Transgender Homecoming King Stripped of Crown
Mona Shores High School student Oakleigh Reed.
Here’s an incredible story about Oak Reed, a transgender high school homecoming king candidate who would have won by a landslide had the school board not disqualified him, and the ensuing outcry from his majesty’s peers. These kids are NOT having it, and now the story’s getting national attention. Via the Daily Kos:
If the kids of Mona Shores High School in Muskegon, Michigan are a harbinger of the future…I have some hopes that our world is going to get geometrically better and more sane with each passing generation. They had elected one of their friends to be homecoming king, a fellow who happens to be registered as a female with the school system. A transgender teen, honor roll student, and well liked guy was elected by the school body to the honor… which of course was stripped away by the school:
Then, last Monday, the principal called him into her office.“They told me that they took me off, because they had to invalidate all of my votes because I’m enrolled at Mona Shores as a female,” Reed said.
Asst. Superintendent Todd Geerlings said the ballot gave two choices: Vote for a boy for king and a girl for queen.
And now the kids are raising holy hell.
Right. Freaking. ON. Oak’s friends and family have started a Facebook page, Oak Is My King, and they’re selling shirts internationally to raise money for his upcoming sex reassignment surgery. The SF Chronicle has picked up the story, and now the ACLU wants to get involved. Way to go, y’all! Huge love and support is heading your way.
September 28th, 2010 at 8:42 pm
Damn straight! It’s nice to hear about stories like this, instead of stories like Constance McMillen’s. The school’s actions are still appalling, but hearing about the students backing him up is awesome.
September 28th, 2010 at 9:27 pm
I am glad that the community is rallying around him… that warms my heart.
September 30th, 2010 at 12:41 am
Um… do people even read their own blogs. The person is registered as a female but (s)he is getting a sex change to be a male? If the person IS a female then what is the difference between that and an actual female. If this person already got the sex change then why wasn’t the registration changed? I just don’t understand this whole movement where “anything goes”. Pretty soon you might as well stop calling it Homecoming King and Queen and just call it homecoming person #1 and #2. Let’s just blur some more lines in this already confusing world we live in.
September 30th, 2010 at 1:14 am
Oh, Chris… :(
I gotta say, I find your own perspective a lot more confusing (and depressing) than anything else that’s being posted in this thread.
Good luck to you.
September 30th, 2010 at 4:09 am
Patience, Mer…Rome wasn’t built in a day!
I know how frightened and confused you feel right now, Chris, but there really is sound reasoning behind blurred lines. One of which being that people will cut each other a lot more slack once they stop demanding that we all live within each others outdated and unnecessary parameters.
With acceptance and perspective, comes peace.
September 30th, 2010 at 7:17 pm
Chris, I’m guessing that the name on your birth certificate is probably Christopher or Christine*, but you go about your life as Chris. That’s how you represent yourself here and, no doubt, elsewhere.
Say I were to hold a contest “Vote for the world’s best Chris” and you won. Then I discover that the name on your birth certificate is not Chris and I take the prize away, arguing that if you really were a Chris you would have changed your legal name by deed poll or court order. How would that make you feel?
(*It might not be, but it would be for plenty of people called Chris)
October 3rd, 2010 at 7:05 pm
Wow im really impressed with peoples comments here! 5/6 are very intelligent comments, not just stupid bickering! im on the side of Oak of course, and yes lines must be blurred, if you believe that life is black and white your missing out on a lot.
You have my best Oak, im sure what your going thru, and have been thru, is harder than anything most people have experienced, especially at your age.
October 3rd, 2010 at 7:52 pm
Unfortunately our society likes to categorize people and label them, strait/gay/boy/girl/bisexual/transgender. I firmly believe that very few people in this world are 100% strait or gay, most of us are in the grey area in the middle. Technically speaking Oak will always be genetically “female” as the chromosomes will never change, but we as individuals decide on our gender and how we want our bodies to look. And everyone in western society needs to realize that there are some cultures out there that have more than two genders. Too many people are trying to “figure out” others, when they need to be figuring out themselves first. I say good for those that have looked inward and found themselves, and have the courage to own it!
October 4th, 2010 at 6:39 am
With the ongoing girl/boy controversy surrounding our own athletic champion Caster Semenya here in South Africa and abroad, it is very encouraging to see a group of young people rallying behind a classmate for who is in spirit (and would hopefully be in the flesh soon, too). It does not bode well for any of us if bureaucrats are expected to first “endorse” someone on the grounds of their gender before we allow ourselves to embrace and celebrate their character.
October 4th, 2010 at 8:54 am
Well …. sad to say that like Chris I am confused. I have no problem with gay people, straight people, trans people … any people but …. surely Oak should be the homecoming queen? I think its a little unfair that the homecoming King and Queen are both girls???
October 4th, 2010 at 2:11 pm
Chris, I disagree with thinking that way about the influence this has on Homecoming. You could call the winners of the Homecoming contest a “Homecoming Ruler”, the second-place folks could be given a title of “Homecoming Ascendant”, the third-place folks could could be called a “Homecoming Royal”, and the people who won fourth-place could be called a “Homecoming Noble”. It still carries the flair of a Homecoming Court without those administering the system being allowed to box someone into a particular, usually heteronormative, gender/sex assignment. It also allows the individual to identify however they may wish to. For instance, people who won the “Homecoming Ruler” title could still choose to call themselves “Homecoming King”, “Homecoming Queen”, or just stick with the “Homecoming Ruler” title, but the institution handing out the designation should not be involved in pushing the heteronormative sexual and gender binary system on a world of young people who live with the reality that sex and gender are a spectrum rather than a one or the other thing. This is not an “anything goes” attitude as much as it is a correct view of the fact that nature does not just produce males and females, does not just produce people who are masculine and people who are feminine, and does not just produce attraction to people based on procreation.
October 5th, 2010 at 8:23 am
My thesis research was in transgender identity, and I was glad to have had a friend post this article on facebook. As far as “sex” goes, it must be differentiated from “gender” in that gender is created and sex is biological. A side note to the person discussing genetics: transpersons actually tend to have mixed genes, a blend of XY chromosomes that can be either male or female depending on other genetic characteristics. With most transpersons, if they get extreme genetic testing, it is found that they have dominate characteristics of their true gender, either male or female. Very few people are actually XX or XY, as we are taught in high school biology. There are as many genetic configurations as there are humans, past and future, and we cannot even being to identify “normal”.
A comment on language – I love the idea of renaming the homecoming court (not that it needs MY approval anyway). :)
Thanks for the news!