Transphobia is one high school theater

A Texas high school was all set to put on the musical Oklahoma but when a trans boy was cast in a male role, the original license holders pulled the rights and said you can only cast people to characters who match their gender at birth. It turned into a battle and also caused a lot of bad press, so now they are letting him play the character but only allowing it if they instead put on 'Oklahoma Jr.' citing that their real reason is them only now realizing that it has material too dark for high school. The problem is that in Oklahoma Jr. the role designated for the young trans actor has been reduced to the point that it is no longer even a named part!

One could argue that it really might be too dark for a school environment, but it would depend on the school and the kids performing it. Certainly a school that puts emphasis on the arts at all could be okay with this material, especially when used educationally. Some high schools have even put on, admittedly censored, versions of Rent.

Just for transparency: the dark material included in Oklahoma is references of gun violence, suicide, racism and sexual violence.

The thing that sucks the most about this is that I am worried that theater teachers all across the country are following this news and will think twice about casting a talented trans student they have if it means preventing their license from being pulled.