“When I found out about this I almost didn’t want to take it” Jeydon told Action 4 news meaning the picture but his sentiment could mean, and has meant so much more to other trans youth facing discrimination from schools.
The Burnt Orange Reports that the Southern Law Center (SPLC) will take legal action by November 21’st if Jeydons picture is not in the yearbook.
Being a transgender Texan only a few miles away I find this sort of discrimination appalling. Texans are better than that and we know it.
Both HRC and the Southern Law Center have become involved asking the school board to respect Jeydon but in the correspondence form the Board the continued to misgender Jeydon and use his birth name.
The SPLC‘s demand letter describes how refusing to include the photograph violates the student’s freedom of expression, which is protected by the First Amendment. It also violates the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment, which protects the student from discrimination, as well as Title IX, which bars discrimination on the basis of sex by any education program receiving federal money. Refusing to publish the photograph would even violate the school district’s own anti-discrimination policies.
Call it out: Yearbooks are for memories not discrimination!
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Click here to send your message to the La Feria school board.
