Tulsa, OK- Transgender teen graduates from Bixby High School

[SandraJane]

Transgender teen graduates from Bixby High School


By CARY ASPINWALL World Staff Writer | Published: 6/2/2012  3:27 PM, Last Modified: 6/2/2012  4:46 PM


http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=298&articleid=20120602_298_0_Thegra945305



Katie Hill and her mother Jazzlyn Hill, pose for family pictures after Katie graduated from Bixby High School at the Mabee Center in Tulsa on May 10. Katie is the first openly transgender teen to graduate from high school in Oklahoma. JOHN CLANTON/Tulsa World


The graduating seniors at Bixby High School walk to their seats in the Mabee Center under a sword salute by the Marine Corps Junior ROTC students of Lt. Col. Randy Hill's class.

Fashion among Bixby's senior class girls dictates that many wear neon-hued platform stilettos with their Spartan blue graduation gowns and caps.

About one-third of the way through the alphabet, Hill's daughter, Katie, glides down the stage and school administrators offer her a steadying hand down the stairs, as they do for every senior girl — even though Katie is wearing sparkly flat sandals.

No platform heels needed, at 5-foot-10 she's tall enough to be a model or Miss Universe, if she wanted. (The pageant recently allowed its first transgender competitor.)

[Jamie D]

Katie looks very happy.  As she should.

[Shana A]

Being Katie - images from a monumental weekend
6/4/2012 11:49:00 AM

http://www.tulsaworld.com/blogs/post.aspx?Being_Katie__images_from_a_monumental_weekend/4-15524

The LGBTQ community is often thrust into the public spotlight for the wrong reasons. They are on the other side of controversy, protests and public policy.

As a journalist, I'm interested in using photographs to tell a person's story regardless of his or her race, gender or sexual orientation. People with families, relationships, hopes, dreams, obstacles and drama in their lives.

I didn't work for the Tulsa World when Cary Aspinwall met Katie. The last Multimedia Producer, Adam Wisneski, photographed the first part of her story.

I met Katie and her family a few weeks ago and photographed a very busy week for Katie, a transgender teen from Bixby, Oklahoma. On Thursday, she became the first openly transgender teen to graduate from an Oklahoma high school. Two days later she turned 18 and had a birthday party at Openarms Youth project in Tulsa. The next morning she caught a flight to California to have surgery.