Law Humor

Man Sues for Right to Wear Skirt

By Kevin Underhill

At least this gentleman is not asking for something ridiculous like three quadrillion dollars, or, given the facts of this case, three dollars.  He just wants one dollar, and a ruling that he can freely wear his manskirt without fear of harassment.

Jeremy Kerr filed a civil-rights claim against the New Orleans police department last month, alleging that he had been threatened with arrest for wearing his unusual lower-parts covering to municipal court.  Kerr, who described himself as a "heterosexual male of Scottish ancestry," although he was wearing a black pinstriped skirt and not a kilt, says he simply finds skirts more comfortable than pants and that he was discriminated against because of illegal gender stereotyping.

Kerr alleges that an officer accosted him in May 2008, following him out of a courtroom and demanding to know why he was wearing a skirt.  "He had no right to ask me that question," Kerr told the Times-Picayune.  "You couldn't ask a woman, 'Why are you wearing pants?'"  (You can't?  Now I understand why my last evaluation went so poorly.)  The officer persisted, eventually asking Kerr whether he was a woman.  "He said, 'Are you going to make me arrest you and find out?'" Kerr alleged.

The New Orleans PD said it had not yet been served with the lawsuit and so would have no comment.

Kerr, 37, acknowledges he has been thrown out of lots of places for wearing skirts, but insists that most people think it's simply grand.  "The comments are overwhelmingly positive," Kerr said, though he did not cite any statistics.  "Women love it, people of all ages and all races love it across the board."  That seems doubtful, but based on the comments posted on the Times-Picayune's website, they don't hate it as much as they hate saggy jeans.

Maybe he should consider New Zealand, where at least one male attorney was able to freely wear skirts and dresses to court for about a year during 2006 and 2007 without being bothered about it.  Dr. Rob Moodie switched ensembles to protest what he saw as the corrupt male ethos of that country's legal system and a conspiracy to suppress evidence in a case he was handling.  "I will now, as a lawyer, be wearing women's clothing," he announced.  "The deeper the coverup, the prettier the frocks."

Link: AP
Link: Times-Picayune

Full post as published by Lowering the Bar on May 06, 2009 (boomark / email).