School officials use dress codes to target LGBTQ students

Schools across the country have turned away students entry to prom, graduation ceremonies and other school activities due to dress code policies that advocates say disproportionately impact LGBTQ+ students and girls.

In May, Sophie Savidge, a 16-year-old junior from Florida, said NBC News that she wasn't allowed to go to the ball because she was wearing a suit. In a statement released at the time, the school highlighted its online dress guide, which states that “ladies” should wear dresses and “one-piece clothing only” at formal events.

A transgender student in Alabama apparently he was not allowed to go at her prom in April because she wore a dress. The school's student handbook said it was up to administrators to “deem appropriate clothing or appearance,” according to AL.com.

And the American Civil Liberties Union of Mississippi filed a federal complaint to the Department of Education against the Harrison County School District for banning a transgender girl from wearing a dress to her regional band concert this spring. The complaint details a two-year trend in which the district punishes girls — transgender and cisgender — for violating dress codes requiring students to dress in clothing “consistent with their biological sex.”

The school district added the “biological sex” clause to its dress code after LGBTQ+ students complained about not being able to wear clothes that expressed their gender identity, said Liz Davis, a member of the Women's Rights Project of the ACLU.

School administrators have long used dress codes to impose a rigid gender binary and enforce different standards based on assigned sex. This year, there have been renewed efforts in school districts in Republican-led states to implement more explicitly restrictive policies toward queer, trans, and gender non-conforming students, as a record number of bills anti -LGBTQ have been introduced in states across the country. country.

“Requiring students to dress according to their biological sex – even if it appears to be neutral in general and does not denounce any particular student – ​​has a disproportionate impact on non-conforming, non-binary and transgender students, because it binds gender expression to gender expression. their sex assigned at birth, basically,” Davis said.

Students who are targeted for dress code violations may lose class time or face sanctions such as suspension, and may face emotional distress if they are removed from class and asked to change, she declared.

Gender-based dress codes often require boys to wear pants and girls to wear skirts or dresses of a certain length. Defenders say these rules reinforce rigid gender stereotypes and outdated, misogynistic ideas about how girls should dress around boys. And they leave no room for less traditional gender expression.

School dress codes that rely so heavily on “biological sex” are reminiscent of anti-LGBTQ bills and policies across the country.

“The district’s discriminatory dress code policies and their enforcement are part of a broader hostile environment based on gender, which has impacted our patrons and other students,” Davis said, referring to the complaint filed in Mississippi.

Policies that claim to bring “clarity” to sex discrimination laws by codifying the definitions of “man” and “woman” in order to exclude trans people from those categories often use extremely specific language that takes no no. take more account of intersex people. The language embedded in these policies, often called the “Women's Bill of Rights,” was first proposed by Independent Women's Voice, a conservative organization that argued it was necessary to protect women's spaces and activities of the inclusion of trans people.

So far this year, at least 10 states introduced or passed similarly worded legislation to narrowly define “biological sex” based on a person's reproductive capacity or chromosomes. The governor of Oklahoma is coming signed the state's own version of a Women's Bill of Rights on Monday. Last year, Arizona Rep. Debbie Lesko (R) introduced a resolution on the Women's Bill of Rights to Congress, although she has made no progress since.

Some state-level legislation now includes definitions of gender that explicitly prohibit trans people from updating their driver's license or ID card, making it more difficult to vote, travel, and exist in public life.

Advocates say the focus on “biological sex” has negative ramifications for everyone, including cisgender women, because it encourages people to control everyone's gender — including children. People have harassed child athletes who they suspect of being transgender, and a Utah state official has been criticized for falsely suggesting that a student was transgender because of his appearance.

Previous sex and gender researchers told HuffPost that binary definitions of sex do not reflect how scientists currently understand human sex, which is determined by a variety of biological phenomena, including hormones, genitalia, and other secondary sexual characteristics.

As more anti-LGBTQ legislation spells out how LGBTQ+ students can — and cannot — express themselves and participate in school activities, Davis said she wouldn't be surprised if we see more Schools across the country are adopting policies with “explicit provisions on biological sex.” »

These types of provisions are likely to violate Title IX, a 1972 federal law that protects against sex discrimination in public schools and colleges, Davis said.

The Biden administration released much-anticipated final guidance for Title IX this spring, expanding the definition of sex discrimination to include sexual orientation and gender identity. Since then, more than a dozen red states have sued the Department of Education and vowed not to comply with this updated interpretation.

Many protections for LGBTQ students are now at stake. Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has pledged to repeal Title IX and restrict Title VII, which prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, from day one.

“The country must decide. Do we want to live in a place that resembles one of the most regressive state policies where right-wing elected officials have control over everything: the way you dress, the way you identify, name and pronoun you use, the toilet you use. can you access it? Brandon Wolf, press secretary for the Human Rights Campaign, told HuffPost earlier this spring. “Or do we want to live in a country… where we have the freedom to be ourselves, where we have the freedom to make decisions about our own bodies?