Students Support Transgender Student

Let's talk about how students at O Colégio Pedro II in Brazil are basically the greatest kids ever. Yes, yes, it's hyperbolic, but go with it. If ever a student body earned such grandiose language, it was these dudes and dudettes for standing behind a fellow student who was being faced with some pretty heinous discrimination.

When transgender student Maria Muniz was fined for wearing a skirt to school, her classmates came rushing to her defense in a simple, effective, and cheeky way: Girls wore pants to school, and all the boys wore skirts.

Let's hold hands through why this situation sucked to begin with: The school's dress code policy says that girls must wear skirts and boys must wear pants. When the school fined Maria for wearing a skirt, they were saying she was not a girl, thus stripping her of both her identity and her autonomy in defining her identity. So it's – of course – not really about clothing at all.

When Maria was forced to pay up for wearing a skirt, her classmates came to her aid. Can we start by discuss the fact that Maria has advocates amongst her classmates and not spiteful, bullying dillholes and how that is the greatest? Maria is a girl, and as such, shouldn't be fined for doing what the school allows all other girls should do. This issue is underlined by the fact that the school itself, according to Maria, was essential in teaching her to always be herself.

Luckily, this show of support effected real and positive change. Her school wiped the fine and now they are going to reevaluate their policies about uniform. This is good! This story is so good!

Frankly, I think everybody should wear skirts all the time. Pants are the worst. Trans, cis, sleeping, awake, breathing...no matter who you are, you should probably hate pants. Let's all let our sexual organs fly free, regardless of societal strictures as to what they are best hidden behind! I also think underwear is awful. In the interest of full disclosure I am totally wearing pants right now. They are jeans fresh out of the dryer which, to be fair, could be largely responsible for the "SKIRTS FOR ALL" campaign I am apparently launching today.

Image: Facebook