Moth Poydock was thrilled to learn this spring that it was possible to wear a rainbow tassel to high school graduation. Along with other LGTBQ+ students at Sweet Home High, Poydock, a nonbinary individual who uses they/them pronouns, hoped to follow in the footsteps of their sister, Ashleigh Lucina, the first openly transgender student at the school, who did so in 2019. But days after several students picked up the tassels from a teacher – a practice that has become commonplace in several other Western New York school districts – Sweet Home administrators told the student body that wearing them would violate commencement rules.
The mixed messages were crushing. Moth Poydock, a senior at Sweet Home High School, wears their graduation cap adorned with a rainbow tassel to signify their nonbinary identity. School administrators have told students that wearing the rainbow tassels would violate commencement rules.
“It’s so important to me, because I’ve never been ashamed to be who I am,” said Poydock, 18, who is set to graduate June 27. “And while graduation is supposed to be about the whole graduating class, there is a reason why we all walk across the stage as individuals: to celebrate our individual achievements. .
.. This is just a big part of who I am.
” The school newsroom’s morning announcements on May 20 included information that students could drop by the classroom of the Gay-Straight Alliance adviser to pick up a tassel to wear at graduation. Three days la.