowed to enforce it.

For example, there is the case of Pat Doe vs. John Yunits in 2000. The court declared that Pat Doe was allowed to wear girl clothes so far as it did not interfere as a classroom distraction.

And also, I found this at the Transgender Law Center website.

Transgender Law Center

School District can enforce reasonable student dress codes for the purposes of maintaining a safe and orderly school environment, and ensuring that the school can fulfill its educational mission. However, All School District employees must respect the right of a student to dress in accordance with the student’s gender identity.[12] Further, students should not have to chose between male and female clothing. Some students are most comfortable in and most themselves in clothing that is not clearly male or female or a combination of the two.

So, I would say that it's fair enough to fight. It would be odd especially since my school is new and has never faced ANY problems that needed attention in court. So this would be a big surprise to all of a sudden slam them with this.

In fact, in some way, and for some reason, I would find it a little bit funny since our school teachers and staff are really homophobic and all hardcore christian. It freaks them out if you say "Hail Satan!".

Oh and if you want a reference to the Pat Doe vs. John Yunits case, look here:

http://www.transfamily.org/library/archive/200106.htm

Scroll down a bit, it is the second article down.

[NancyDrew(SO)]

Last January there was a segment on the nightly news about a high school boy who sued to be able to wear skirts to school...and won! Claimed discrimination because girls can wear them... and they also get to wear pants. If they can cross dress, why can't the boys.
In March there was also a segment on the news about frivilous lawsuits by prisoners which the public has to pay for. One man who liked to cross dress was suing because he wanted more frilly underwear than the plain panties the prison gave him. Don't know whether he won or not. If he did, maybe the female prisoners sued for nicer undies too.
So this issue is definitely getting more legal attention. Could be an interesting term paper on Civics, Current Events, or Civil Rights Issues.