Florida teen sues over yearbook omission

Tom Musbach, Gay.com / PlanetOut.com Network
Thursday, June 20, 2002 / 04:11 PM

A teen-age lesbian in Tampa, Fla., sued the school district in federal court Wednesday because her school omitted her from the yearbook after she refused to be photographed in a feminine outfit.

Nikki Youngblood, 17, charges the school with sex discrimination and violation of her right to free expression.

Unlike other women in the senior class at Robinson High School, Youngblood refused to wear the "frilly drape" required for graduation photos. She said that she never wore traditionally feminine clothes to school, and to do so for her portrait would not reflect who she is.

"Nikki is not a rebellious kid," said her lawyer, Karen Doering. "She genuinely wanted to appear as herself. It would have been a joke to her, her friends and her family if she wore that drape, because that is not how she dressed."

A lawyer for the Hillsborough County school district, Mark Hart, told the Tampa Tribune, "I think this is a case of a gay rights group making a political statement at the expense of a school, and that's unfortunate."

Last month Doering, a staff attorney for the National Center for Lesbian Rights, challenged another high school in the Hillsborough district over its policy requiring women to wear skirts or dresses beneath their graduation robes. Faced with legal action, the school changed its policy.

"The school board wants to cling to their stereotypes of what females are supposed to look like," Doering told the Gay.com / PlanetOut.com Network. "That's at the root of this. It's sex discrimination, pure and simple."

Outside the courthouse in Tampa, Youngblood said her omission from the yearbook made it seem like she had never attended the school.

"If I can change this (for future students), it would be wonderful," she said.