EXCLUSIVE

BET can dress its hosts however the hell it wants -- even if that means forcing a transgender person to dress like a man -- and that's why the judge threw out B. Scott's discrimination lawsuit.

TMZ broke the story, Scott sued the network, claiming it humiliated him during the BET Awards last year by forcing him to change from women's clothes into men's clothes ... and then yanking him off the show entirely.

But the judge in the case just ruled in the network's favor, dismissing the lawsuit.

The judge ruled BET has the 1st Amendment right to run its shows the way it wants ... and that includes ordering Scott to change from women's to men's clothes ... and that's that.

Scott tells TMZ, "It disheartens me that the message sent today wasn't a message of acceptance, but rather it's acceptable to discriminate against transgender individuals on the basis of their gender identity and expression."