Transvestism or Cross Dressing

Students are engaging in transvestism or cross-dressing when they wear garments that typify the opposite gender. So, to qualify as a transvestite, a boy dons feminine clothes and accoutrements while a girl wears masculine garments and accessories.

Over recent decades it has become increasingly difficult to accuse girls of transvestism because females in America have almost universally been cladding themselves in garments traditionally considered the province of males—pants (both short and long), shirts, vests, baseball caps, and athletic shoes. No such trend has occurred among boys, except, perhaps, for the recent fad of youths wearing earrings or a necklace (usually an amulet on a gold or silver chain).

Other than in settings frequented by homosexuals, males wearing women’s garments or accessories are not considered “normal” and socially acceptable.

Students who contemplate dressing in the traditional garb of the opposite gender must decide where, when, and under what circumstances they can safely do so. Likewise, school personnel who observe a student cross dressing must decide what to do about it. Here are two examples in which schools differed in their responses to incidents of cross-dressing.