Is it the old green-eyed monster that has some girls at New York’s La Guardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts seeing red over the selection for this year’s prom queen? No, the teens are not bitter over who they lost to. Rather, it is over what they lost to.
According to the New York Post, the winner, Matthew Crisson of Staten Island, self-identifies as “non-binary,” meaning neither male nor female.
Some of the girls took to social media to express their displeasure:
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“I know I go to LaGuardia because a boy won prom queen,” snarked Asia Pierre in a Facebook post that attracted 500 homophobic comments and 100 shares before it was removed.
“It just sucks that men win everything and we thought we at least deserve that,” wrote a classmate under the name Taj Mahal.
Mona Davids, the parent of a student at the school, was outraged over the negativity and notified the school and Department of Education’s new LGBTQ community liaison. “They were very catty and negative comments about something so wonderful and positive,” she said. “It was very alarming to me, considering what happened in Orlando and how these things can get out of hand.”
The 18-year-0ld Crisson meantime was presented with the customary tiara. “It was a big deal for me to reach out to everyone and run,” he is quoted as saying.
You have to admit, Crisson cuts quite the striking figure in this Facebook photo:
In case you’re wondering, this is not the first time a gender-bending student was named “queen” of his class. That distinction belongs to Jae Irizarry, a transgender teen, who was accorded the title of homecoming queen of Trenton Central High School in 2015. A year earlier, a lesbian couple was named homecoming queen and queen of Willow Canyon High School in Surprise, Ariz. The real surprise for the pair came when administrators revoked the honor, informing the couple that a male and female were required.
That should give you some idea of how far we have come as a society, though in what direction depends on the firmness of your grasp on reality.
