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Father-Daughter Dance: Is It Becoming an Endangered Species in NYC?

February 13, 2018 by Kevin McKeever

father-daughter dance
Father-daughter dance time may be running out in New York City because of school guidelines on eliminating gender-based practices without a specific educational purpose. (Photo: gsdsw via Foter.com / CC BY-NC-SA)

Have modern-day attempts at gender equality gone too far?

That’s what some New York City parents claim after their children’s public school canceled its annual father-daughter dance.

P.S. 65 in Staten Island recently scrubbed its event because it falls outside of city Department of Education guidelines, several media outlets have reported. Instead, the school plans to hold a dance next month for all students and their caregivers, regardless of gender.

According to the NYC DOE’s  Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming Student Guidelines, updated in March 2017: “Gender-based policies, rules, and practices can have the effect of marginalizing, stigmatizing, stereotyping and excluding students, whether or not they are transgender or gender nonconforming. For these reasons, schools should review such policies, rules and practices, and should eliminate any that do not serve a clear pedagogical purpose. Examples may include such practices as gender-based graduation gowns, lines, and/or attire for yearbook pictures.”

Many parents have claimed the dance cancellation is an example of “political correct” culture run amok and bemoaned the loss of father-daughter bonding event.

Meanwhile, the New York Post quotes Jared Fox, LGBT community liaison for the city education department, as saying: “Father-daughter dances inherently leave people out. Not just because of transgender status, just life in general. These can be really uncomfortable and triggering events.”

Fox did add the dances can be positively impactful if inclusive, telling the Post: “For a young trans girl, to be able to go to a father-daughter dance can feel very affirming because in this instance she’s recognized as a daughter.”

Several other New York public schools have ignored this new guidelines and still held a traditional father-daughter dance.

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Filed Under: gender / sexuality, news, NYC Tagged With: gender roles

About Kevin McKeever

City Dads Group Editor Kevin McKeever runs Write On, Kevin Communications when not being an at-home dad to three: boy, girl and canine. He wrote a two-time nationally award-winning newspaper column, blogs at Always Home and Uncool and tweets as @homeanduncool. His work has been featured in USA Today, Canada’s Globe and Mail, the New York Daily News and landfills worldwide.

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