Michigan students fight anti-trans bias
By Martha Grevatt
Published Mar 3, 2011 8:31 PM
http://www.workers.org/2011/us/michigan_students_0310/Last fall students at Mona Shores High School in Muskegon, Mich., made history by electing Oakleigh Marshall Reed homecoming king. Reed — known to his classmates as Oak — is a transgender youth. School records have him listed as female under the birth name Oakleigh Marie.
Oak's parents, teachers and classmates all respect Oak's gender identity, referring to the popular honors student as "he" or "him." He marches in the band in a tuxedo and will graduate in a "boy's" cap and gown. He plans to have gender-reassignment surgery when he turns 18.
Yet after he won the popular vote, the principal at Mona Shores High informed Oak that he could not be homecoming king because he was still registered as female.
