DFU SONG: 2001 - Also Sprach Zarathustra (oh no, Sulu is gay...say it ain't so)

Gay Royalty Shares Proud Moment
NBC5.com ^ | October 19, 2005

Posted on 10/28/2005 7:51:24 AM PDT by scripter

CHICAGO -- High school is a time when everyone wants to fit in.

On Tuesday, NBC5's Anna Davlantes introduced viewers to two suburban teenagers who say that fitting in didn't matter when it came time to choosing the school's homecoming king and queen.

The choice that students made, however, is attracting attention and causing controversy.

Davlantes said it may not shock people that a jock and a cheerleader were chosen as homecoming king and queen at Buffalo Grove High School, but what surprises some and concerns others is what's different about the two students and what it might say about their generation.

Jen Wohlner and Ryan Cooperman are popular leaders at the school. They're also openly gay, Davlantes said.

So, some people were surprised by what happened in their high school gym a little over a week ago, when the two were chosen as homecoming king and queen.

"The entire gym was completely packed. No one knew who was going to be king or queen," Cooperman said.

Then came the announcement: "I am proud to present to you the homecoming king and queen."

"And they were, like, Ryan Cooperman ... Jen Walner. Everyone exploded. It was just amazing," said a Buffalo Grove student and friend of the royal couple.

So, how is it that a gay student and a lesbian win the biggest high school popularity contest?

"I think it shows that is our school, and maybe the generation as a whole, is just a little more progressive," Wohlner said.

Their election shatters stereotypes, Davlantes said. They are not at all the typical homecoming king and queen.

Wohlner plays sports and went to prom with another girl last year. Ryan is a cheerleader.

"I guess you could say this year it was kind of a jock and a cheerleader, but flip-flopped positions," she said.

Other students said that the anomaly doesn't bother them.

Perhaps, Davlantes said, being openly gay in Chicago's suburban high schools no longer carries the stigma it once did.

Time magazine made the subject its cover story last week, saying that students are coming out earlier and earlier.

"I came out in eighth grade," one girl told NBC5.

"I never dated a boy before," another girl said.

"I knew, personally, around sixth grade," Cooperman said.

And the number of gay clubs in high schools has exploded from 100 a few years ago to more than 3000 nationwide today.

"It's really kind of uncool to be anti-gay," said school psychologist Jennifer Zacharski.

Attitudes have shifted dramatically in one generation, Zacharski, who sponsors Buffalo Grove's Gay-Straight Alliance.

"When they saw me in the crowd (at the homecoming) they were, like, 'Ms. Zacharski, we got it,'" she recalled.

But not everyone is cheering about the school's groundbreaking choice.

"For us, it's a sad thing," said Illinois Family Institute's spokesman Pete LaBarbera said. He claims that schools are too politically correct nowadays.

"Something that was once sort of universally regarded as a sin, is now becoming sort of cool in high school," he said. "It's easy for an adult to say, 'Oh wow, I'm doing the compassionate thing by telling this teenaged boy that he's gay,' but they won't be there when the boy becomes a man and comes down with HIV or hepititis B and C."

"Like, you know what? I'm gay and if you have a problem with that, I really could care less," Cooperman said.

"I'm proud of who I am," Wohlner said. "Not just that I'm proud of being gay, but I'm proud of all that I am."

They say their popularity has sent a message -- not about being gay, but being themselves.

"What's so appealling about them is that they are themselves. They are themselves despite whatever people might think," Zacharski said.

Davlantes said that this is the first time anyone can remember two openly gay students being named homecoming king and queen, but that could soon change.

According to a Harvard University study, the average gay person comes out of the closet just before high school graduation.

Davlantes said that conservatives are lobbying to get more groups on campus that represent an alternative viewpoint.

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