Transgender teen in East Texas town fighting to dress like a girl

Alexis Lusk has few options in her efforts to convince school officials to let her dress as a girl.

Alexis Lusk, who didn’t want her face shown, said this photo is a good example of how she has been subtly cross-dressing for the last three years.

Sixteen-year-old Alexis Lusk says she’s been cross-dressing more subtly for about three years.

But one day a few weeks ago Alexis, a transgender female, took it a step further — donning a bra, a women’s blouse and ballet flats to accompany her flare jeans.

Alexis was called into the assistant principal’s office and told she was creating a disruption, even though there had been no incident. Not wanting to jeopardize her academic future, she agreed to remove the objectionable clothing and has been dressing like a boy ever since.

“All I really want to do is be myself,” said Alexis, a junior at Whitehouse High School in East Texas. “I understand that in today’s world that’s complicated, but there’s a point where it’s not that complicated.”

LGBT legal experts say federal courts have generally upheld trans students’ right to cross-dress at school, citing both first amendment protections for free expression and Title IX, which prohibits sex discrimination. However, it’s difficult for trans students like Alexis to assert their rights in places like Texas unless parents are supportive.

Alexis indicated that her parents are only mildly accepting and would be unlikely to hire an attorney for her.

“If I’m not contacted by one of the parents, I’m not getting into it because I cannot risk a lawsuit over interfering with parental rights,” said Phyllis Frye, a well-known transgender attorney from Houston.

A few years ago, Frye successfully fought the Fort Worth School District to allow a high school student to cross-dress. But Frye noted that the FWSD student had a supportive mother and was in a more progressive district.

Frye said another option would be for Alexis to seek emancipation from her parents.

“If she does that, that means she’s going to be out on the street,” Frye said. “The other thing she can do is gut it out for another year. I’m not saying that’s a fun thing to do, but she’s only 16, and being on the street is a good way to die. … It’ s a really shitty situation.”

Alexis agreed that emancipation isn’t viable. For one thing, she suffers from juvenile diabetes and relies on her parents for health care.

Ken Upton, a Dallas-based senior staff attorney for the LGBT civil rights group Lambda Legal, said it’s hardly unusual for school administrators to react to cross-dressing by punishing the trans student.

“The schools just don’t get this,” Upton said. “Instead of punishing the people who are disrupting, you punish the person who’s trying to exercise their rights. … We are seeing this more and more as students are starting to deal with this earlier and earlier and are less willing to take a lot of grief from administrators who are still in the last century.”

Administrators at Alexis’ school didn’t return phone calls seeking comment.

Alexis said the assistant principal threatened to write her up if she’s caught cross-dressing again. She noted that the topic isn’t mentioned in the dress code, but she said she believes her assistant principal is relying on a provision that states, “Decisions on the appropriateness of school dress rest with the campus administration.”

Upton encouraged Alexis to call Lambda Legal’s help line, but he noted the group would want to speak with one of her parents. He also warned that she could risk backlash from her parents, school administrators and the Whitehouse community.

“The law is really supportive, but the problem is that’s only part of the equation,” he said. “You have to take into account the practical effect of raising a stink with the school.”

Alexis said she isn’t worried about backlash — which is why she contacted Dallas Voice.

She said most people already know she’s trans, and her friends are supportive. In fact, this week several of them were tentatively planning to cross-dress at school in protest.

Alexis lamented that she won’t be able to wear a dress to her prom this weekend, because it’s a school function. She wants to become a pharmacist and a computer programmer, and she doesn’t want to risk getting in more trouble.

At the same time, she isn’t sure how long she’ll be able to toe the line. When she’s tried to give up cross-dressing completely in the past, it led to thoughts of suicide.

Alexis was debating whether to ask her mother about hiring an attorney. She said she hopes this article will draw attention to the issue and prompt school officials to reconsider their decision.

In addition to Lambda Legal, Dallas Voice provided Alexis with contact information for Youth First Texas.

Pegasus News Content partner - Dallas Voice
The community newspaper for gay & lesbian Dallas.

akrno, anonymous:

marginal support from parents? i can only guess they dont understand the implications for their daughter's psychological welfare.... or the statistics relating to sucide attempts and successes in the trans community.... as parent to an FtM transboy, it escapes my understanding how her parents cannot be her strongest advocates in every circumstance....

hang in there alexis!!! high school is temporary!! look for a PFLAG or GSA to find support.... the local college diversity group welcomed my son when he was 16, and no place else to go

3 years ago
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belzac, anonymous:

Hang in there, kid, i know it seems like a long time but when you turn 18 you can be your own person, and the school board can screw itself.

Like akrno said, PFLAG and GSA's are great supports.

Best of luck to you

As for the school board, SHAME on you. maybe its time some maturing happened in the system to match the maturing that this countries youth have done? There is no excuse for the system being unable to deal with people in a mature manner when they express their identity.

3 years ago
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Clay213, anonymous:

Waaa I want to expresss myselffff

3 years ago
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isobellefox, anonymous:

Be strong Alexis. Celebrate who you are now and hold on for a better future.

3 years ago
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kheffern, anonymous:

Be strong, Alexis!! There are so many who have been where you are now, and so many who will follow you on this path and take strength from the courage you are displaying.

Our thoughts are with you in this challenging time. You go, girl!

3 years ago
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Jason Rice, verified:

Ok, I usually just roll my eyes at teenage rebellions and acting up, but frankly, the implication that you need a lawyer to wear ballet flats is one step past stupid. How is this bad?

Now don't go lecturing me on how I don't understand LBGT issues - I don't understand most particle physics either, but that's not because I lack particles.

It's just freaking clothes, people. It's not like she wore a thong to class.

And no, Travis, you won't be seeing me in the same purple outfit she has on. I'd look like a blimp and I hate "acid washed" anything. :b

3 years ago
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Clay213, anonymous:

'the implication that you need a lawyer to wear ballet flats'

I suspect maybe it was the bra and woman's shirt that was the tipping point not the shoes

3 years ago
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cyborg76, anonymous:

Transgendered is a form of GENDER IDENTITY DISORDER! She is a female trapped in a males body. I know this is hard for the religious right to accept but it is a scientific and psychological fact! If you are a hetero male and your parents and society tells you that you are a female, will you rebel? Abso-fricken-lutely! There is no difference there! This poor child is trapped in a backwards society (and yes, I lived in TX for 8 years and can attest to the red state's indoctrination that anyone not a WASP is repugnant). So sad and I hope that someone more able bodied than I am can offer money and support to this girl to fight for what is right! Hang in there honey! As akrno said: "High school is temporary". I believe that as well, but unfortunately, the suicide rate among transgendered is so much higher than the '1 in 10' suicide rate of gay or lesbian youths dealing with similar discrimination! Such a sad state of affairs! Hang in there hunny! You are loved and cherished as one of God's children and you are perfectly normal...never forget that!

3 years ago
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doublerainbow2006, anonymous:

Hang on you had the courage to contact the media you can handle this till you are 18 then make damn sure you let these backwoods pricks with the mindset of murderous witchunter's know just how strong you are, and be yourself knowing you are a powerful woman whether you where born male or not.

3 years ago
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Jason Rice, verified:

::not the shoes

Shoes are inevitably the "tipping point" of any outfit fumble, but you may have a point.

3 years ago
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Clay213, anonymous:

The lesson in this story is actually that no one regardless of gender should wear ballet shoes.

Except ballerinas.

3 years ago
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Jason Rice, verified:

I could support that conclusion.

3 years ago
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Pavel Lishin, verified:

What about ballerinas trapped in students' bodies?

3 years ago
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jtmbls, anonymous:

Forgive me for asking but does anybody really get to be themselves in high school? I would venture to say that every single person in that school feels just as limited, restrained and frustrated as this kid does, although maybe not for the same reasons. The entertainment industry has made billions of dollars on it. It's called teenaged angst. Do what everyone else does - express yourself on graduation day.

3 years ago
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Pavel Lishin, verified:

There's a difference between feeling restrained and being restrained.

3 years ago
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Jason Rice, verified:

::There's a difference between feeling restrained and being restrained.

And Pavel's checkbook will attest that it comes to about $400 a visit.

Seriously - I too was oppressed by dress codes and social pressures in high school. True. Yes, hard to believe that such a pinnacle of normalcy and comparative stalwart citizen, Jason, felt repressed.

That is why today, I announce the establishment of the "Mint Green Tuxedo and Quadruple Knit Polyester Paisley Pants Foundation" for the thousands of ... ok, hundreds of.... maybe 3 other people that feel a deeply moral compulsion to wear completely inappropriate -- but by all legal definitions modest and unprovocative -- clothes to irk their high school principals, preferably in styles no less that 20 years out of style.

We at the MGTAQKPPPF strive to empower people like ... ok, me as a kid ... to express themselves in wholly unfashionable and garish ways.

It is our hope that this support will encourage the decimation of bland Banana Republic/Old Navy/Gap decorum in favor of just keeping yourself covered in a relatively modest, but distinctly fun manner.

... and this of course extends to poor Alexis, encouraging her to stand up for her Constitutionally Guaranteed Right to Bare Arms.
(Midriffs are still kinda up for grabs at the state level)

3 years ago
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Travis Bush, verified:

How about growing up, getting over yourself, graduating high school and then doing whatever the hell you want? High Schools are draconian institutions by nature and if the kid hasn't figured out that by now, more than a little mental help is needed. Especially with the mention of suicide.

3 years ago
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Jason Rice, verified:

Frankly, I found Paisley remarkably therapeutic. Pants, ties, shirts, even and occasional scarf or muffler... fantastically liberating without the specter of gender ambiguity.

Granted, finding a matching purse was beyond the scope of possible so I generally stuck with base grey or black.

3 years ago
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airagorncharda, anonymous:

High school is unpleasant for everyone, and everyone feels oppressed, but it is different for trans people. Trans people are stuck feeling out of place and WRONG if they are perceived as the sex they were born as. Clothing is an indicator of gender. For a trans person, it's not just clothes, because a lot of the time, especially as teens, the clothes are all they have.

For a non-trans person, clothing is about what you want to express on any given day. If you're unhappy, you might be more inclined to wear black. For a trans person, clothing is one of the only ways to show what non-trans people show with their bone-structure and the shape of their bodies. Clothes are a big deal, when you're trying to compensate for having all the wrong parts and not being able to do a damn thing about it.

This girl, as well as every trans and non-trans person out there, should be able to wear whatever they want to wear, short of being naked.

What gets me about this article is that she is referred to as "cross-dressing", but she ISN'T. She's a young woman wearing girl's clothing. People need to learn that transwomen ARE WOMEN, and transmen ARE MEN. I don't have a problem with cross-dressing, but this isn't cross-dressing. Cross-dressing is when a man who identifies as a man wears a dress or skirt or high heels for fun, or when a woman who identifies as a woman wears men's shoes or a tie or men's boxers. This is about a girl wearing a bra and blouse. That is not cross-dressing; that is the first stages of transitioning.

2 years, 10 months ago
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Clay213, anonymous:

'For a non-trans person, clothing is about what you want to express on any given day.'

Uhm. Speak for yourself.

'People need to learn that transwomen ARE WOMEN, and transmen ARE MEN.'

LOL

2 years, 10 months ago
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Jason Rice, verified:

We're just glad when Clay dresses.

2 years, 10 months ago
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Clay213, anonymous:

Who showed you the pictures?

2 years, 10 months ago
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Clay213, anonymous:

Or have you been peeping in my window like that damn monkey!

2 years, 10 months ago
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Jason Rice, verified:

Clay's Internet Security Tip #37:

Make up a different  usernames for your 
Youtube Channel if you think your mom 
might consider your open-cheek chaps "racey."

2 years, 10 months ago
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jtmbls, anonymous:

In your dreams, sour puss...in your dreams...

air - Surely you understand that schools can't go around making exceptions for this group and then that group. If the other kids see someone getting preferential treatment, wouldn't that make them even more of a tartget?

2 years, 10 months ago
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Elitekross, anonymous:

As a trans, I can say with certainty that this is a bigeger deal than you think, the clothes themselves are therapeutic. Even if no one can see it. For example when I wear panties, I want to kill myself less. The suicide rate for transgender teens is 1 in 2. That's right, half of all transgender teens kill themselves. She needs the clothes a lot more than you give credit for.

2 years, 9 months ago
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