Casual Invisibility
Mississippi student edited from yearbook because she wore a tux
By Frank J. Rivera, 5:17AM, Thu. Apr. 29, 2010
Mississippi is in gay news again. For a lesbian student, again. For her persecution. Again.
I'm sure it has something to do with the fact that I saw Howard Zinn's The People Speak at Cafe Caffeine last night, but when I read that another lesbian student was facing not just persecution but total invisibility, I got really angry.
Fresh off the report that Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church plan to protest Constance McMillen's graduation, this little tidbit popped up:
Ceara Sturgis chose to wear a tuxedo instead of a dress for her senior picture. Western Attendance Center decided to remove her picture from the yearbook, so Sturgis and her mother enlisted the aid of the Mississippi ACLU to protest the decision.
This past Friday WAC's yearbook was revealed to not only have nixed Sturgis' "controversial" picture but to have cut her out of the year's history entirely. No mention of Sturgis exists, despite the fact that she is an honor student and has been attending area schools for 12 years.
A tuxedo warrants invisibility?
The school's phone number: 601/643-2221.
The school's fax number: 601/643-2458.
Oscar Hawkins is WAC's principal and can be e-mailed at [email protected]
Echoing Seattle's The Stranger, I say, "Charrrrrrge!"
A note to readers: Bold and uncensored, The Austin Chronicle has been Austin’s independent news source for over 40 years, expressing the community’s political and environmental concerns and supporting its active cultural scene. Now more than ever, we need your support to continue supplying Austin with independent, free press. If real news is important to you, please consider making a donation of $5, $10 or whatever you can afford, to help keep our journalism on stands.
Richard Whittaker, June 12, 2016
Homophobia, Ceara Sturgis, Constance McMillen, Mississippi, lesbian student, gay, hatred, ACLU, yearbook
