A Transgender Students gets a Lead Role. The District Shouts No!
A Transgender Students gets a Lead Role. The District Shouts No!
Phillip and Amy Hightower, guest speakers
DOWNLOAD THE MORNING PROGRAM HERE or read it below without having to download it.
Phillip and Amy Hightower along with their 17-year-old son Max were catapulted into the news last winter after their trans son was offered a main role in his high school’s production of “Oklahoma!” playing Ali Hakim, a peddler who is a love interest opposite one of the musical’s female leads. The Sherman school district yanked the role from Max, announcing a “new policy” (!) that actors could only appear in roles that matched their biological gender. The enraged–and hurt–family was dumbstruck when not only the citizens of Sherman but of the nation and the world stood behind them demanding that the school restore the roles to the students who earned them.
Phillip and Amy Hightower join us on Mother’s Day to talk about unconditional love for their children and about standing tall amid hate.
Max and his parents
(image by Azul Sordo for The Texas Tribune)
Max Hightower
(Image from The Guardian, courtesy of Amy Highwater)
Scene for Oklahoma
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Max Hightower
(from The Washington Post, courtesy of Amy Hightower)
TMP - 5-12 - v.2
