A Gay High Schooler Was Banned From Graduation Because She Wore Pants

A gay high school senior was prevented from walking in her graduation over a discriminatory dress code.

Dynasia Clark, a senior at Lamar High School in South Carolina, wore pants to her Tuesday graduation, which the school managed to hold despite the pandemic. However, school officials stopped Clark on the field and told her she could not walk since she was wearing pants—the attire she felt most comfortable in—since it was a violation of a dress code requiring women to wear dresses to the ceremony.

In response, Clark walked off the field. "I was angry more than anything because we worked hard to even have a graduation, and then I can't walk because I don't got on a dress," Clark told WPDE, a local ABC affiliate.

Clark ended up staying, standing outside the gate to watch her classmates graduate and to hear her own name being called for recognition of her accomplishment. However, to add insult to injury, her name was omitted from the announcement.

"That was the part that made me more mad than anything because I was there. You could have least called my name," Clark said. "It seems crazy to me. It seems stupid, like petty because it was just an outfit to me."

Clark is still in disbelief over the incident. "It shouldn't have stopped me from doing something what I have been waiting on for 12 years, I went to school. Everybody be happy for their graduation day and I couldn't even experience that," she said.

After asked for comment by WPDE, the Darlington County School District, which oversees Lamar, issued a statement saying the dress code was in place for over 20 years and that it has accommodated students in the past over issues. "We welcome students or parents who have concerns with any policy or procedure to meet with administration and discuss those concerns," the statement said.

Watch the report at WPDE.