May 11, 2005

IÂ’m Not Sure What I Think

This story has some interesting issues in it, but IÂ’m not sure what I think.

Kerry Lofy figures that girls get to wear dresses to the Lake Geneva Badger High School prom, so why couldn't he?

But now that he has been suspended from school for three days, is being forced to miss his last track meet (and a chance for the school's pole vaulting record) and has to pay a $249 ticket for disorderly conduct, Lofy's not so sure he picked the right battle to fight.

"Things got a little crazy," Lofy said Tuesday from home, where the 18-year-old senior is serving the suspension after Saturday night's antics.

High school officials are not returning calls for comment on the case, but to hear Lofy tell it, this is a classic case of the price you pay for fighting for your rights of self-expression.

Lofy said he thought it would be funny to show up at his senior prom Saturday wearing a dress. Lofy went to the prom with Victor Anderson, a friend. Lofy says the school did not have any problem letting two males attend prom together, but school officials who had heard of Lofy's plan to wear a black dress warned him that he would not be allowed in the dance if he showed up dressed as a woman.
Lofy says he is not gay. He says he agreed to go with Anderson, who is gay, because Anderson is his friend and he wanted to go to the prom but didn't have a date. Anderson confirms this. Lofy concedes that he was uneasy going to prom with another male, and wearing a dress was a way to deflect other people's suspicions.

Are girls permitted to wear traditionally male attire – such as a tuxedo?

Would the dress have been acceptable if it had been wore by the gay student?

What about if the gay student self-identified as a “transgendered” individual?

Does any of that matter?

Like I said, there are issues here, and I donÂ’t even begin to know where to begin to address them.

But I was struck by this sentence at the end of the article.

Lofy plans to go to Colorado Mountain College in the fall and major in ski hill management.

Ski Hill Management is a major?

Posted by: Greg at 11:52 AM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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1 Kerry just wanted attention. He called the news stations before he even wore the dress to prom. He knew what was going to happen. He just wanted attention. It's not the first time that he has done stupid stuff like this. He finally got in trouble for it and all of a sudden his rights are being violated? It's just retarded.

Posted by: Melissa at Thu May 12 12:40:44 2005 (WTXLR)

2 Be that as it may, there are still issues raised by the little exhibitionist's actions.

Posted by: Rhymes With Right at Thu May 12 12:49:39 2005 (Qk1Ou)

3 Colleges that offer programs in Resort Management and/or Ski Area Operations aka Ski Hill Management Selkirk College http://selkirk.ca/about/ Northern Michigan University http://www.nmu.edu/vss/careerpathways/business_and_management.htm Colorado Mountain College http://www.coloradomtn.edu/programs/program_locations.shtml Why should this even be a question to anyone who has access to the internet or pretends to be knowledgeable of the world?

Posted by: John at Fri May 13 05:29:00 2005 (GIQy9)

4 I claim to be knowledgable -- not omniscient.

Posted by: Rhymes With Right at Fri May 13 11:41:10 2005 (n0vXU)

5 He was thrown out of the dance because he was forewarned not to wear a dress. The school has every right to set the standards for the event. The ticket for disorderly conduct was in response to him knocking another student to the floor and "humping" him while feigning to kiss him. So much for his argument of gay intolerance, huh?

Posted by: Joe at Thu May 19 03:19:47 2005 (GwePV)

6 But one of the issues I am probing here is whetehr the "no dresses from males" rule is a legitimate one. After all, I know that rules banning girls from wearing tuxedos have generally been looked upon negatively by courts -- and not just exclusively when the young women in question are lesbians with a history of cross-dressing. I'm familiar with that issue in particular because it came up at the school where I did my student teaching, involving a couple of my female students. Does Lofy's motive for cross-dressing matter, or may any male student (gay or straight, regardless of gender identification and/or history of cross-dressing) wear traditionally female clothing? If so, how does such a double standard square with notions of equal protection of the laws?

Posted by: Rhymes With Right at Thu May 19 12:32:06 2005 (GeT7T)

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