[News] [NM, USA] Transgender student skips graduation rather than wear female gown

[Stephanie Stevens]

LGBTQ Nation, USA


Filed: Thursday, May 23, 2013

New Mexico.USA

Transgender student skips graduation rather than wear female gown

Staff Reports


ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The graduation ceremony at St. Pius X High School
in Albuquerque, N.M., on Wednesday was one student short, as a
transgender teen refused to participate in the commencement exercises
because the school told him he would have to wear a female student
gown.

[Photo: Damian Garcia]

Damian Garcia, a graduating senior at St. Pius X who identifies as
male and had a legal name change last year, was told by the school
officials that he must wear the white gown reserved for females, or
not participate in the ceremony.

And so, Garcia elected to stay home.

“I’m fully respecting this and myself by not walking and/or attending
the ceremony at all,” Garcia said, in a post Wednesday on Facebook, in
which he thanked his supporters and said the school refused to amend
its decision.

The St. Pius Superintendent said earlier this month that that the
school goes by what the student’s birth certificate says if there’s
any question on what gender-color they wear at graduation.

The University of New Mexico’s LGBTQ Resource Center will host a
graduation ceremony for Garcia on May 30o 7 p.m. May 30.


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