Transgender Teen Cassidy Campbell wins the title of Marina High School’s Homecoming Queen. This month’s pageants just keep getting better and better!
Four girls at Marina High School in Huntington Beach lost the title of Homecoming Queen last night — but they gained a place in history. They’ll have a great story to tell their grandchildren — and in fifty years, there will probably be little doubt about its being a heart-warming one.
They lost to Cassidy Lynn Campbell, née Lance Campbell, a transgender 16-year-old youth. There have been reports that she is the first transgender Homecoming Queen in U.S. history, but I’ll wait for that to be confirmed (or not) by whoever keeps such records. Even if not, it’s still a big story.
Campbell has been living most of the time since junior high as a female — although because the concept of transgender was too complex for many of her peers, she settled instead for telling them that she was gay. (See the LA Times link down below.)
For those of you who, for whatever reason, haven’t seen one of Cassidy’s videos, here’s a good introduction:
Is Marina High School’s principal cool with this? Looks like it!
The 16-year-old did face some negativity over her nomination from fellow students, but she and Principal Paul Morrow are proud of the way the majority voted.
“Were proud of the message from home of the Vikings has been one of equity, acceptance, tolerance and respect,” Principal Morrow said.
What about her parents? Here’s a quote that you really ought to read:
One night, about three months ago, she came clean to her mom.
“I was crying. That’s when I told her, ‘I’m taking testosterone blockers and I’m going to start estrogen soon with or without your consent,'” she recalled.
Her mom, Christine Campbell, told her she’d support her. Her father, slower to warm to the change, has not discouraged her. The teen’s now on hormone blockers and taking estrogen injections prescribed by an endocrinologist.
…
Cassidy’s transition has forced her to grow up faster than other kids, her mother said while dicing tomatoes in the family kitchen.
“I don’t want her to be who she is, and my religion says it’s wrong,” said her mother, a self-described born-again Christian. “But I think in the end, love is letting her be who she wants to be.”
I want to send out my greatest respect to Cassidy Campbell for doing something that was harder and braver than it may now look from tonight’s vantage point. Congratulations, best wishes, and greatest respect also to the students and staff of Marina High School Vikings, with one exception: that being November 8, when the Vikings host Edison. (Sorry, that’s the best I can do.)
Out of respect, I will not post the final score of today’s game against San Juan Hills. (Let’s just say that tonight I can empathize with you — and I shall say no more than that.)
UPDATE (with a hat tip to the Weekly): Cassidy Campbell is not done with you yet.
The Homecoming Queen Drama Continues:
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*As Earl Anthony the 300 Bowler once said: Spare Me!
That’s strike one.
he’s my sister, she’s my brother, he’s my sister, she’s my brother,,,,,,,,,,,
This story just reinforces that today’s generation is more open-minded than the dinosaurs of my generation or older. They aren’t uptight about who loves who and who wants to marry who. That’s why the dinosaurs fought hard to change the laws to keep things the way they were, but they lost! They knew the times were a changing…
How brave it is for Cassidy to live her life on her terms, especially at her age when it’s important to fit in with peer groups. Maybe, its just me, but living in San Francisco allowed me to see many kinds of people…It was common to walk into an office and be greeted by the receptionist who clearly was transgender. It was no big deal.
Don’t we all want to be accepted for who we are? If we can’t be ourselves, than who are we supposed to be????
The Lt. Governor was right when he said “It’s gonna happen whether you like it or not’.
But, I amazed at which stories get legs, Brea Olinda had an openly Gay Prom King last year (remember the brave fighter kid), who overcame TREMENDOUS discrimination to be accepted. And moreover, the media seems to like to report on hate crimes and negativity than the positive stories like those.
I may go to hell (or at least heck) for coining this phrase, but: Trans is the new Gay.
The way things go, I think that it’s unsurprising that the first election of a gay Prom King would precede the first election of a trans Prom Queen. That we mark the former occasion doesn’t mean we shouldn’t mark the latter.
Agreed. Except for the part about “TRANS BEING THE NEW GAY”.
In this particular respect, I mean. This is where the first ice is currently being broken.
and i am still trying to adjust to orange being the new black
Really? I had no idea that you’d been arrested. How do you get internet access?
some liberal prisoners rights attorney got it for me
See the update. The haters have made Cassidy sad, and now she’s going to explain the whole “born this way” thing to them until they feel even sadder than her.
I made it about five minutes in before I had a sadness overdose. Cassidy: you’re winning!