Thought the world was ending.
Posted on 11/08/2003 8:26:54 AM PST by Cathryn Crawford
Hayward High picks girl to serve as king
Teen stirs debate by seeking homecoming seat
By Elizabeth Schainbaum
HAYWARD -- Girls rule Hayward High School!
Proof is in the regal display at the school's annual homecoming parade winding through downtown today.
Atop the senior class's float is one girl wearing a dress. The other girl -- a pantsuit. Both waving and smiling. One is homecoming queen. The other king.
"A lot of people didn't want to see us here, but step back and make way for the royalties," said homecoming king Angela Anthony, 17.
She and homecoming queen Iesha Miller, 17, affectionately called "the terrible twos," are used to being different. Sophomore year, they were the only ones wearing baggy pants with boxer shorts peeking over the waistline. Everyone else wore pants tight.
Best friends since they were knee high, they do everything together.
But the two girls both couldn't be queen, and they didn't want to compete against each other, so Anthony went for king. "Some things change. Why not change this?" said Miller.
Change, however, isn't always simple. The she-king created a schoolwide debate over gender politics, raised questions about what makes a "king" and unearthed prejudices no one thought were there, students said.
Angela never meant to make a political statement. Her running for homecoming king was a joke, hatched over giggles during lunch.
Then she did it. Angela won the most nomination votes, defeating all her male competitors.
With only three nominees allowed, Angela took a spot traditionally given to a senior boy. The senior class chose a king from the three candidates.
"It's been a huge issue," teacher Trudi Hebert said a few days after Anthony was nominated for king. "Obviously, the king is traditionally the male position on a royalty court."
Chris Gradillas, 17, said he voted for Angela because he thought a girl king was amusing.
"I've never seen that before," he said. "I thought it was interesting."
Initially, senior Chris Eckert, who tried for king, didn't like the idea of a girl running. He said each gender should have an equal chance at the throne, a sentiment others share.
The next day he changed his mind.
"How do you know she doesn't identify with the male, the king position?" he said. "I'm not saying Angela feels that way. But she opened the door and all sorts of things came flooding through."
When Angela's nomination was questioned, student activist groups adopted the cause.
"We felt that once a girl runs for king, it becomes a gender issue," said teacher Mike Dwyer, co-adviser for Hayward High's Gay and Straight Alliance. "As long as some people don't fit neat definitions of gender, there's going to be gender inequality, gender discrimination, sexism and heterosexism.
Hayward High has no rules defining the gender of homecoming king and queen. Students and teachers consulted the dictionary, which suggests a king is male.
Despite that definition, Principal Debra Calvin ruled that Angela could try for king.
It wasn't all fun and giggles.
A few students called her a lesbian -- which she's not -- and thought she pulled strings with her student government friends to win a spot on the royal court.
Angela's friends in student government said cronyism wasn't the only accusation. Racial undertones surfaced.
Students overheard others saying that black girls won the crowns because black girls counted the votes. Miller and Angela are both African American.
Despite some bruised feelings, they say relations are better now.
"The school is not racist," said Eckert, who overheard the comments. "The school is a mini society, and there's racism in society."
Anthony pressed on because she realized that her running for king was meaningful to gays on campus.
"People said, 'I appreciate what you're doing,' That's when I realized it was bigger than me," she said. "I gave them confidence to openly say, 'I'm gay.'"
Senior Saied Haddad, 17, said he wouldn't vote for a female king, even if Anthony is his friend. He had male friends who were going for the position.
"They were disappointed, not that they got beaten by a girl, but (because) they had something taken away from them," he said.
He thinks a teenage boy couldn't try for homecoming queen without facing worse ridicule than that which Anthony endured.
When Anthony won the title by a landslide, Haddad accepted the majority decision.
"This is what the senior class chose. I really think this is democracy over tradition," Haddad said.
There is a thread from yesterday about the governor of Wisconsin who vetoed a bill defining marriage specifically as a legal union between a man and a woman. The governor claimed it was not necessary because the current law referred to "husband and wife". Well if "king" can be a female, certainly "wife" can be male.
Words can mean whatever those in power say they mean, right? Up/down, male/female--it's relative, I suppose, if you have no common sense or standards--or--if you use the Clinton dictionary.
On first reading, I thought this story was the student body's attempt at humor, but it's not. (My senior class voted a girl who was 8 months pregnant as the "girl with the best figure"--not as cruel as it sounds since she thought it was funny.)
ARTHUR: I am your king!
WOMAN: Well, I didn't vote for you.
ARTHUR: You don't vote for kings.
WOMAN: Well, 'ow did you become king then?
ARTHUR: The Lady of the Lake, [angels sing] her arm clad in the purest shimmering samite, held aloft Excalibur from the bosom of the water signifying by Divine Providence that I, Arthur, was to carry Excalibur. [singing stops] That is why I am your king!
DENNIS: Listen -- strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.
ARTHUR: Be quiet!
DENNIS: Well you can't expect to wield supreme executive power just 'cause some watery tart threw a sword at you!
ARTHUR: Shut up!
DENNIS: I mean, if I went around sayin' I was an empereror just because some moistened bint had lobbed a scimitar at me they'd put me away!
ARTHUR: Shut up! Will you shut up!
DENNIS: Ah, now we see the violence inherent in the system.
Grrr...this is the kind of crap that really riles me. I saw this story yesterday in the Hayward Daily Moan. To parse this new PC slam is pretty easy. Every one knows that sexism is bad so add your 'hetero' and you got a name for anyone who happens to think that heterosexuality is better or more socially useful or more moral than homoism.
This a$$hole is a high school teacher. No gay agenda here. Nothing to see...move along...
The fine citizens of Hayward just elected two gay folks to the school board so you can expect much more of the same.
The ever useful idiot city council of Hayward recently gave $5000 to a bunch of homos so they could have a street party on the public dime. This at a time when the current budget shortfall is close to 4 mil for this year alone and expected to reach @ 16 mil next year.
Thought the world was ending.
Sure enough, the Oakland paper pulled up.
What's in the water over there?
Oh Lordy we have a future Democratic voter here.
"We felt that once a girl runs for king, it becomes a gender issue," said teacher Mike Dwyer, "As long as some people don't fit neat definitions of gender, there's going to be gender inequality,... heterosexism."
What is heterosexism?
You know, if gay people went and did there thing in private, it wouldn't bother me one whit. But this homosexuality isn't something that you choose, but it is a lifestyle choice and it's so muth more funnnn than heterosexism in your face just do it crap really pisses me off.
Oh? What's that? It's the MALES that are on the short end of things? Oh, well then, no problems here!
/liberal "thought">
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