Not okay.
Like many seniors across the country, Claudetteia Love is eager to attend her school's prom on April 24 with her friends—except she won't be allowed to, because she wants to wear a tuxedo instead of a dress.
According Geraldine Love, the mom to the openly gay high school senior, who is at the top of her class at Carroll High School in Monroe, Louisiana, principal Patrick Taylor told her, "'Girls wear dresses and boys wear tuxes, and that's the way it is.'"
Love was planning on attending the school dance with a group of her closet friends, but they, too, have decided to skip the event, where they believe their friend should be allowed to wear whatever she feels most comfortable in. (A point of note: Angelina Jolie, Emma Watson, Leighton Meester, and many more Hollywood ladies have donned the tailored style to gala events.)
As the brave teen told The News-Star, "I told my mom, 'They're using me. They put me in all these honors and advanced placement classes so I can take all of these tests and get good grades and better the school, but when it's time for me to celebrate the fact that I've accomplished what I need to accomplish and I'm about to graduate, they don't want to let me do it, the way I want to.'"
Driving her point home, Love is scheduled to represent her school at the annual, local Scholars' Banquet. She also has a full scholarship to attend Jackson State University in the fall.
While Taylor has yet to comment to the paper, the city's school board president, Rodney McFarland, has spoken out in defense of Love. "As far as I know, there is no Monroe City School Board policy saying what someone has to wear to attend the prom. You can't just go making up policies," he told the paper.
