Tampa, Florida: Nikki Youngblood and her mother agreed, when Nikki sat for her Robinson High senior yearbook photos, she would wear a black suit jacket, white dress shirt, and tie. Both mother and daughter

decided this attire was consistent with Nikki's gender identity and expression. At the Bryn-Alan Studios,

where the photos for Robinson High Excalibur yearbook are taken. They were told their choice in wardrobe

didn't suit what the school's choice of attire was. Nikki and her mom were told, female students would be photographed in a scoop-necked black velvet drape. Shirts and ties could only be worn by male students.

Sonia Youngblood, Nikki's mother said, the staff was pushing for her daughter to wear the drape. "She became very embarrassed," she also said, " It took everything I had not to cry."

The studio told Nikki they would photograph her in the shirt and tie, but only if the school said okay. "It's not

a problem with us," said Eddie Ocasio, area director for Bryn-Alan. "That's between her and the school. All we do is provide the service to the school.

A call was made and the situation was to explained to the assistant principal at Robinson. The kirt response to Ms. Youngblood was, if her daughter wanted to appear alongside her 280 classmates, she must wear the drape. Nikki's mothers said, "Apparently there is no provision or exception for a student that doesn't fit the mold."

Nikki, who is a lesbian teen and completed supported by her mother, says the scoop-necked velvet is

"just hideous" and "like asking a boy to go put on a dress. To my friends, it would have been the biggest

joke in the world." She said it boils down to one thing, "It's pure discrimination and All the kids in my high school class were behind me.

Nikki's mother said on a Los Angeles call-in talk show, "The clothes we chose were very nice, and Nikki would have looked ridiculous wearing a dress – that just isn’t her,"

Karen Doering of Equality Florida, the Youngbloods' attorney, in correspondence with the school attorney, alleges sex discrimination based on gender stereotypes and free expression violations. Doering wrote, it comes down to a young girl who wanted to appear as herself in her senior yearbook "rather than conforming to her school administrators' stereotyped notions of how girls should dress.

School attorney Crosby Few had a different take: "The administration did not feel the yearbook was the place you make those kinds of statements. The next year, you might have 10 boys dressing as girls and vice versa."

Few said that while the school remained steadfast about Nikki's senior picture, they agreed to allow a photograph of her in the activity section of the yearbook, wearing her clothing of choice.

Jennifer Middleton, attorney with New York's Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, called the school's decision outrageous. "That gets into a level of discrimination of who that student is," said Middleton, whose organization represents the rights of gays, lesbians and transgender people. "Everybody wants to be in the high school yearbook and you want to look like who you were in your high school years."

Nikki said she is puzzled about why it was such a big deal, since she was only asking to wear the same clothes as the boys in her class, not something outrageous. "I told Mom when we walked out (of the studio), "You should have lied and told them my name was Nicholas,"' said the stocky 5-foot-8 teen. "They would never have known the difference."

Nikki graduated from Robinson early, in December, she hopes to become a clinical psychologist. However, when the school's yearbook comes out this spring, Nikki Youngblood's picture will not be in it.

Nikki did not buy a yearbook and doubts that it will have her name in it. She, like all high school students, want to have the yearbook to look back at and when they get together with old friends to reminisce. But,

because of a policy that does not allow for any type of personal self expression, Nikki, will not have this

The family was considering a lawsuit, but, since the deadline for yearbook production has passed. It may

be a moot point for Nikki. Perhaps it may serve to create change for the future Nikki's, who will face the