Friday, August 31, 2007

Texas high school opens doors for Latina trans teen after initial rejection

A Latina transgender teen from Oak Cliff, Texas, was sent home by school officials on Monday when she showed up to register at Sunset High School wearing "a skirt, tight white shirt and ballet flats," according to a local Fox News Channel affiliate.

The teen, identified by Fox News with her birth name, Luis Valderrama, thought she had been sent home because her skirt was too short. But the school later apologized and invited her back to register for the school term on Wednesday.

Regarding the length of the skirt, Valderrama told Fox News "I'll compromise with them. I'll wear capris."

The school seems attended predominately by Latinos. A sign visible as a background to the online Fox News video report reads "La escuela comienza 8:45 am 8/7/07 Bienvenido al Mejor Ano df tu vida" - quirky grammar kept intact - which means "School starts 8:45am 8/7/07 Welcome to the best anus of your life" - I guess there was no plastic ñ letters to change "ano" to "año").

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am from Texas and this makes me happy to see some progress on LGBT issues in the state. Its doubly important that this is happening in a community that is predominately Latino.

Its a common myth promoted by whites communities of color are more homophobic than white communities as if whites are more enlightened or something.

Lito Sandoval said...

I think I woulda turned her away too. Then marced her right to the nearest clothing store and bought her something mas cuter with nicer shoes!

Buildin off bloggernista's comments: Isn't that a weird phenomenon? The perception that POC are more phobic than whites? Last I looked Fred Phelps was white.

Also, its funny how white queer writers can push stereotypes and not acknowledge them as racist, but when POC write with an absence of white characters they get labeled racist separatists.