Mississippi school purges top student from yearbook for being lesbian

Ceara Sturgis, a top student at Wesson Attendance Center in Mississipi, has been purged from the yearbook. She attended the school for 12 years, but she's also a lesbian, and so they made her an un-person.

"They didn't even put her name in it," Sturgis' mother Veronica Rodriguez said. "I was so furious when she told me about it. Ceara started crying and I told her to suck it up. Is that not pathetic for them to do that? Yet again, they have crapped on her and made her feel alienated."
Sturgis and her mother commissioned the Mississippi ACLU to protest officials' October 2009 decision not to allow Sturgis' photo to appear in the senior yearbook because she chose to wear a tuxedo instead of a dress.
The ACLU wrote an October letter demanding officials use Sturgis' submitted photo in the yearbook, but Copiah County School District officials refused. Rodriguez said she expected the yearbook to at least contain a reference to her daughter on the senior page. What she discovered on Friday, when the yearbook came in, was that the school had refused to acknowledge her entirely.

School Cuts Gay Student Photo from Yearbook (Thanks, Matt!)

Previously:

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

MORE: Action • homophobe • injustice

More at Boing Boing

The technology that links taxonomy and Star Trek

Hackers prepare for first "national holiday" in their honor

geekygirluk

My mistake! Just read the full story. That is total crap. Allowing kids who have dropped out of school (and therefore presumably don’t care about the yearbook) to be in it, but erasing all record of a top student having attended the school? Frakkers!

And while I do try not to equate all US Southerners with being rednecks, stories like this that seem to be increasing in number rather than decreasing (happening more, or being reported more?) make it difficult to remember that there are Southerners out there who aren’t redneck morans(sic).
mgfarrelly

Y’know, I’m sure there are some damn fine people in Mississippi. I met some great librarians from Meridian at ALA, progressives and champions of the right to read

I feel bad for those folks when I read stories like this. Like they’re these little flickers of light against a dark backdrop of ignorance. What gives me hope is that, slowly but surely, the lights are getting brighter.
Anonymous

Is there somewhere we can send messages of moral support to these kids who are being discriminated against (somewhere that they are likely to read, and hopefully that’s moderated so the bigots are filtered out)?
ecobore

c’mon ACLU.. Sue these SOBs out of existence… It’s the American way, so use it… Discrimination is illegal surely, so presumably a civil suit for enough money would discourage any other school practising it….
Scixual

Her mom really said “suck it up”? That phrase always bugged me.
Anonymous

Just a quick note to all those people defending the American south:

- You say we’re picking on the south? No, I’ll tend to voice my displeasure any area that frequently seems to come up in the news as bigoted and hateful. Especially when it’s a government institution promoting the bigotry. I disapprove of Iran too.

- You say that it’s not fair for a few bad apples to taint every else’s reputation? Too bad. Hate the idiots giving you guys this rep, don’t get all defensive. You never seem to hear of Seattle, Toronto, New York, or Vancouver’s school boards promoting bigotry. If you’re that upset, call your state governor and complain to THEM about what a lousy message this school is sending.

This shit goes on too frequently and has BEEN going on too often not to paint the entire region with the same brush.

IF YOU ARE NOT PART OF THE SOLUTION, THEN YOU ARE PART OF THE PROBLEM.

Good day.
- Felton
  
  This shit goes on too frequently and has BEEN going on too often not to paint the entire region with the same brush.
  
  But I finally got used to the idea of being an evil American. Now I have to be an evil Southerner as well? I’ll see what I can do. :-P
- Anonymous
  
  What if I just left the South altogether? Is that cool? Seriously, sometimes it’s not worth it. Hopefully this young lady gets the hell out of the south and in the future is able to hang up this article on the wall of her office in some insanely successful career.
PapayaSF

I’m boggled that 1) anyone would name a school an “Attendance Center,” and 2) that there are still schools with 12 grades in them anywhere in the US.
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  If you google ‘attendance center’, the results are all for Mississippi schools. Maybe that’s the state motto: All You Need To Do Is To Show Up.
  - Felton
    
    That’ll never fit on a license plate. How about the “Just show up” state?
  - Shay Guy
    
    That old Why Nerds are Unpopular essay mentioned the primary purpose of a lot of American schools being just a place to keep kids inside for the bulk of the day, with education being secondary (noting the similarity to prison), and attributed the dog-eat-dog nature of student culture to that fact.
- Anonymous
  
  The high school I graduated from (in Nebraska) is a K-12 school.
Anonymous

Ahhh… Mississippi. Having lived right next door in Louisiana for quite a few years, I can say that this is not uncommon. My own school refused to let me walk in graduation because I would not wear a dress, even though I was in the top 5%. They also “canceled” powder puff football because the boys dressing up as cheerleaders was too gay… err.. I mean… violated dress code.
Dave McCaig

While all of this news of terrible treatment towards lesbian students is spreading through the internets, today I learned of a teacher here in BC who was fired for requesting maternity leave. The problem wasn’t that the teacher’s partner was pregnant, but that the teacher was ALSO a woman. This news outed her, and “parents had raised concerns that “girls might follow [the teacher's] lead.

Before any commenters rush to defend the school’s right to discriminate based on their religious principals (It was a catholic school) this was not a completely private school, it receives public funds.

http://www.ctvbc.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20100428/bc_lesbian_teacher_100528/20100428?hub=BritishColumbia

Given that Vancouver is one of the most secular AND gay-friendly cities in the world, I hope it’s not going to end well for the school.
orwellian

Wasn’t this the school that had the fake prom for the LGBT kids? Tell me there isn’t more than one school system like that!

I’m not normally in favor of suing the crap out of people until they are a puddle of broke-from-defense-fees-and-judgements but the school board, principal and everyone complicit in the prom fiasco need to be sued to the full extent of malicious lawyering. I’ll send the ACLU a check if they promise to make the school board cry.

Can someone in Mississippi give this poor kid a hug on my behalf?
millrick

“The students love and accept her,” Rodriguez said. “The kids even nominated her for prom queen, but she ducked out, knowing the officials would never let her be prom queen.”

I hearby nominate Ceara Sturgis as Queen of the Boing Boing Prom!

(there is a Boing Boing Prom, isn’t there?)
Anonymous

I live in Mississippi, and grew up in Alabama. I plan to be a pastor there, and I fully support LGBTQ persons, etc. Both myself and my husband receive backlash about this. Yes, there are progressive people and even cities in the South. But let’s not let our refusal to stereotype individuals blind us to the deep systemic injustices that perpetrate wrongs like this. Systemically, the South is broken — especially when it comes to issues like race, sexuality, gender, etc. If anyone ignores this fact in an attempt to “defend” people like me or places like Jackson, MS, the larger problems remain unnoticed and un-addressed. That only undermines everything we are working for; it is not a gift to us, and it is of no use to people like this poor girl. Just a thought. =)
Anonymous

You go girl and sue for discrimation
zyodei

Somewhere, on the other side of the Internet, there are forums and blog posts like this full of people congratulating and lauding the “no-gay” prom last month. They are brave warriors for Jesus, heroes of America, scourge of the Satan-spawned ACLU, etc.

And you know, there are a lot of people (on all sides of the political spectrum) who only read sources that are supportive of their views like that.

Being fed this information, they probably didn’t even really consider that doing this was anything less than noble and brave.

Twats.
Anonymous

I am ashamed to live in MS. :|

[captcha: deprived is]
imnotsayin-imjustsayin

rsnt s mny pnts n ths thrd, tht jst hd t rply t ths. Frst f ll, ‘m sr th rsn why thy lft hr t f th yrbk gs lttl dpr thn txd. Tht grl wnt t th prm t mk sttmnt; th schl prbbly gt trd f hr spwng hr “Hy gss wht, ‘m lsbn” rhtrc vry chnc th pprtnty rs. Nw lt’s tk mmnt t bw r hds t th pr lsbn wh spnds vry wkng mnt prfssng hw mch sh hts mn, nd w r t blm fr vrythng wrng wth th wrld. Sh hts s s mch n fct tht sh gs t grt lngths t mlt th thng sh dspss th mst. Bt fr b t frm m t vn mply tht LL lsbns r htfl, vngfl, sptfl wrtchd crtrs wth chp n thr shldrs… thn ‘d b n dffrnt thn ll f y bstrdzng th sth. Whch brngs m t my nxt pnt.

Thr r gnrnt ppl ll vr th wrld, nd w r n n shrt bndnc, whthr t b ntlrnt lsbns, ntlrnt rdncks, r ntlrnt Ynks wh thnk Sthrnrs r nfrr. f y wnt tr tst f ‘Prjdc’ sggst y g t Nw Yrk r Bstn. h, nd wld b rmss t pnt t tht th Kln rgntd n ndn. Lst tm chckd, t ws nrth f th Msn/Dxn ln.
- Nelson.C
  
  You’re “sure” of the reason this all went down? It reads to me like you just invented a lot of “facts” out of whole cloth. Even if you were 100% right, there are better ways to deal with that kind of behaviour than this passive-aggressive bait-and-switch.
  
  And that’s leaving aside the whole issue of societies that don’t allow gays and lesbians the right to express sexuality and affection in ways that straights tend to take for granted. Not to mention that you need to be disabused of the notion that all lesbians hate men; they just don’t want to have sex with them. It’s not a difficult concept.
Anonymous

How completely hillbilly of them. It’s, what, 2010 already?
funkadelic73

Sounds to me like she was left out for not following dress code. Since when does being a lesbian mean you have to choose a tuxedo over a dress?

The dress code policy is outdated, sure. But “PURGED for BEING A LESBIAN!” is a little sensationalistic.
- jackie31337
  
  I don’t know about this school’s yearbook photos, but my high school’s (in 1995) were taken in a strapless “drape” that looked like the top of a formal dress, and left girls’ shoulders bare. I would imagine a lot of people might object to that on grounds of modesty, regardless of gender stereotypes. Would they also exclude girls who don’t want to show their bare shoulders? An easy solution would be to just photograph everyone in graduation robes.
  - Antinous / Moderator
    
    My class’s (1975) photos were taken in whatever you wore to school the day they had the photographer show up. Some boys clipped on a bow tie, but other than that, nothing special. Very few students would have been caught dead in anything other than ratty blue jeans. I ignored the whole sordid ritual and went photoless. But then, when I was a lad, we didn’t have graduation ceremonies from kindergarten, grammar school and middle school as well as high school. Does the increase in ritual correlate with a decrease in learning?
  - peterbruells
    
    Err. waitaminunte. Does that imply that you care if the people are bad singers?
    
    Captcha “Germany smocks” – for a moment I really thought that was a message directed at me. Heh.
    - jackie31337
      
      Did you mean to reply to this comment from flowerofhighrank?
      - peterbruells
        
        Yes. Wrong click.
        
        Oh how I yearn for a Usenet-like comment system.
- Jer
  
  Rodriguez said she expected the yearbook to at least contain a reference to her daughter on the senior page. What she discovered on Friday, when the yearbook came in, was that the school had refused to acknowledge her entirely.
  
  Oh yeah. That totally sounds like she was left out because she refused to follow the dress code. :eyeroll:
  - funkadelic73
    
    I’d have to see a copy of the yearbook to be sure, but can YOU say for certain that there is a “not pictured” section of the yearbook?
    - funkadelic73
      
      I stand corrected– upon further review, it looks like her name was left off of the organizations/clubs to which she belonged as well.
      
      That’s a bunch of shit. Jer, you can have your eyeroll back.
- Anonymous
  
  Why on earth would there be a dress code prohibiting formal wear? Why should any woman in this day and age be required to wear a dress?
- Slappinbitches
  
  The defining factor is if the tuxedo was part of the boys dress code and I suspect it was , she technically wasn’t breaking the dress code rules. I would understand if it called for formal wear and she showed up for her picture in jeans and a t-shirt then yes it would be a justifiable picture pull. When I was in high school we had those who either didn’t match dress code (nothing really revealing) or just didn’t take a picture, however they were at least listed in the yearbook. We had girls that wore suits or guys who wore makeup or both genders that just had some really out there dress, but if it passed dress code they were in there. Maybe I just come from a really liberal town though.
  - Steaming Pile
    
    Tell ya what. If you really want to rile these people up, show up in a Hillary Clinton pantsuit.
- Anonymous
  
  If that were the case they would have included her name in the not pictured section. Instead they completely eliminated her.
- geekygirluk
  
  That was a totally different student at a totally different school Funk. And they had banned that student from attending her senior prom because she wanted to bring her partner *to the prom* as any student might, and wear a tux *to the prom* as all the boys probably were. There is no dress code that says a girl can’t wear a tux to a dance! They were just plain discriminating against her.
Anonymous

And you just know she paid in advance for a copy of the yearbook.

As we see in the Texas educational curriculum committee, all it takes is a few people in the right place to pull off this kind of thing. Bigots count on silence of the masses, indeed, many of them assume that the masses agree with them. Here’s hoping they hear otherwise. I hope a large number of the students make a stink, join the suit and/or ask for their yearbook money back.
Anonymous

Maybe that’s the state motto: All You Need To Do Is To Show Up.

The small print reads : in the correct gender specific clothing.
Zergonapal

The school is run by douchebags, I get that. But her mum is right, just suck it up. In a few years she will have put highschool behind her.
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  But her mum is right, just suck it up. In a few years she will have put highschool behind her.
  
  And she can enter the real world of being denied employment for being a lesbian or for not looking feminine enough? If you live in an area where the schools do this sort of thing, there’s a fair chance that employers follow suit.
Oshkosh John

One of many possible reasons for the apparent backward trend in Southern states might be the younger generation, as they graduate from high school, join the military or go off to college, and never come back. Scott Adams, in Dilbert, called this “smartsizing.”
Kevin Kenny

Any bets the next news story about this woman will be that the school is refusing to release her transcript? Or that she’s recorded retroactively as having failed everything?
boxlightbox

as sad as it is, mississippi really is this far behind.

so it really does represent progress for them, that this was even made into a public news story, and that this girl could live freely as lesbian without fear of stoning or being chased out of the county.

but the fact that missipp is SO far behind, i really feel shows how far to the right this country has shifted in the past 30 years. if the US had progressed closer to the speed of the rest of the “1st” world, this would’ve been a news story 10 years ago, not today.
Not a Doktor

If this wasn’t so sad I would of made a Justin Bieber joke. Also Constance McMillen is/was from Mississippi.

MISSISSIPPI: WE’RE AT MINIMUM TWENTY YEARS BEHIND.
- Steaming Pile
  
  Uh, that would be 1990. 1970 would be more like it, and that’s only because of the Civil Rights Act of 1965. Whatever won’t get the National Guard patrolling the state’s middle schools.
- zuvembi
  
  Closer to 120 years behind as far as I can tell.
  
  Scroll down to the ratification dates…
  
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirteenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution
Anonymous

Actually, I missed my senior yearbook photo shoots (unintentionally) and later found that I too was not mentioned anywhere in the yearbook. It seems that the source of all indexing and references in the yearbook is the student photo entry. Oh well.
- Anonymous
  
  ummm…. she didn’t miss her photo shoot. The school decided to erase her from the yearbook record.
pinehead

You’re right. We’re all wicked, vile little bigoted thugs down here in the south. Don’t ever come here. Don’t ever go anywhere, as a matter of fact. You’re much safer hiding in your house or apartment with the curtains closed and pinned. If you should even have a nightmare involving a southerner, you should immediately induce vomiting and call Poison Control. You may have inadvertently eaten grits. You know we do that, right? We’ll sneak into your beautiful enclaves and poison your yankee chow with our sick, toxic southern gruel. We do it because we hate you so much. But if we do it long enough, we’ll brainwash at least some of you. That’s why old yankees come to Florida; we’ve got them, and when they get here, we take their money and wait for the sunstroke to kill them off. Then we laugh and laugh and go lynch a minority member. You know how we are.

But seriously, if you think the entire southeastern US is just like rural Mississippi, you should probably go ahead and kill yourself.
- Anonymous
  
  “Estimates are that about two-thirds of KKK members are concentrated in the South, with another third situated primarily in the lower Midwest.” -Wikipedia, section on modern KKK.
  
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ku_Klux_Klan#Since_the_1970s
  
  Yeah, the problem IS the southern US. You don’t like it, stop complaining that people are painting you all with the same brush and DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!
  
  I agree, don’t visit the American south! To the inhabitants of the American south who are think they are not a cesspool of racism and bigotry, come visit us up here in Canada. It’ll blow your damn mind.
- Steaming Pile
  
  Well, pinhead, lots of Southerners really do hate Yankees. I lived there for six years. I know this to be a fact. A smattering of folks living in Dixie and not hating Yankees doesn’t make OP’s argument any less valid.
Boba Fett Diop

Wow, it looks like Mississippi saw all of the attention that Arizona had been getting this week and decided to give us a little reminder: “Hey, remember us? A couple of weeks ago? With the prom thing? Well, we’re still here being huge douchebags to LGBT people…and we probably don’t care that much for Mexicans either.”
IPFREELY

I hope they have to name the school after her.
ian71

The bigotry of the yearbook staff at this school is just as reprehensible as any other bigotry, including that of some commenters in this thread. If you’re so much better than these people Then You Should Act Like It.
Snig

The Taliban would love Mississipi for hating her freedom. Wonder if she had worn a burqa if it would have been OK. Not being anti-Muslim on this, really can’t understand France’s policy on restricting women who want to wear a burqa from doing so either.
cmpalmer

It’s hard to put analyze statistics since many states (yes, many Southern states – but not entirely restricted to the south) don’t have hate crime legislation and many victims do not identify sexual orientation as a factor, but here are few articles that point out the obvious fact that it isn’t an exclusively Southern issue.

http://www.now.org/issues/lgbi/stats.html

http://www.hrc.org/documents/A_Decade_of_Violence.pdf

http://socialistworker.org/2009/01/19/anti-gay-hate-crimes

As others have pointed out, the real endemic problem in the South is in the institutions and the “Good Ol’ Boy” network of politicians, administrators, and law. This is gradually changing, much faster in some places than others.

The thing that REALLY needs to change is the laws and the leaders. Every state in the US has its share of small-minded people – just look at the horribly violent incidents against gays in California and New York. The real difference is that in many Southern states, the governments and institutions do little to prevent this.

In my personal experience in more “backward” parts of Alabama, sexual orientation is very much a “don’t ask, don’t tell” thing. I’m not saying that is right, but I know several respected citizens of small towns who everyone knows are gay, but people just avoid the issue.

In the public school that my kids attend, there are quite a few openly gay students and I have seen no unusual level of hazing or discrimination (I say unusual because, well, this is high school, people make fun of what shoes you wear, so there is going to be name-calling and such). Nevertheless, these students are class officers, club members and leaders, and sure as hell aren’t omitted from the yearbook.

I was born and raised here and a lot of people I grew up with and around (including a few members of my family) were, sad to say, redneck, racist, sexist bigots. Mostly (among the adults) this was habitual as many of them grew up in Alabama before and during the civil rights movements. This “stuck” on some of the people I grew up with, but I’d say the majority were much more open-minded and accepting than their parent’s generation.
loraksus

I really like how all these places have finally started showing their true colors.

Yes, the south IS that bad, you were just being stupid and naive about it. It’s still full of racist, homophobic, sexist, xenophobic bigots – and that is NOT dying off with the older folks. The younger generation is growing up with the same views, they’re just a little more crafty about what they do.
- flowerofhighrank
  
  I think what’s happening is what’s happened all along: the gay kids, the rebels, the geniuses all move to L.A. Here, they put all those past slights behind them and move on. They go back for holidays for a while…then they stop, become a rumor, a question on Christmas Eve- ‘where’s Uncle Jack?’ ‘What ever happened to Uncle Jack?’
  And here in L.A., we just don’t really give a damn who you sleep with as long as you’re a good friend, a good writer, a good singer, whatever.
- Anonymous
  
  That’s kind of a jerk thing to say. Yes, a lot of states suck and a great deal of them are in the south, but that doesn’t mean the entire south wants to send gays to straight camps and send people who aren’t white to work in the cotton fields.
  
  I’m from Texas, which isn’t as south as some, but I also have southern pride. AND I’m a lesbian with a large group of people who don’t think I’m the worst thing that ever happened to the earth because of my sexuality.
- Mary
  
  Please do not blanket all Southerners. Some of us have hearts and compassion, and while attitudes may not change as quickly, they are changing. My old high school’s prom had 3 gay couples attend last year, and they let a lesbian graduate wear a tux in my senior year book and I graduated almost 10 years ago.
  
  Don’t act like you can’t find those attitudes everywhere, even in the North. The South is just an easy target.
- cmpalmer
  
  Being from Alabama, I resent being thrown into the same category as those racist, homophobic, sexist, xenophobic bigots in Mississippi, thank you very much.
  
  Granted, I live in Huntsville, Alabama, a city that has been frequently ranked in the top cities in the US to do work in, live in, and do business in and a city with one the highest (if not the highest) percentage of engineers and college graduates.
  
  I can’t say the same great things for the rest of the state, but all states and regions have their high spots and low spots.
  
  And what is it again that bigots and racists do? Make sweeping generalizations about large groups of people, emphasizing negative stereotypical traits? Would that include calling all Southerners racist, homophobic, sexist, xenophobic bigots?
  - loraksus
    
    I’m just really worried that there is a lot of denial there. So many people want to portray the south as not having these issues and that even though “it’s kind of rough down here, but it’s not as bad as everybody says”
    
    But it is, and the really dangerous part about it (imho) is that a lot of kids growing up there are still raised in an environment that fosters bigotry and hatred by adults who foster that. This is not a good thing and it’s going to cause problems.
    
    People being naive about the whole thing really upset me.
    
    I go to Alabama and still hear people talking about how “the niggers need to be wiped out” – sure, you have that in other parts of the country too, but it seems significantly more mainstream in the south.
    - Xopher
      
      I feel confident that anyone who said that here (Hoboken, NJ) would be instantly ostracized, and any politician heard to have said it would find his/her career ending at once.
      
      People do use the N word behind closed doors here, but it’s a MAJOR political tool against someone if you can show that they said it, ever, once, while drunk: doesn’t matter, you say it, you’re finished.
      
      So, yeah, the North is far from perfect, and the South isn’t a pure hellhole, but there IS a difference.
  - vettekaas
    
    Seems like it’s a-OK to make fun of Southerners these days. Not that bad stuff doesn’t happen in the south… not that bad stuff doesn’t happen in the north, either!
    
    An undergrad prof of mine made me realize my own anti-Southern prejudice when we were watching a video about how Americans view their own dialects of English (it’s called “American Tongues”). At one point a woman talks about a nice guy she met and decided to go home with… to the SOUTH. As they went further and further South, his accent got thicker and thicker. She started imagining her future kids speaking with the Southern accent and caught the first bus back home.
    
    This is what the prof said: “Yup she’s one of those people who tolerates everybody except for bigots and Southerners.”
    - Snig
      
      You’re right, I shouldn’t have said Mississipi, just singled out the pinheads who were doing this. And plenty of pinheads in other parts of the country, certainly plenty in my Northern highschool and throughout the world. Have met/worked with some very smart decent people from the South, was thoughtless of me.
    - Antinous / Moderator
      
      Seems like it’s a-OK to make fun of Southerners these days.
      
      Find some stories about schools in New England that treat queers this way and submit them via Suggest A Link. If all the stories about this subject come from one area of the country, what do you expect people to think?
      - Snig
        
        But the story does talk about how accepted she was by her peers, so it’s not universal for everyone from Mississipi.
        This story was discussed without slamming the the region, the state or people from Pennsylvania, and it’s pretty reprehensible too:
        http://www.boingboing.net/2010/04/20/spying-school-took-t.html
        
        This Yankee thinks our Southern neighbors have a point.
  - mdpaustin
    
    I’m guessing Tim James is not your favorite guy today?
    
    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/20100428/ts_ynews/ynews_ts1831
    - cmpalmer
      
      >I’m guessing Tim James is not your favorite guy today?
      
      Uh, no. Not at all.
Gloria

I found my own grad photo process vaguely demeaning. All the female graduates were given a bouquet of roses to hold, while the male graduates were offered a scroll. I decided to ask (politely) for the scroll instead, and the photographer said, “How about roses in one and a scroll in the other?” Whatever.

We’re taking this photo because I’m an *academic graduate* right, not because I’m female? Ok, then.
an0nymous

Mississippi! Goddamn!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUR9yWzN3zc
- llazy8
  
  Oooh! Good call, An0nymous.
Anonymous

why is everyone arguing with each other on the comment board? i don’t think anyone should be racist to anyone. even if you’re not used to their culture, stop fighting each other. besides, this is supposed to be about homophobes, right? not racists? anyway, i find it sad that any school system would do that to a student because of sexuality. everyone should be treated equally, and i think it’s such a pity that her success in her academic performance won’t even be remembered because of the board’s decision. tsk… :(
Snig

Snooty regionalism sucks. Matthew Shepard was not killed close to the South.
Anonymous

It’s good to see that out of only 5 comments, 40% of them are typical Devil’s Advocate comment board bullsht.

Backwards, ignorant school district leaves out lesbian. Not really anything subjective about it.

It’s 2010, how do areas of our country even function being this much “out of the loop”?

I like the Justin Bieber reference though.
J Taj Bozeman

r ll f y ppl hgh r wht? Sh ws dnd pctr nd mntn n th yrbk bcs sh’s lttl brt wh thnks tht th rls pply t vryn bt hr. Sh rfsd t bd by clrly sttd schl rls n trms f drss cd. ll bys wr txd nd ll grls wr drss.

Y cn’t jst rfs t fllw th rls, thn scrm, “‘m lsbn, s t’s ky!” nd smhw tht’s lrght. Tht’s nsnty.

f by dcdd h wntd t cm n t-shrt, w cn sfly ssm h wld hv bn gvn th sm trtmnt.

s ths wht w wnt t tch r kds? Rfs t fllw th rls, thn scrm, “‘m vctm!” n rdr t skrt th lttr f th lw?

W’r dmd whn w thnk t’s cvl rghts ss t vlt drss cds n hgh schl. Yh, yh, knw. Gys nd lsbns r nttld t spcl trtmnt s ptntl vctms. Th rtnl flks hr cn’t hnstly blv tht nnsns.
- Anonymous
  
  Did you RTFA, J Taj? They could have just put her in the “not pictured” section and not used the photo. Instead, she was erased from every club and activity. Students who dropped out were included in the yearbook, but she, an excellent student, had every. last. mention. deleted.
  
  This is unacceptable. This is bigotry. And while I think she should have the right to wear a tuxedo, because it’s allowed formal wear, again–they could have refused to print her photo.
  
  Erasing her from all memory in the yearbook? Despicable and crystal clear bigotry.
mellowknees

I’d like to submit that Mississippi hasn’t met my dress code ever, and therefore should not be shown on any maps of the US.

What kind of school has a dress code for its senior photos anyway? I graduated 20 years ago, and I seem to recall that we had kids in formal attire and kids in tie dye tee shirts next to each other on the same page.

And this:
“…It is the desire of the Copiah County School District…that its position is not arbitrary, capricious or unlawful, but is based upon sound educational policy and legal precedent…”

Educational policy includes insisting that girls wear dresses? What does that have to do with education? I’m smarter if I’m in a skirt, eh? Why, I had no idea that wearing pants interfered with my educmacation. But then, how would I? I is just a dumb girl.
- chgoliz
  
  No, the point is that you’re dumber in a skirt…and that’s just the way they like it.
  
  (Speaking from their perspective, obviously; I don’t think anyone is dumber in a skirt, except in the middle of a Chicago blizzard)
Xopher

[Long rant about sealing off the borders of Mississippi and not letting anyone in or out except for rescues of LGBT people deleted here by the author, as unfair to a state that, despite its appalling record in the past and especially in recent times, still is home to many good and decent people, not all of whom are LGBT. The author has to keep reminding himself of that, since he keeps seeing these stories of one kind of scumbag or another out of Mississippi lately.]
- Anonymous
  
  “If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem.” -Eldridge Cleaver (1969)
- Wardish
  
  One might consider living in such communities to be a learning disability.
  
  You have to work much harder to become a decent human being. Some (many?most?) never recover.
  
  Is there a difference between letting a state secede, which isn’t allowed since the civil war, as opposed to kicking the state out of the union? Or better yet a county by county, or parish cause I wouldn’t want to leave Louisiana out, basis since there are good areas in any state.
J Taj Bozeman

By th wy, cn smn (NYN) pls xpln hw bng gy r lsbn s pss t gnr th drss cd? f gy stdnt s llwd t vlt drss cd, shldn’t ny stdnt b llwd t vlt th drss cd? f s, why hv drss cd t ll? n fct, why hv NY cds whtsvr? Lt th kds d whtvr thy wnt, s lng s “t fls gd” nd thy’r ky wth wht thy’r dng? Rls r fr sckrs, rdncks, nd bgts nywys, rght?
Dan Mac

Unpersons on BB? Nah..couldn’t be….
Anonymous

Funny thing about that photo – doesn’t it look just a little like Amy Ray and Emily Saliers at first? :)
Childe Roland

I was born and raised in the South and have lived in 4 different Southern states. I live here now, simply to keep my marriage together. It cracks me up to find people defending it.

The South is every bit as bad as it’s represented to be. As racist, as hating, as redneck, as small-minded and anti-intellectual. If anything, people minimize the issues with the South. Believe me, Mississippi isn’t the only state that hates gays and lesbians. I can name about 13 more very capable of doing the same thing.

Southerners who get insulted when other people stereotype them have nothing to complain about. They choose to live where they live.
- Brainspore
  
  I spent a couple years in the south. I met some rednecks and some non-rednecks. If I was one of the latter I would be offended if other people just assumed me to be the former.
- invictus
  
  The South is every bit as bad as it’s represented to be. As racist, as hating, as redneck, as small-minded and anti-intellectual.
  
  …much like the North, except it’s a different flavour of small-minded anti-intellectualism.
- invictus
  
  No, I’m sorry. I focused on the first part of your comment, neglecting to address the last two sentences. Which are probably the most ignorant and bigoted thing I’ve read all week.
  
  Try this:
  “Blacks who get insulted when people stereotype them have nothing to complain about. They choose to be black.”
  
  “Muslims who get insulted when people stereotype them have nothing to complain about. They choose to keep their religion.”
Anonymous

Why don’t we put together a little benefit to raise money for hundreds of ‘extra pages’ to be printed…. that students can include into the yearbook? I can’t imagine most of the students wouldn’t participate. (wishful thinking maybe)? In any case, I have a band that would be totally down for a benefit concert. :)
Lauren O

I like how over half the comments in this thread are about prejudice against Southerners, when the story being reported demonstrates how Southerners really aren’t the oppressed ones. Were you ever excised from your yearbook for being Southern? Were you ever disallowed from going to your prom for being Southern? No? Then maybe you’re not the one who should be complaining about prejudice in this particular thread.

I live in Texas, I know what it’s like to be depicted unfairly because of where I live, but it’s really nothing compared to the crap LGBT people like Ceara Sturgis have to go through. The fact that this conversation got relocated from how unfairly this girl was treated to how unfair it is when people insult innocent Southerners is ridiculous.
Anonymous

Seems to me the difference is that there is bigotry everywhere (yes, even CANADA!!!) but in some parts of the southern US, the people in charge get in on the act. I’ve been called a faggot just for dressing weird in Central California, but this sort of school sanctioned bigotry would not be tolerated here.
usernamenumber

Not that this isn’t still an extremely pissy and angering situation, but the JFP article that BB sources for this post now includes the following update:

“Thanks to a watchful reader, the Jackson Free Press discovered today that reporter Adam Lynch originally misinterpreted Veronica Rodriguez’s phone call about her daughter’s yearbook. The above story originally reported that the yearbook contained no mention or photos of Sturgis or her accolades, but we confirmed from her mother today that she is pictured in sections other than the senior-portrait section. We have edited the above story to reflect this fact, and added the above bolded paragraph based on our conversation with Sturgis’ mother today. We have requested a copy of the yearbook, and will update this story further if needed once we receive it. We apologize for the errors and thank the reader who pointed out the mischaracterization.”

I hope BoingBoing will do the responsible thing and acknowledge the error, without letting the school off the hook for refusing to print the photo of a student who wears the “wrong” gender’s clothing, as though it’s some kind of obscenity.
- cmpalmer
  
  [begin Emily Litella voice]
  Never mind
  [end Emily Litella voice]
- Xopher
  
  Well, that does change everything. I mean, their dress code is stupid, but the newspaper made it seem like she was vaporized a la 1984! Now it’s time to rant about how stupid a newspaper can be.
  
  However, it was not BoingBoing’s mistake, or any of ours. We reacted appropriately (most of us) given the information we were supplied in the article.
grimc

If your outrage is more about what people are saying about the South than what happened to this girl, you might be a…
- Felton
  
  Good point, actually.
LunarMovements

The school board in question is obviously run by people who are ignorant and hateful. It’s both sad and shocking that this kind of thing still happens in 2010. I hope the young woman goes to a much more enlightened university so she can make many wonderful memories to outshine this terrible one and go on to live a joyful and fulfilling life.

That being said, Iâ€™d like to address the contents of some of the comments here. In the first place, there’s a lot of hate speech being leveled here against southerners. I suppose it is comforting to believe that homophobia, and bigotry in general, are the exclusive purview of the south. Comforting, but incorrect. There are plenty of hateful words and deeds inflicted on the LGBT community in both urban and rural areas of EVERY STATE IN THE UNION.

Secondly, every comment here about hillbillies and rednecks is, in itself, an example of assigning behaviors and beliefs to persons strictly due to them belonging to a particular demographic. Is that not the very definition of prejudice? Being poor and southern does not make one espouse particular beliefs anymore than being poor, black, and urban makes one destined to a life of crime and drug abuse. I would advise people to be careful when hurling around stereotypes. Like nun chucks, they can smack you upside the head when you least expect them to. That both smarts and makes you look like a fool.
SarahR

I’m angered by what many of you have said to generalize and bash my state. You simply do not understand, and I say this because you have not lived here or tried to see the direction crucial areas of MS are moving in. If we are such hicks, why don’t you save us with your oh-so-superior intellect and moral rectitude? I am fortunate enough to live in and go to high school in the capital city, where the public schools at least are open and accepting of LGBT students. My school specifically is called “dyke city” by asshole kids because we have a large number of lesbians (gay boys not so much), but even we have odd, stupid dress codes when it comes to yearbook and especially prom.

We can bring same sex dates to prom, no problem, but by no means can girls wear tuxes or guys wear dresses. It’s just one of those ludicrous things that you have to suck up sometimes. However, there is going to be an LGBT prom in the state next week, with transportation provided, for those who did not get the chance to express themselves as LGBT kids in my school district have had the right to. Surprised? You shouldn’t be. I would be going as a straight supporter, but I have AP exams all the next week on top of my job.

Also, I would suggest everyone click on the full story; it links to the Jackson Free Press website, one of the most forward thinking media outlets in the country. Peruse the site a little, and I guarantee that you’ll see just because frustrating things are happening here doesn’t mean there aren’t fellow Mississippians fighting them. Take care.
- Dewi Morgan
  
  I had a girlfriend from Saudi Arabia, and she always claimed that women were treated really well there, and that sexism wasn’t rife. Sure, she said, some women weren’t allowed to be educated, but her father was a bit radical, so she was educated. Sure, she said, women weren’t allowed to show their hair *in public*, but it was fine in your own home, so long as there were no visitors. Sure, there were special clothes-police with no job other than to enforce the national dress code on women, but they wouldn’t deliberately keep women in a burning building if they were improperly dressed: they’d just make sure they were moved somewhere private as fast as possible. And it was for the women’s protection, so the men wouldn’t rape them. And so on, and on, a litany of subjugations that she described as freedoms.
  
  It broke my heart. It made me cry “Is it really that BAD?” And she told me I simply did not understand.
  
  And reading the comments here from people in MS trying to defend their state… I get the same feeling.
  
  SarahR writes: “I’m angered by what many of you have said to generalize and bash my state. You simply do not understand [...] My school specifically is called “dyke city” [...] we have odd, stupid dress codes when it comes to yearbook and especially prom. [...] by no means can girls wear tuxes or guys wear dresses. [...] there is going to be an LGBT prom in the state next week, with transportation provided, for those who did not get the chance to express themselves”
  
  Is it really that BAD?
  
  mgfarrelly writes: “I met some great librarians from Meridian at ALA, progressives and champions of the right to read”
  
  That cause even needs championing? People actually DON’T have that right somewhere?
  
  Is it really that BAD?
  
  infinity writes: “it’s okay to have a gay sibling or an african american friend (or be genderqueer yourself,) and no one cares unless you start talking about it.”
  
  You have to keep it a secret if you have a gay relative or a black friend, or it’s “not okay”?
  
  Is it really that BAD?
- Matt
  
  Separate but equal proms! What a novel idea. It worked exceptionally well in the schools.
  
  What I really love about Southern Conservatives is that they keep using the same failed strategies to defend bigotry. At some point, you have to accept that all men (def: people) are created equal and that alternative lifestyles are not criminal.
  
  It would be great to get a news article out of Mississippi like “Mississippi school board doubles school funding” or “Mississippi commits resources to double college attendance”. Nope. I wonder if Mississippi is going to be pissed when they find out that Oklahoma steals last place from them in the category of budget deficit this year.
- Xopher
  
  Well, brava Sarah R! Thanks for that bit of perspective.
Anonymous

Oh the red white and blue
America, America this is you!

I feel ashamed to share the same continent with the USA.

AMERICANS: This is your damn country doing these things! This reflects on the rest of you! We don’t differentiate between “Mississippi” and “The Rest Of America” here in the big wide world, what one state does taints you all! You are letting a few moronic states taint your entire country!

-RTM
- cmpalmer
  
  Isn’t this the same reasoning that says everyone in the Middle East is a terrorist?
  
  Human beings can’t help but automatically create generalizations based on what we encounter, but most intelligent people are fully capable of recognizing that the actions of a few people (or even one person) should not “taint” the perceptions of the whole and should be able to see beyond the stereotype into the individual or at least do some statistical weighting of the good and the bad.
  
  If all of humanity is one big global family, does that mean we’re all racists, mass murderers, rapists, fascists, and terrorists? “Tainting” the US in your mind based on the actions of a group of redneck bigots is even worse than lumping the whole South into such a stereotype.
  - Antinous / Moderator
    
    Isn’t this the same reasoning that says everyone in the Middle East is a terrorist?< ?i>
    
    It’s more like people in Kabul saying “WTF is up with Swat?”
  - mlw99
    
    So true cmpalmer. I believe that humans generalize because our brains don’t have the computing power to treat each person individually. To make sense of the world, we group individuals together based upon what we perceive as common attributes. The trouble is, our prejudicies, perceptions, biases, ignorance, fears, upbringing, et. al. all blind us to exactly HOW we come to those generalizations and also blind us to the fact that all generalizations, by their very nature, are simply lazy conveniences we use during communication.
    
    Sadly, it also blinds us to the fact that there are always exceptions inherent in generalizations. Even when we acknowledge those exceptions, again our biases and prejudices exert their influence (e.g., that rich black man is an exception to the rule that most black men are irresponsible and lazy VERSUS that poor white man is an exception to the rule that most white men are responsible and go-getters).
    
    Methinks the solution is simply more RAM for our brain so each individual is evaluated and processed on their own attributes and merits, not because our current internal database limitations cause us to impose arbitrary groupings which, for all intents and purposes, are logically, practically and statistically useless.
    
    Ah, but even the appeal of treating each person so individually begs its own problems, it requires individual identifiers. It may be okay on a person-to-person basis, but on a government-to-person or google-to-person or direct marketer-to-person basis, well, we’re already there. Bah humbug.
  - Xopher
    
    I suspect that may have been tongue-in-cheek on Anonymous’ part. However, since s/he doesn’t identify where s/he is from, it’s still cowardly bullshit, even t-i-c.
  - Felton
    
    Isn’t this the same reasoning that says everyone in the Middle East is a terrorist?
    
    Pretty much. But since I’m sick of arguing with people who paint with such broad strokes, and since I do understand the reason they’re pissed and agree with them, I’ll just say to these specific people in Mississippi and elsewhere: stop making us look bad, you ignorant, racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, xenomorphic, stereophonic, etc. pricks!
    
    Whew, that felt good! :^)
    - cmpalmer
      
      I agree. I have no problem calling out redneck bigots for what they are, just in someone grouping whole swaths of the country into those categories.
      
      And having gay friends who grew up in rural Alabama, I know it wasn’t easy on them, but I don’t think any of it was as bad as how this girl was treated.
Anonymous

“The Taliban would love Mississipi for hating her freedom. Wonder if she had worn a burqa if it would have been OK.”

I’m not arguing the school did the right thing here – the did not – but please, the Taliban would stone her to death not make her feel unwanted.

Some perspective is needed, folks.
howaboutthisdangit

I wonder what their dress code is… bare feet and a burlap sack?
mccrum

What, high school doesn’t suck enough already that they need to keep f*(king with kids these days?
querent

Brother, I grew up in Lincoln County, graduated in 99, and they threatened not to let me if I raised hell (that’s right, “raised hell”) during the prayer.

I left for Berkeley the following fall.

It’s a wide, wide world.
Anonymous

Damn, I guess I’ll have to pony up ACLU dues again. I had stopped after W left.

Mississippi sure knows how to motivate top students. I wouldn’t doubt it if she becomes an ACLU attorney.
Anonymous

Well, I suppose a lot of the South is like this, especially in rural areas, but not all of it is. Here in Gainesville Florida, we just elected an openly gay mayor (admittedly by a very narrow margin), and last year in a referendum we upheld an ordinance for equal access to bathrooms for transgender people – not by a narrow margin, and in the face of a well-organized effort to strike it down.

The South, and the US for that matter, are pretty backward, but we are making progress.
christina

This type of behaviour is awful and makes a person feel they are not equal or relevant. How could they do this to another human being and a young person at that. We are all special and different and that is what makes us unique. I hope this young girl goes on to be happy with who she is and not think about what others think of her.
Anonymous

Once you know your child is gay, it’s pretty much child abuse to stay in a place like MS. I’d be moving quickly to get out. Actually I’d move from MS under any convenient excuse. “Oh look a cloud, honey start packing.”
querent

Letter I just wrote to the principal, at the following email address:

ohawkins@copiah.k12.ms.us

Hello,

My name is William Felder, and I graduated from Brookhaven High School (Lincoln County, MS) in 1999. I was a very unusual youth, but was quite gifted. I was consistently outspoken, and was threatened with expulsion if I made an issue over a prayer being held during the graduation ceremony (something I felt and feel violated the principle of “Separation of Church and State”).

I did graduate, and went on to study mathematics at the University of California, Berkeley (perhaps the top university for mathematics in the world). I am currently a graduate student in mathematics.

An educational institution should never vilify the unusual and reward conformity. Those that are punished may be the most intellectually gifted of your students.

I do not perhaps have all the details surrounding the Veronica Rodriguez case, but unless I am mistaken, what you have done is appalling. If it was a simple omission, apologies should be forth coming. If it was deliberate, it was a malicious act of bigoted prejudice, and likely of religious intolerance. Remove first the plank before you can see clearly.

Sincerely,
William Felder

PS: I understand that the justification is given that this is not an issue of her sexual orientation, but is simply a matter of a dress code violation. Then why no mention at all of the student? And even if the dress code issue is the root issue (which all who see this story will doubt, as I do), would it not be better to bend such a rule than alienate and hurt a young adult?

PPS: This story has broken in a huge way on the internet (if you weren’t already aware of that), and is a sad continuance of Mississippi’s insistence on earning the reputation it bears in the rest of the world.
- Xopher
  
  EXCELLENT. Nicely judged, avoids insulting them in a way that makes it easy for them to reject your point, calls them on their bigotry and cruelty. That’s really, really good.
- Felton
  
  Nicely done, querent.
Antinous / Moderator

Back on topic, please.
moose_hp

Would you guys react exactly the same if it was a guy wearing a prom dress instead of a girl wearing a tux?

Not trolling, just curious about it.
- Anonymous
  
  I seem to remember a couple of guys wearing dresses on the court at my high school. This was a Midwest, K-12 private christian school to boot. I would say they “got away” with it because it was advertised as a joke and not a sexual preference.
- Felton
  
  Sure, as long as it’s tasteful. ;-)
  
  Actually, my best friend wore a dress to school on the one day I was absent my senior year. It was apparently a little social experiment to see what kinds of reactions he’d get. A couple of people threatened to beat him up, but nothing really happened, and it was quickly forgotten.
  
  I have no idea what would have happened if he insisted on wearing it for his yearbook picture, but it would have been interesting to find out.
- grimc
  
  I’d react exactly the same even if the guy wearing the dress did so as a joke rather than express his sexual identity. Wearing gender-opposite clothing for a yearbook picture does not merit erasure.
infinity

just goes to show you how inconsistent these things are in the south. in my high school in texas in the mid 80′s they let me wear a tux for my photo. of course, i had been dressing like a guy the whole school year.

but also, i was pretty closed lipped about my gender status. not that ceara should be quiet about it. just saying that there’s this weird “just don’t talk about it” attitude in the south sometimes. it’s okay to have a gay sibling or an african american friend (or be genderqueer yourself,) and no one cares unless you start talking about it.

anyway, kudos to ceara and her mom for speaking up about it and not letting the knuckle-draggers get away with it unchallenged.
zootboing

Mississippi: So far down the social scale that we’ve stopped even TRYING to act like a civilized society.
Anonymous

i’d be more embarrassed to be IN the yearbook than to be omitted from it… (sorta the opposite of that groucho marxism: i’d rather not be a member of a club that would have somebody like me as a member…)
Xopher

I was pleased to discover that in this case, unlike the prom case, the students were entirely blameless. This was entirely about the administrators being dicks.

What the hell is WRONG with these people?!?!?
- arikol
  
  Xopher, that prom case also broke my heart.
  
  This girl here wanted to go as herself, probably not big on dresses (based on the fact that she preferred a tux, nothing else).
  I’m just surprised (as I am regularly) that this backwards way of thinking still exists anywhere, let alone in a school (and a public school, at that).
  Disgraceful behaviour from these adults who are supposed to ensure fairness and equality for these kids. I hope my kids don’t get idiots of this type passing for educators.
- _OM_
  
  “What the hell is WRONG with these people?!?!?”
  
  …Products of selective inbreeding, natch.
  
  “And here in L.A., we just don’t really give a damn who you sleep with as long as you’re a good friend, a good writer, a good singer, whatever.”
  
  …But if you’re a bad friend/singer/whatever, does that automatically make you a faggot/dyke/breeder/whatever? :P
ultranaut

I’ve spent enough time in the South to know that there is something to the stereotypes, but those attitudes and bigotries aren’t geographically bounded. It’s much more a kind of “hick culture” that pervades all of America, particularly in rural areas. “The South” is a mostly meaningless term for a specific subculture in a specific region. You can find “Southerners” everywhere, they just happen to be particularly ornery in the South.
Matt Staggs

Hey guys, a Mississippian submitted this story: me. Be careful not to paint all of us with a broad brush. Plenty of us here fight the good fight.
Anonymous

Isn’t it funny how people have more time and energy to meddle in others’ social lives and wardrobes out of ‘concern’ than to help out those who are clearly in need?

Personally, I’m much more offended by war fatalities (on both sides), starving children, and illness we have yet to be able to treat.

And it’s not entirely impotence, either, as feeding a starving child is quite easy.
- Ichabod
  
  And yet you have not the balls to do anything but kvetch under the pseudonym Anon.
Anonymous

Here’s to hoping that Ceara Sturgis decides to go into education administration, and takes over the school superintendant’s job!
BookGuy

Thank goodness these brave folks are here to warn us: You can catch TEH GAY…even from a yearbook!
Counterglow

Come on, folks, it’s Mississippi. If the girl had showed enough common decency to marry her brother just like everybody else in their version of “high society”, there’d be no problem.

So cut ‘em some slack. They’ve even acknowledged in the last couple of years that some black people might actually qualify as human beings, and apparently as much as 5% of the population believes in evolution and a heliocentric solar system.