La Feria, TX high school senior Jeydon Loredo just wants to have his picture in his high school yearbook.  But La Feria Independent School District Superintendent Rey Villareal has a big problem with that.  You see, Jeydon was born and raised to be female.  But, like transgender people everywhere, that didn’t take.

Villareal has told Jeydon’s mother that Jeydon can have his picture in the yearbook only if he wears stereotypically feminine attire, like a blouse or a drape.  The superintendent does not take responsibility for this decision, however.  Having only been in the job for four months, he says he is deferring to Jeydon’s principal.  Villareal says the student handbook is clear:  the suitability of each photo which appears in the yearbook is subject to the judgement of the principal.  Jeydon’s family says that in fact Villareal made the decision, not the principal.

I’ve lived here my whole life, and I’ve grown up with the kids here.  I’ve seen those in my community go through troubles, and denying my tuxedo photo would be a way for the district to forget me and everything I’ve brought to this community.  The yearbook is for the students, not the faculty or the administration.  It is a way for us to remember each other.

Leahnora Isaak identifies as a transsexual woman.  She is also a Mormon.  She is attempting to gain recognition from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints so that she can live her life…inlcuding worship…as a woman.  She says she will be filing a formal request in the next couple of weeks.

Leahnora says she was born without external genitals, but she was given testosterone treatments as a child and was raised as a boy.  She later married and raised a family in Ohio.

Her local stake (an assembly of local churches) has been supportive.  Church leaders have met with fellow members to help them cope with Leahnora’s transition.

I want happiness.  I want companionship.  And I want to live the gospel.  That’s what I want.  And I want this equal for everybody.  I want people to celebrate who I am.  Because I’m not ashamed of who I am.

–Leahnora Isaak

The Weekly Standard’s John McCormack couldn’t resist.  In the face of the Senate’s immanent passage of the Employment NonDiscrimination Act, McCormack stated the real concern:  ENDA Would Grant Transgender Rights to Elementary School Teachers…by which I believe he is concerned with the fact that transgender people might…just might…become elementary school teachers.

John, John, John, oh, John.  That boat left the dock decades ago.  Teaching is one of the foremost occupations that transgender people gravitate to in their lives before transitioning.

McCormack bemoans the numbers calimed by the HUman Rights Campaign…that 88% of Fortune 500 companies have formal employment policies prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.  McCormack even brings up the fact that Rick Santorum has a gay friend and confidante.

It’s hard to imagine that in the year 2013 that any business in the country could fire someone simply because he is gay without facing a major backlash and boycotts.

Transgender, on the other hand, is a different matter.

ENDA contains no exceptions for schools at any age level (though the law does contain a modest religious liberty provision).

Horrors!  Transgender teachers!  Run!