An openly gay teen was voted prom queen at Los Angeles’ Fairfax High School in a campaign that began as a stunt but ended up spurring discussion on the campus about gender roles and teen popularity.
Sergio Garcia, 18, was crowned queen Saturday night at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.
“I feel invincible,” Garcia said in his tiara and charcoal-gray tuxedo.
Garcia promised his classmates that he wouldn’t wear a dress to prom—and he didn’t—and told the LA Times that he has no desire to be a girl; he just wanted to have fun and be himself.
Men or boys, gay or straight with more freedom to just be themselves is a soooo a good thing.
That he was voted by his peers makes me feel good. It says to me young generations “get it” much better than the older ones.
And. . . I’ll say (because i have this compulsion to do so) that some boys do want to be (or are) girls – and that’s okay too.
YMMV, as they say.
who needs appropriate gender role models, anyway
Awww, that was so sweet.
I love his statement “I just wish to be myself”
Isn’t that what we all want, and should strive for?
Good for him!
Yeah, 2, because high schoolers are ideal role models at everything!
Lemme guess, this is an attack on High School tradition, and now prom queens all over the country are less-prom-queeny because of it.
Eh. just bored by it. Amused that it was by class election, though.
L.A.
wake me when this happens in Arkansas.
Yes keep up hope. This story about the LA high school is an example of something said in a NYT op ed today — “‘ Minds are very hard things to open, and the best way to open the mind is through the heart.’…Thus persuasion may be most effective when built on human interactions. Gay rights were probably advanced largely by the public’s growing awareness of friends and family members who were gay.”
Nobody loves a hater. Except other haters.
2, can you define exactly what the “appropriate gender roles” entail? Other than having a penis or a vagina, what is the limiting factors in what a man or woman can do, and still remain within your idea of an “appropriate gender role”? Is a woman working, while the husband stays home with the kids inappropriate?
It’s heartwarming when you hear about kids being loved and accepted for who they are. It gives me hope for the future.
Please. My high school did this 10 years ago. Though it was in Toronto.
@10:
agreed.
Although sex (body parts) and gender (social construction and perhaps brain structure are different)
@10:
agreed.
Although sex (body parts) and gender (social construction and perhaps brain structure are different)
@2
so a boy’s mother wouldn’t be an appropriate role model for him even if she is a highly accomplished CEO, world champion kick-boxer, whatever, because she is “female”?
My university elected a male as our snow ball queen (snow ball is the big dance here). The rules were “fixed” next year.
@2:
so by your definition, anyone that falls outside of your set of opinions that are appropriate behaviors, traits and appearances of “genders” = bad example for others. nice. Have many friends, do ya?
@12
I am glad to hear some find this kind of thing “old.” aka – what’s the big deal. . .
The Partridge Family tackled this back in the early 70’s when David became queen and Laurie became King (or something like that)