Send Yves St. Laurent to Indiana, Please!

A 17-year-old lesbian in Indiana has filed a lawsuit because her principal says she can’t wear a tuxedo to the prom.

This only goes to prove that Indiana is provincial in two entirely different ways:

1. Binary gender thinking that says girls have to wear dresses and boys have to wear pants. Of course this is rooted in fear and misunderstanding of homosexuality. Don’t worry, none of the other kids at the prom can catch being gay by brushing up against a female arm in a tuxedo on the dance floor. Really.

2. Very bad fashion sense. The late Yves St. Laurent spent a career making variations on what he called “Le Smoking” (as in “smoking jacket” ). Some of these tuxedos were frilly, some were sleek. Some were girly, and some were downright butch (yum). All of them were beautifully made, expensive as hell, accepted in polite society, and are now iconic.

Apparently Vogue never made it to newsstands in the Hoosier state, or there wouldn’t be silly discussions about whether girls can wear tuxedos.

While the ACLU is seeking an injunction that would allow the girl to wear a tuxedo, school officials are debating whether she can wear a women’s “pantsuit” instead. I assume, by this, they’re picturing the kind of neutral, tasteful thing usually worn by WNBA coaches during games and by lesbian attorneys for press conferences.

Would someone out there who has some taste and style dust off a “Le Smoking” and loan it to this kid in Indiana? The state obviously needs some fashion education and it seems she’s just the one to provide it.

And, while I’m at it, how smoking hot is this this 1975 Helmut Newton photograph of an Yves St. Laurent Le Smoking?

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Posted in Culture Geek, GPG News Links Tagged: aclu, butch, butch-femme, civil rights, clothes, designer, dyke, fashion, fashion design, femme, gay, gender, GLBT, helmut newton, high school, Indiana, le smoking, lesbian, LGBT, photography, queer, student, style, tuxedo, vogue, wnba, yves st. laurent