Basement Dweller

pansexualpride:

A school in Florida elected a transgender prom queen:

They’ve bullied and taunted her, calling her names and writing on her locker.

And now, the seniors at McFatter Technical High School have elected Andrew Viveros their 2011 prom queen.

“They called my name and I was in total shock,” said Andrew, a 17-year-old who was born male but has publicly presented herself as female for the last two years.

And a school in Maine elected a gay couple prom queen and king

Senior Christian Nelsen was crowned queen and his boyfriend Caleb Jett won the title as king.

Both received enough write-in votes to win. They said they decided to run to break high school stereotypes and open some dialogue about tolerance and gay rights. “When I went for it, I was like this could change who wins for the rest of the year. It doesn’t matter if it’s a guy or a girl who wins prom queen. Anyone can win, and on that same notion any type of person could win,” said Nelsen.

Though the two men are proud of their win, not everyone is happy about having a gay prom king and queen.

News 8 talked with several people in Sanford who didn’t support the win, but none of them wanted to comment on camera.

I remember not too long ago, even when I was already in the blogging business, that either of these stories would have generated headlines for weeks. Now, not so much.

If the 90’s was the decade of the LGBT teens in school, then the 2000’s were the decade where the idea that teenagers had minds, identities, and sexualities of their own was normalized.

Instead, the stories of LGBT teens in school that make headlines now are stories where they’re treated as less than or excluded instead of stories where they’re accepted by their peers. That’s progress of a sort.