Ind. Male, in a
Dress, Barred From Prom
By AP from the
NYTimes on the Web, May 25, 2006
GARY, Ind. May 24 -- A male
student who has worn women's clothes to school all year was turned away from his
high school prom because he was wearing a dress.
Kevin Logan, 18, went to the West Side High School prom on Friday in a slinky
fuchsia gown and heels. He believes officials discriminated against him by
not allowing him inside.
''I have no formal pictures, no memories, nothing. You only have one
prom,'' he said.
Logan, who is gay, received an $85 refund for his prom ticket Tuesday but was
not satisfied. He said he is considering filing a complaint with the
American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana.
Sylvester Rowan, assistant to Gary Schools Superintendent Mary Steele, said
school policy bans males from wearing dresses. Excluding Logan from prom
was based on ''the dress code, not the student's homosexuality. That's his
personal preference.''
Tyrone Hanley, the youth program coordinator for the Gender Public Advocacy
Coalition in Washington, D.C., said he often sees cases like this and called it
gender-based discrimination.
''Prohibiting really short skirts for everyone is a fair dress code; prohibiting
them for males is not,'' he said.
Logan said he had spent years defining and exploring his sexuality. This
year, he took a major step by dressing as a female every day, wearing makeup, a
hair weave, nails and girls' fitted jeans to school.
His mother, Donnetta Logan, said she was not surprised by what she called the
ignorance of school administrators.
''I tell Kevin that in society there will be those who accept him and those who
won't.''
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