Texas high school student Trevor Wilkinson has started a petition to ‘Allow Males to Wear Nail Polish‘ after he was suspended for his own nail polish wearing this week. He was also told he is not allowed to return to class until he takes the nail polish off.

So far, he’s gotten over 21,000 signatures on change.org, and says, “it’s a complete double standard because girls are allowed to paint and get their nails done.”

“I am a gay male and I’m beyond proud,” he writes. “This is unjust and not okay. Help me show that it is okay to express yourself and that the identity that society wants to normalize is not okay. I am a human. I am valid. I should not get in trouble for having my nails done. Sign and share this so people like me don’t have to ever deal with this again. It’s time for a change and that time is now.”

Wilkinson calls his punishment “unjust and not okay” and hopes he will be able to change the school district’s policy.

via Daily Mail:

He says that after returning from the Thanksgiving holiday, he was asked to speak to a teacher about his nails.

‘I started to take off my backpack and my teacher goes, “Trevor, can you come with me?”’

Wilkinson, 17, says he was informed that the dress code at Clyde High School expressly forbids boys from painting their nails. But there is no such rule for girls.

He claims that the policy is discriminatory toward homosexuals like himself and that he has been increasingly uncomfortable at his school.

‘Ever since I came out I have been having more issues at Clyde High than what I normally would,’ Wilkinson says.

‘I really wasn’t surprised that this was a thing. Clyde is very traditional.’

Wilkinson says he was told by his principal and vice principal that he could either take classes remotely until January, or keep the nail polish but remain in suspension.

He says he chose to keep the nail polish on and he has no plans to remove it.

‘I got ISS (in school suspension) for having my nails painted,’ Wilkinson writes in the petition.

‘I was told that I will continue to get ISS until I take them off. It’s a complete double standard because girls are allowed to paint and get their nails done.

‘Not only that, but freedom of expression is validation enough that the dress code and policy is not okay.

‘I am a gay male and I’m beyond proud. This is unjust and not okay.

A local LGBTQ advocacy group from nearby Abilene, Texas, has taken up the case and is urging the school board to change the policy.

And you can sign his petition here.