In the latest high school prom-related kerfuffle to make a national splash, a cross-dressing Texas high school student is at odds with school officials because he wants to wear a red dress, black heels and a blond wig to the big dance.
The student, senior Tony Zamazal, says he feels more comfortable wearing women’s clothing. He wants to make a dashing debut on Spring High School’s biggest stage, reports KHOU, the local CBS affiliate.
However, Zamazal says, the assistant principal at the high school in the suburbs of Houston quickly put the kibosh on the idea.
“He told me it just wasn’t in the dress code. [He said] women wore dresses, and men wore tuxedos,” Zamazal the CBS affiliate.
A school district representative was unable to verify that the school actually has such a dress code. However, the official told the station that Zamazal can appeal the assistant principal’s denial to the principal.
It’s not clear if Zamazal has made such an appeal.
“If I do get to go as a woman, I will be ecstatic,” the senior told KHOU. “If I don’t, it would be devastating, because I put myself out there.”
“It’s not okay to just tell people, they can’t be the way that they are,” he added.
This case of cross-dressing is at least the third prom-related brouhaha to surface in the United States in the last few weeks.
A group of parents and students in rural Sullivan, Indiana made news for their attempt to raise money for a private prom which would exclude gay students.
Diana Medley, a teacher at a nearby school who was involved in that effort, was suspended from her job for telling a local television station that gays have no purpose in life.
The superintendent of a tiny school district in southeast Missouri said the local high school would yield to a gay male student’s request to bring his boyfriend to the prom after the Southern Poverty Law Center threatened legal action.