Report: School Cancels Cosmetology to Stop Gay Students From Joining

Taylor Career Center

A cosmetology program for adults at a Texas technical school is canceled, according to The Examiner of southeast Texas, because it's illegal to bar an applicant for his sexual orientation.

Instructor Cequada Clark of the Taylor Career Center told the newspaper that the school's principal, Thomas Amons, had said he'd rather shut down the program than have "flamboyantly gay guys" included.

The Examiner reports that Kwmane Gray, 22, arrived at class and when the principal realized it, he consulted with lawyers about how to keep him out. The lawyers for the Beaumont Independent School District reportedly advised that it's illegal to ban an individual student just for being gay, so instead the principal shuttered the entire program, which had been running since 2009.

Clark, who told the newspaper she had been subsequently fired from her job, said the program had been used most often by single mothers who were trying to start a career.

Read more about the story from The Examiner.