Local student is being denied the role for not be assigned male at birth. Now they've decided that Oklahoma is too controversial of a play and includes graphic scenes not fit for minors so they're pulling the whole show. Bunch of asshats at Sherman, TX ISD.
Edit: I will try to answer any comments I can. I do not personally know the student. I can't really speak for trans folks as I'm just an ally who wants better for this kiddo and all trans people.
Is the student actually transgender? Because the text of the article mentions Mrs. Doubtfire, which imo is pretty fundamentally different situation. I'm legitimately asking this question, would it be ok for a cis male student to play a female lead? I feel like that wouldn't be ok with a lot of people.
The text of the article also says that Max Hightower identifies as a transgender male. His parents refer to him with male pronouns.
Are you? Because it seems like you're wilfully ignoring the explicit statements in the article.
That's fine. I read the article. But his dad also talked about Mrs. Doubtfire, which like I said is fundamentally different situation
If the student was cis female, they article wouldn't refer to him as he/him.
you give rural Texas news stations a bit more credit than I would
Neither pro-trans nor transphobic media has any reason to refer to a cis woman/girl by he/him.
not to mention his dad literally being quoted as using he/him pronouns...
The student is transgender. From my understanding he was assigned female at birth.
Why not? In Shakespearean times all the roles were played by males. It’s called ACTING for a reason. If I play I Christian it doesn’t mean I have to be one; if I play an outgoing sporty dude, it also doesn’t mean I am one.
The student is also transgender, it states as much in the article. Mrs doubtfire wasn’t from the article writer or the kid. It was someone else wondering why people are being so conservatively idiot about it.
You answered your own question. They were played by males because females weren't allowed to perform.
I'm not saying people would have an issue with it solely because of gender identity. But you don't think people would take issue with a cis male taking the part of a female role?
Even to this day females often enough play teens or young adult males. Sometimes because there’re simply aren’t enough male actors.
If they can look and can act the part the director wants, that’s what matters.
You're not familiar with the history of theater, are you?
I am, where women weren't allowed to perform so men played their roles instead.
The thing is Mrs. Doubtfire IS a male lead. In the musical Daniel Hillard (male lead) crossdresses as Mrs. Doubtfire, so not allowing Max to play that role seems transphobic (though it's propably the school trying to protect its ass from lawsuits by groups such as Moms for Third Reich or whatever they're called... It's also quite ironic as the role seems to me gender non conforming to begin with).
the dad was making a really poor analogy, that's all this is