Another bit of Texas.
It’s a shame that the story exists, but there are some good elements in it. Not least of those is the student’s unquestioning assertion of his rights. Schools clearly need diversity consultants!
And there’s a nice critical reasoning question, which needs to be asked before you get to the lawyer: Did he break the dress code?
Feminist Philosophers 
Referring to Ms. Chapman as”he” demonstrates a bias on the part of the individual who posted this story. It’s unfortunate enough that she was born with more androgens than the rest of us, and doesn’t feel comfortable in her own body; why torment her further?
Her attire is more than appropriate. She’s dressed like the AFTER shots presented in dozens of make-over shows I’ve seen this year.
O’Rhonde, you’re beautiful, and don’t let anybody tell you otherwise. If those rednecks force you to relocate somewhere north of that Manson-Nixon line, you might want to check out Toronto, Canada. We’ve been compared to the Dutch and the Swedes where attitudes toward gay and trans issues are concerned–whatever that means.
Stay strong!
Actually, I know the station reasonably well, and it’s quite likely they asked the young person in question which pronoun was preferred. Otherwise I would have remarked on that too.
Well, he didn’t mention anything about wanting to be regarded as a woman necessarily, although he does want the right to wear women’s clothing without penalty and he does want to be called O’Rhonde, which seems to be a woman’s name.
I think it’s pretty clear that the school was just looking for an excuse to kick him out of school–and I think the hair length rule for male students is absurd anyway, regardless of whether or not they are transsexual. It’s unfortunate that they decided to make an example out of O’Rhonde, who clearly did not intentionally violate the dress code, if at all.
The orginal station is KHOU, I should say.
I think the school may find itself facing a law suit, but we’ll see. I don’t think the lawyer’s interpretation is necessarily all that good.
Another good thing about the whole situation is that the student isn’t complaining about continual harassment from other students.
No wonder I became convinced around that age that no one over 30 could be trusted or even was particularly sane.
Ms. Chapman is definitely suing the school. I’ve been blogging about it for a few hours now. TransGriot was the only site that was PC with the pronoun.
The stupid part about the whole situation is that Ms. C’s lawyer has to argue her case on the length of the hair under the wig, not on her right to wear appropriate woman’s clothing to school. By that I mean she’s wearing an outfit similar to what’s worn by bank tellers, salespeople, etc., in shopping malls everywhere. It’s not like she dresses like Lady Gaga or something.
Other students are whining about what a “distraction” she is, “she’s advertising her sexuality…” BOO HOO! I have to look at hot, shirtless 21 year olds all day and pretend I’m thinking about some freaking categorical imperative too. (Not that this creepy old lady has a problem with our shirtless young mustangs). But it does appear that only a few students have a problem with her, and she hasn’t mentioned whether or not they have the gall to make those sorts of comments outside of the blogosphere.
One good thing about cheap talk–I mean spamocracy–I mean “the voice of the people”: the instant poll effect. It looks like Ms. C might have a shot at bringing about positive change with this suit. She has some support outside of the trans community.
By the by, JJ, I never would have guessed you were such a rebel. Thanks for sharing that with us. (I mean those of us that still experience intense Pavlovian reactions to certain types of rhetoric–my eye is twitching with the mere use of the word–rhetoric–bzzt–rhetoric–bzzt–like Cartman’s swear collar–bzzt)
So, the student “feels like a woman” but prefers male pronouns? Kind of surprising but I guess it’s possible. Is “cross dressing” the student’s own term?
Commenters, be nice, we’re all on the same side here. (Read these posts if you don’t believe me.)
Without question he / she was probably more appropriately dressed than the rest of the student population.
Yes he was breaking the hair length rule (or at least the clear intent of that rule). But of course it’s ridiculous to have a hair-length rule at all.
All men should have the right to at least dress like a woman.They should not be suspended from school. As we all know that only half of the popuation could be born female. But of course there are alot of men out there that wish they could have been born female as well. I think at the very least that men should be allowed to dress as a woman without having to worry about being supended or penalized. It’s only fair.
MediaCurves.com conducted a study among g 303 viewers of a news clip about a cross-dressing student who was sent home because of a dress code violation. Results found that that half of the viewers (61%) reported that they thought the school’s actions were appropriate. Furthermore, over one-third of viewers (37%) thought that the school’s actions were an act of discrimination and 55% said that if they were in high school they would support having this student attend their school.
More in depth results can be seen at:
http://www.mediacurves.com/NationalMediaFocus/J7618-SchoolDressCode/Index.cfm
Thanks,
Ben
Thanks, Ben. I think the NY Times had a similar report. This looks like a significant shift in public opinion from 5 or 10 years ago. It would be interesteing to know the ages of the respondents. I’ll look…