DOJ Steps In After Louisiana High School Bans Lesbian From Wearing Tuxedo To Prom

The U.S. Department of Justice has contacted a local Louisiana high school after the media reported it was illegally banning a lesbian student from wearing a tux to her prom.

Claudetteia Love (image) says she has never worn a dress and she’s not about to start now. The Carroll High School senior from Monroe, Louisiana had intended to go to her prom in a tuxedo but her high school principal has banned her from doing so. 

“Girls wear dresses and boys wear tuxes, and that’s the way it is,” Love’s mother, Geraldine Jackson, says Principal Patrick Taylor told her. He also reportedly created a prom dress code after learning Love would be wearing a tux.

“It hurt my feelings,” Love told the NY Daily News. “The four years I’ve been there I’ve always dressed the way I dress. I’ve always been open. And no one has had a problem with it. 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.”

And Love says she’s disappointed in the school’s leadership.

“They’re supposed to be authority figures and help us and guide us in school and try to influence us in positive ways,” Love said. “But for them to know that they don’t like certain things, and put their opinion on things, it’s not the way that you expect them to act.” 

Love does have one powerful person in her corner supporting her, Monroe City School Board President Rodney McFarland.

“I can not force my religious values or views up on someone else. Now it is a different story if you are member of my congregation – then I can tell you my belief. But as president, you have to separate church and state,” McFarland said.

KNOE notes McFarland “reports the Department of Justice has contacted the school board’s attorney. The department has let them know it is illegal to prohibit a girl from wearing a tuxedo to prom.”

And the ACLU has weighed in as well.

“Schools can have a dress code and they can have a formal attire for a prom,” ACLU Director Marjorie Esman says. “They can say that. But formal attire means a girl can wear a tux that a boy might wear and it also means that a boy can wear a formal gown if he wants to.”

And the school cannot ban students from taking a member of the same-sex to the prom, either.

 

Image: Screenshot via Myarklamiss.com video