Transgender Georgia high school student calls for change to who can run for homecoming queen – CBS News

Transgender Georgia high school student calls for change to who can run for homecoming queen  CBS News

A Clayton County high school student has started a petition attempting to change the rules about who can run for homecoming queen.Riley Williams, a transgender teen who attends Clayton County's Charles R. Drew High School, writes in the Change.org petition that she was barred from running for the homecoming position due to state policy, which she says "enforces traditional gender roles on students.""The policy in question requires students to run for homecoming court positions based strictly on the gender assigned at birth, ignoring their authentic gender identity," Williams wrote. "This not only infringes upon the rights of transgender students like myself, but it also promotes an environment of exclusion and discrimination."Williams urged state and local leaders to make a change and repeal the policy, arguing that it will foster an environment "where diversity is celebrated, not penalized.""School should be a place of acceptance, where every student can express themselves freely and authentically," she wrote.The petition, created in September, has received more than 1,200 signatures as of Thursday afternoon.In a statement to CBS News Atlanta, a spokesperson for Clayton County said that while they respect the right of students to express their identities, they are required to follow the current federal government interpretation of Title IX.

While under the Biden and Obama administrations, the Education Department interpreted Title IX, which prohibits