The gay teenage boy who was elected prom queen
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Independent Minds
AP Photo/Los Angeles Times, Liz O. Baylen
This May 27, 2009 picture shows Sergio Garcia in Los Angeles. Garcia was crowned prom queen on May 23, 2009 at Fairfax High School in Los Angeles. "You don't have to be a certain gender to accomplish things," Garcia said
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A gay Los Angeles teenager has been thrust to the centre of an international media circus after classmates controversially voted for him to receive the signal honour of being crowned as his high school "prom queen."
Sergio Garcia, 18, said that he felt "invincible" when he won the contest, which saw him handed a tiara, and invited to kick start proceedings at last Saturday's event by dancing with the unfortunate male student who had been voted "king."
"At one time, prom may have been a big popularity contest where the best looking guy and girl were crowned. But things have changed," he told reporters. "This is something that I just feel was meant for me. I mean: I am a queen. It suits my personality, too because deep down inside, I am of course very effeminate."
Proms, formal dance every American teenager attends to mark graduation from high-school, are an important rite of passage. The prom "king" and "queen" are typically the most distinguished students of a year group, and their election often follows hard-fought campaigns. Photos of Garcia winning the contest - he wore a charcoal-grey tuxedo, rather than the traditional prom queen's dress – were posted on the LA Times website this week, and rapidly went viral.
The decision by students at Fairfax High School in West Hollywood to choose Garcia over his eight female rivals has drawn praise and outrage in equal measure.
Supporters of gay rights said that his story proved that young Americans take a progressive view on contentious issues like gay marriage, which California's Supreme Court confirmed a ban on this week. "This indicates where society is at right now," said Virginia Uribe, who runs Fairfax High's support group for gay and lesbian students. "Gender bending is just kind of in."
However many inhabitants of Middle America were robustly critical of the move, and reacted angrily to the flurry of subsequent newspaper and TV news reports.
"It's just sickening," read a typical comment on USA Today's website. "When I was in high school, the prom Queen was the prettiest girl in the freekin' school and the King was the captain of the football team. That's the way it should be. This school should have police tape around it: 'Crime Scene'."
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Comments
And both of them white and good looking.
Its becoming too much in your face promotion of this illness - day-in, day-out.
This slow drip feed is supposed to gradually turn it into "normal" and acceptable behaviour.
What a nasty thing to say. If we assume that the Prom King was straight, he was no more unfortunate than if he'd had to dance with a girl he didn't find attractive.
Gender assignment is undertaken in the human embryo. Normally the part of the brain that regulates sexual preferences is aligned with the physical attributes rendered during the gender assignment process. However, in homosexuals, the module in the brain which regulates preferences is not aligned with the physical assignment. This misalignment between the module in the brain generating sexual desire and the physical attributes is the illness. Don't know if the misalignment is permanent but there is cure for every illness in the world (admittedly many cures still to find). Some scientists claim they have found a fix (drug based) for the mis-regulation of sexual preference and may be able to cure homosexuality. I suppose this is similar to the brain generating a sensation of a phantom limb in amputees - there is no limb there, nevertheless the brain generates the feelings/sensations in the imaginary limb. Although not the same thing as homosexuality (but both generated by the brain), it is curable in many.
When will you realise that it is permanent? And when you do, will you accept it then?
corporeal4now: yawn.
I wish I'd gone to such a liberated secondary school. Gay students were hounded mercilessly where I went to school and I made damned sure I pretended to be straight till I left and could come out and just be me.
I think this is great news.
The only people that are still interested in denigrating gay people are the religious and the mentally-ill. The intellectual gymnastics that people like corporeal4now go through to in an effort demonstrate that being gay is a "sickness" would be amusing if they were not so serious. But the fact is they are losing - on almost every level. Rationality is taking hold. Religion is responsible for so many horrific crimes - and judging by their daily Hate-speech against gay people, they have not learnt their lesson. I hope one day religion will be seen as a mental illness, which requires treatment, not encouragement. In some ways, there is no point in debating the likes of corporeal4now - all we can do is continue to help them to marginalize themselves.
Bravo Sergio, for walking away from institutionalized life with some dignity.
I'm glad to see corpreal4now's deignation suggests hope for him.
"Its becoming too much in your face promotion of this illness - day-in, day-out."
Oh dear..... what an unforetunate comment you make..... homosexuality is not an illness..... You are the one with an illness....... and by the looks of it unfortunate for you - but more so for Gay Men and Women - its utterly incurable......!!
...and one more thing..... I dont particularly want to face the promotion of your illness ( Rabid Homophobia) either..... even if you threw in a massive financial or material incentive....!!
I do not agree with corporeal4now when they say that it is an illness but that is their opinion.
If you believe in tolerance of sexual preference then the least that you should do is show some tolerance to those that you disagree with!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialectic
Did The King describe himself as unfortunate?
Here's a headline - there are gay people in the World! Really. And black people, and 'other' skin-coloured people; and non-christian people and people who don't share your politics; and short, spotty people; and people with bad hair; and even whole nations whose female people who don't shave. There are even ugly people, and sometimes they manage to get on the telly. Gosh, I think I might faint.
There are REAL and IMPORTANT issues to be resolved every single day. Isn't it time we stopped distracting ourselves with petty non-news and put some work into fixing some of the messes we've made?
I used to be homophobic when I was a teenager. Later on I learned that homosexuality had to do with genetics and has existed since man has existed. What I never understood was the fear we have of homoseuality. I understand during pubescence why it seems to threaten us, but why does this fear linger on in some of us. I guess some of us have to wonder, when faced with bearing a homosexual child if they should kill it imeadiately or see what happens. It's unfortunate that we can't introduce basic genetics in our schools to help facilitate future decisions. We have to remember that homosexual individuals are struggling with a constant battle within themselves, trying to come to grips with thier own identities as we do when we're young. We're just making it more difficult for them by maligning them for whom they have no choice but to be, as you or I do. We all need eachothers help in this life and we all learn things about this life as our experiances dictate. If you can't come to terms with an idea... leave it on the shelf untill you are wiser. We learn throughout our lives and one can expect to know everything at any given age. Enjoy your life as best you can and wish the best for all, as hopefully, they do for you. Live without regret.