Following a high school manufacturing of” Oklahoma”! was stopped in traditional Sherman, Texas, when a strange event occurred: the school board supported transgender students.
When a large school production of the music” Oklahoma” was stopped last week in the traditional city of Sherman, Texas, it garnered national attention. after a trans student was given the lead role.
The state’s administrators made the decision to just throw students “born as women in female functions and students born as men in female roles” and informed parents of this decision. Not only did a number of transgender and nonbinary individuals lose their jobs, but also cisGender girls who were cast in male functions. The area officially claimed that the 1943 musical’s profane and sexual content was the issue.
At one point, the primary escorted the drama teacher out of the school after she objected to the choice. Students spent two months building the fixed, a thick mock-up of the settler’s home, but it was destroyed.
Then, however, something even stranger occurred in Sherman, a small college town in rural America that had recently been drawn into Dallas ‘ expanding circle to its west. The city of schools went the other way. The college board unanimously decided to restore the original cast in a late-night voting on Monday. The decision reflected how greatly the discussion had unsettling the village and rebuked attempts to bring the debate over transgender involvement in student activities into the world of theatre, which has long served as a safe haven for gay, lesbian, and trans students.
There had been a unique limitation in the district. Fighting has broken out over the types of plays that students can perform, but few, if any, school districts seem to have made an effort to limit sex jobs in theatre. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, there has n’t been any legislation to restrict theater roles, despite the fact that legislatures across the nation, including Texas, have passed laws restricting transgender students ‘ participation in sports.
Kids and furious parents started organizing after the union’s vote. The state’s administrators recently offered to cast the students in a middle school or younger-aged music that left out solos and included functions as cattle and birds in an effort to reach an agreement. The kids objected.
The area superintendent, Tyson Bennett, oversaw the state’s handling of” Oklahoma,” and the school board called a special meeting for Friday to launch an investigation and consider taking legal action against him, including “possible administrative left.”
Unexpectedly, the pupils had triumphed all of a sudden.
The transgender older Max Hightower, whose cast in the lead role sparked the subsequent events, said in a text message on Tuesday,” I’m over excited and all cried tears of joy.” On Tuesday, he and another theatre students went on a class outing to buy costumes as solace from the disappointment of not being able to complete their production. It evolved into a party otherwise. ” I’m getting new costumes for Oklahoma!” he remarked.
High school students and their parents had gathered at the district’s headquarters on Monday evening before the school board vote, along with theatre stars and transgender individuals from local Austin College. Locals came to Sherman High School of” Oklahoma”!, which tells the tale of an Oklahoma Territory land woman and her marriage by two rival admirers, to discuss centuries of previous works. Some laughed at the district’s criticisms of the music, which school administrators claimed contained “mature adult themes.”
” Oklahoma!” is regarded as one of the safest performances you could possibly choose, according to Kirk Everist, an Austin College drama doctor. At this point, it’s about a myth.
Nearly all of the seats in the room were taken by people who supported the output. While others who were turned away waited inside, some lined the walls. Just a small percentage of the 65 attendees who registered to speak supported the state’s limitations.
Yet to longtime Sherman residents, the deluge came as a shock.
Valerie Fox, a 41-year-old local L. G. B. T. Q. activist and the family of an gay high school student, said,” What you’re seeing now is history.” The image of tens of transgender individuals and their followers holding signs and flags outside the city offices, according to Ms. Fox, surprised her. One of the biggest issues we’ve ever seen in Sherman is this.
Many liberals have traveled to the area, which is only a short drive from Dallas, to get away from the city. Some people agreed with the superintendent’s first music restriction decision.
Renée Snow, 62, said earlier on Monday as she and her friend sat on a bench outside the county courthouse,” Adult content does n’t belong in high school, they’re still kids.” It has to do with schooling. It has nothing to do with attitude.
Lyn Williams, a 69-year-old companion, concurred. She remarked,” It does n’t seem like anyone is willing to defend anything any longer.”
No one needed to be reminded of the controversy’s specifics at a nearby shoe retailer. One shopping claimed that the problem was as straightforward as the fact that God created people to be either male or female while shaking a pair of insoles.
Bruce Dawsey, the best professional for Grayson County, spoke inside the courtroom as he described a rural area coming to terms with its transformation into one where industrial growth is changing the environment. Nearby, more than a hundred crane could be seen towering over Texas Instruments ‘ brand-new, cutting-edge service. With more than 2,200 students, the high school opened on a sprawling new school in 2021. The grass was also dress, and the newly planted plants were still having trouble providing shade. The university is already too little despite all the development.
According to Mr. Dawsey,” The lot is Democratic, and it’s conventional Republican.” However, it is n’t so extreme that it’s not welcome.
However, some residents of Sherman and the surrounding area have resented the changes. Democrat governor Beto O’Rourke was met with extreme protesters who confronted him about gun rights when he ran through the region last year, some of whom were carrying assault-style rifles. A few people wore T-shirts that read,” Do n’t Dallas My Grayson County,” which expressed opposition to liberal urban governance.
But the debate surrounding” Oklahoma”! came as a shock. More than 60 individuals in the cast and crew, as well as lots of dancing, had been preparing for months after the music was chosen and approved next academic year. Casting was finished in August. The appearances were scheduled for the first few days of December.
Max, 17, was given a supporting position. However, one of the leads from the creation was fired in late October, giving Max his biggest role to date. He could n’t contain his joy.
Days later, Max’s parents, Phillip Hightower, received a call from the higher school principal informing him that Max was not eligible to play the role due to the new legislation prohibiting kids from playing roles that were not based on their sex at birth. Mr. Hightower recalled that while he was n’t impolite or rude, the man was very direct and brusque.
Eventually, the district denied having such a rule. One of the information the principal left for other families whose kids were losing their jobs was given to The New York Times.
On the recording, a man’s voice could be heard saying,” This is Scott Johnston, principal at Sherman High School.” The Sherman theater department may now cast students who were born as females in roles for women and men as men for female roles.
The Texas high school drama competition rules, which permit pupils to be cast in roles regardless of gender, were the subject of the information.
The city did not make Mr. Johnston or the supervisor Bennett available for a meeting.
According to the original chorus producer Anna Clarkson, Mr. Bennett had voiced concerns about the material of a Sherman High School theater production in his previous position as assistant superintendent. In the school’s production of” Legally Blonde” in 2015, she recalled Mr. Bennett asking her to cut a song with the lyrics” Gay or European” and transform the lesbian character into the straight character.
Theater individuals from the higher class discussed how things had gotten worse for gay and transgender students at school since the production was halted at the school board meeting on Monday. insults. Comments. debates in the hallways
Max remarked,” People are following me around and calling me girl-boy.”
In preparation for a difficult day, Kayla Brooks and her family Liz Banks arrived at the conference. They had been constantly working with other kids to resist the changes, and their daughter Ellis had lost a role playing the female figure.
Because we both reside in Sherman, Ms. Banks said,” We were both anxious.” They finally noticed the sizable, encouraging group inside. Ms. Brooks said,” We started crying in the car.”
As dozens of people testified in favor of the theatre students and shared personal histories, the class table sat generally in silence. At Austin College, a transgender pupil claimed he had never before come out in public. Residents of Sherman bemoaned how the city had appeared due to the school district’s location.
One person, Rebecca Gebhard, told the table,” I just want this area to be the best it can be and not be a victim for the entire country.”
After almost three hours, the committee left the room. The masses dispersed. Some anticipated an important choice would be made soon.
The board finally took their seats once more after 10 p.m. and put forth a motion to put the vote on whether or not the original edition of the music should be reinstated because there was no formal policy on gender for casting. All seven committee members, including one who had objected to a gay pride celebration months earlier, voted in favor.
The committee chairman, Brad Morgan, said afterwards,” We want to apologize to our kids, parents, and community for the situation they’ve had to go through.”
On Tuesday morning as they sat in their life space, Ms. Banks and Mrs. Brooks thought back to how their child had told them the news. ” She just said,” We won,” Ms. Brooks remarked. She was beaming and grinning ear-to-ear. In January, the music would been presented.
For the first time, the pair made the decision to display a pride flag in their front window. They had a little more faith in their relatives right now than they had the day before.
Research was contributed by Alain Delaquérière.
