Openly gay teen voted prom queen at LA high school

[alex_c]

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/...PeC6gD98FI37O0

Openly gay teen voted prom queen at LA high school

5 days ago

LOS ANGELES (AP) — An openly gay teen has been voted prom queen at his Los Angeles high school in a campaign that began as a stunt but ended up spurring discussion on the campus about gender roles and popularity.

Sergio Garcia said he felt "invincible" when he was crowned queen of the Fairfax High School dance at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel on Saturday.

Days before the dance, Garcia told fellow students that he was "not your typical prom queen candidate. There's more to me than meets the eye."

He also promised that he would be wearing a suit on prom night, but "don't be fooled: Deep down, I am a queen."

And he made good of that promise Saturday, wearing a gray tuxedo topped off with the prized tiara.

Garcia, 18, said he saw fliers advertising the prom and the election but they didn't specify that the queen must be female. He thought the role would suit him better than prom king.

"I don't wish to be a girl," he told the Los Angeles Times. "I just wish to be myself."

Senior class president Vanessa Lo said she and other students were initially against the idea but became convinced he wasn't just an attention-seeking clown.

"It just goes to show how open-minded our class is," Lo said.

Unique Payne, 17, said she voted for Garcia because she supported the gay community.

Although many students were supportive of Garcia's run, others were upset and didn't understand why Garcia chose to run for prom queen.

"I'm not really happy about that," said 17-year-old Juan Espinoza. "He should've run for prom king."

[Legend]

He isn't even transsexual there was no need for him to even run for prom queen, i think the whole thing was a joke but also hearing some of his comments he seems to be an attention whore.

[MarkD]

^^ My thoughts exactly.

[Nowhere]

Actually, I don't see this addressing gender roles at all. I'm all for acceptance of the GLBT community, so this is sort of good?/?

[blckhaze]

nothing new
I know a a couple of girls voted to prom queen. (and two others specifically voted prom king)

[BLKGSXR]

the young turks actually talked about this....go look at their discussion on youtube.

[alex_c]

Actually, I don't see this addressing gender roles at all. I'm all for acceptance of the GLBT community, so this is sort of good?/?

Its mostly to point out that being a king or queen isnt designated to a specific gender, and for those who feel they are "queens" deep down, this has more sentiment than most perceived, It could have been the student body was simply making a point.

[alex_c]

the young turks actually talked about this....go look at their discussion on youtube.

Do you have a link?

[celticgrafix]

yeh what a douchebag, why would people vote for him

[notdrunk]

yeh what a douchebag, why would people vote for him

Because they thought they were being "progressive" or they wanted to make headlines.