Wolfe 
 
 Transgender graduating senior Issak Wolfe's name won't be announced at Red Lion Area High School graduation on Friday as he requested. The district has informed the American Civil Liberties Union that Wolfe's legal name, Sierra Stambaugh, will be read instead, according to ACLU attorney Molly Tack-Hooper. 
 
 Wolfe has been going by his male name in recent years, and he and the ACLU had asked the name be honored by the district. 
 
 Tack-Hooper said the district was "unmoved by our request" and wants to stick to legal names. 
 
 Tack-Hooper said Wolfe is in the process of legally changing his name, but since he only turned 18 in April and it's a lengthy process, he hasn't had time to complete it. 
 
 "The ACLU thinks it's unfortunate the school has taken the path of rigid adherence," Tack-Hooper said. 
 
 Wolfe request: Wolfe previously said he understands the diploma itself is a legal document and needs his legal name, but had hoped Red Lion would be open to his name-reading request, since there's no legal obligation and he no longer identifies himself as a female. 
 
 The graduation ceremony is at 7 p.m. Friday, June 7, at the high school. 
 
 Last month, Wolfe's gender identity became an issue when, he said, Red Lion High School Principal Mark Shue changed Wolfe's entry from Issak Wolfe on the prom king ballot to Sierra Stambaugh, and put him on the prom queen ballot. 
 
 Red Lion Superintendent Scott Deisley could not be immediately reached for comment. 
 
 - Reach Andrew Shaw at ashaw@yorkdispatch.com. ||||| A central Pennsylvania school district has refused to allow a transgender student's male name to be announced during his graduation ceremony later this week. 
 
 
 
 Eighteen-year-old Isaak Wolfe had asked the Red Lion Area School District in York County to allow his male name to be announced during Friday night's ceremony. 
 
 
 
 The school board said earlier that Wolfe would be allowed to wear a boy's black graduation gown. But board solicitor Ben Pratt said a diploma is a legal document and must bear the recipient's legal name. Wolfe's given female name, Sierra Stambaugh, is to be read as he walks across the stage. 
 
 
 
 American Civil Liberties Union lawyer Molly Tack-Hooper said Wolfe is in the process of changing his name but hasn't had time to complete the process. 
 
 Last May, Wolfe and more than 50 supporters wearing stickers saying "His name is Issak" attended a Red Lion Area School District board meeting. They brought with them a petition of 2,000 signatures urging the board to allow Wolfe to use his male name 
 
 The student uses the name Issak Wolfe, but is enrolled at Red Lion High School in York County as Sierra Stambaugh. 
 
 Board solicitor Benjamin Pratt said it has always been procedure to use students' legal names. 
 
 Transgender Student Fights School 
 
 A transgender high school senior petitions to use his new name at graduation. WGAL-TV's Pete Muntean reports. (Published Friday, Sept. 4, 2015) 
 
 Wolfe said ahead of the meeting that he was fighting the decision -- and calling for a policy to protect future students from discrimination on the basis of gender identity, to help others like him. 
 
 "It's incredibly hurtful, and if I can prevent somebody else from being hurt in that way, that's what I want to do," he told The Associated Press. 
 
 Wolfe said he's also speaking out because high school principal Mark Shue listed him by his birth name on the ballot for prom queen last April, denying him a chance to run for prom king as he had hoped. 
 
 Wolfe said Issak is the name he would have been given had he been born a male, and Wolfe is an old family name. 
 
 "I've never gotten too much trouble from other students about who I am," Wolfe said in remarks prepared for delivery to the school board. "But when Principal Shue listed me under my old name on the prom queen ballot, it was the most humiliating and demeaning thing that has ever happened to me at school." 
 
 The American Civil Liberties Union had demanded an apology for Shue's decision, but the district balked, saying it had already apologized for a "lack of communication" on where Wolfe would be placed on the prom court ballot. 
 
 Red Lion's superintendent, Scott Deisley, did not return a phone message from The Associated Press. 
 
 Wolfe said that growing up, he was unhappy in his own skin and had a feeling that something was wrong. By 10th grade, he said, he had pinpointed the cause of his distress: He wanted to live as a man. He asked his mother to buy men's clothing and "she was like, 'OK, whatever you want.'" 
 
 Wolfe is working on a legal name change. He said in his statement to the school board that the district's insistence on reading his female name at graduation "serves no other purpose than to hurt me more." 
 
 About half of his teachers call him Issak, and the rest call him Sierra, he said. 
 
 "My teachers have not changed how they treat me. They're all still great," he said. "The name thing is stressful, but they haven't changed their behavior toward me." 
 
 Copyright Associated Press ||||| A transgender student at Red Lion High School who uses the name Issak Wolfe will instead hear his legal name, Sierra Stambaugh, read as he walks across the stage to receive his diploma Friday. 
 
 The Red Lion School Board responded to the American Civil Liberties Union last week and informed Wolfe’s attorneys that it will not overturn Principal Mark Shue's decision, said Ben Pratt, School Board solicitor. 
 
 
 
 
 
 "We are maintaining the position that we will read the legal name at graduation," Pratt said. 
 
 In mid-May, Wolfe and supporters attended a board meeting and pleaded that the School Board overturn Shue’s decision. The district has said that Wolfe will be allowed to wear a black cap and gown, the color typically worn by boys, instead of a yellow one, worn by girls. 
 
 But a diploma is a legal document that must bear a legal name, and it is that name that will be read during the ceremony, according to the district. 
 
 
 
 Per district policy, nicknames and the like are not used during commencement ceremonies or on diplomas. 
 
 Wolfe has said he is working on changing his legal name. 
 
 Red Lion Superintendent Scott Deisley did not immediately return a call from PennLive on Tuesday afternoon. 
 
 Molly Tack-Hooper, one of Wolfe's attorneys, said the ACLU is disappointed in the decision and called the district "authoritarian." 
 
 "At this point, we're not holding out hope of changing the district's mind," she said. 
 
 Rather than fighting back on this case, Tack-Hooper said she hopes Wolfe's story will educate the public on transgender issues and will show other school districts the effect these sorts of controversies can have. 
 
 Wolfe previously took issue with the district's policies in April, when his attempts to win the title of prom king were shot down and he was placed on the prom queen ballot. His girlfriend, Taylor Thomas, was nearly barred from attending prom after she made comments online criticizing Shue for placing Wolfe on the prom queen ballot. 
 
 Following ACLU intervention, the couple were allowed to attend prom together. 
 
 This story was updated to include comment from Molly Tack-Hooper, an attorney with the ACLU.
– When Issak Wolfe walks in his Pennsylvania high school's graduation ceremony Friday, he won't hear his name read aloud as he accepts his diploma. Instead, he'll hear his legal—female—name, Sierra Stambaugh, the York Dispatch reports. Wolfe is transgender, and Red Lion Area High School has refused his request to read the male name he now uses, despite Wolfe's backing from the ACLU. The district's position: A diploma is a legal document and needs to carry a legal name; Wolfe is legally changing his name, but hasn't completed the process yet since he just turned 18 in April. But Wolfe hoped that, even if his diploma carried his birth name, his chosen name could be read aloud. The principal rejected his request, so the ACLU took the issue to the school board, which last week decided to uphold the principal's decision, the Patriot-News reports. (Wolfe was accompanied by more than 50 supporters and a petition bearing 2,000 signatures when he attended the board meeting, NBC Philadelphia reports.) The district will, however, allow Wolfe to wear a black cap and gown with the rest of the male students, rather than the yellow one worn by the female students. Wolfe was previously in the news in April, when his principal listed him on the prom queen ballot, rather than the prom king ballot as he had requested.