Posted on 10/28/2007 3:35:36 PM PDT by mngran2
Ladies and gentlemen, introducing the royalty of Davis Senior High School's junior class: Brandon Raphael and his prince, Kiernan Gatewood. For what appears to be the first time in school history, the Davis Senior High student body has elected a gay couple into homecoming royalty. With each boasting a white sash declaring his title as "Prince," the two 16-year-olds rode through the city of Davis on a recent Friday afternoon in the school's annual homecoming parade.
They stood in the back of a pickup truck, arm-in-arm, smiling warmly despite the rain.
"People were so excited for us," Gatewood said of the couple's victory, announced a few weeks ago. "We were a little surprised, but Davis ..."
"Is a liberal town," interrupts his boyfriend of four months, Raphael. "Go 10 miles in any other direction and you'll get some other feeling."
Indeed, the news might surprise few in Davis, a city embraced and, at times, mocked for its liberal leanings.
But students and adults cheering on the boys recognized their election as a meaningful milestone.
Lai-San Seto, advocacy coordinator for the San Francisco-based Gay-Straight Alliance Network, said the Davis Senior High homecoming election is not the first case of gay students bucking tradition.
But it remains far from the norm, Seto said.
And usually by the time she hears about such things, they've become a controversy within their community.
"It's a sign that LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgenderand queer) people are getting recognized everywhere," she said. "LGBTQ are considered vital members of the school community and are able to participate in school events in the same full way that their straight fellow students are able to." Seto applauded the Davis Senior High student body for their acceptance — and the school administration for being "open-minded."
In the weeks since officials announced the homecoming court, there's been no public outcry — not by campus leaders, not by students and not by the community.
Students said they were encouraged that the election was not an issue for campus administrators. They said they were less surprised that a gay couple would win than they were that officials allowed it to happen.
"I thought the administration would have more to say about it," Raphael said.
Principal Michael Cawley declined to comment on the boys' election, saying only that he hoped to keep the issue "low-key."
Students, however, were eager to talk. They piled atop floats and lined the parade route to show their school spirit, armed with air horns and fistfuls of candy.
Some have been celebrating their friends' landmark victory for days.
"I think it's just such a good thing for our school. Just knowing that the other kids recognize them as a couple and would vote for a gay couple to be prince and prince of homecoming. ... I don't know, I just think it's awesome," said senior Chandler Fox, co-president of the campus Gay-Straight Alliance. "I want people to know about it so maybe it can happen at another school."
Decked out in Davis Senior High's colors of blue and black, sophomore Charlotte ter Haar and two friends agreed that the election was significant because it came straight from the students — Raphael and Gatewood won in a write-in ballot election.
Couples could campaign for their class titles — king and queen for seniors, prince and prince(ss?) for juniors, etc. — but no names appeared on the ballot. Students wrote in their own candidates.
"The students voted for who they wanted to win," ter Haar said.
Parent Lorna Bernard said she was taken aback by the news — only because in her day, a gay couple stood to be harassed by their peers, not elected.
But Raphael and Gatewood, she said, are "not just accepted, they're popular — popular enough to be elected as homecoming princes."
And that, she said, is "really cool."
As for the boys, they said they campaigned hard in anticipation of the election. But their goal, they said, was not to make a political statement.
"We wanted to be nominated and win," Raphael said.
Added Gatewood: "Just like anybody else."
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LowOiL
You men like when someone goes on a job interview and tells the interviewer they’re Gay so as to put that person in an unenviable position?
“How do they know the couple is gay?”
This has been my argument all along. If you want special rights, privileges and benefits make your claim of deviance and you’ve got them. Another question is WHY DOES ONE HAVE TO PERFORM DEVIANT SEXUAL ACTS TO GAIN SUCH RIGHTS? Why can’t two good buddies get the same rights, an offspring and an elderly parent or disabled brother — just because they aren’t deviants, they don’t deserve the same rights?? We live in an ever sicker world and Rome will fall again.
Why? Because they are the Master Race. Just ask them.
First runner up was a young man and his sheep.
These would be some of the same youths who feel Christianity is judgmental? Sounds about right. Just keep doing whatever is right in your own eyes, boys & girls. That worked so well in the past.
Thanx. So far, no kitty scratches or lightening singes. LOL!
Barf alert request.
If you don’t think these young queers are having sex you don’t have a clue about the feces-obsessed lifestyle. Sexual preference is an interesting topic which includes homos, sex with small children, with animals, dead people, rimming behavior and felching. These are all sexual preference issues so let’s broaden our horizons and be inclusive and tolerant in the name of embracing diversity.
It's likely that not a few of the students voted for the homos purely for comedy purposes, too. For let's face facts, ladies and gents: the homecoming king and queen "tradition" is downright gay, anyways.
EW!
“How do they know the couple is gay?”
Shhhhhh .... it’s their sex life ... then again, when it’s inconvenient for them you’re not to acknowledge that. It all depends ... don’t ya just love liberal hypocrisy?
You may be right. My point was in response to someone who had taken the debate off onto a tangent regarding what people do in the privacy of their bedrooms. I was merely noting that we have no idea whether or not these perverts are actually engaging in homo sex (though I’d bet they are) and in any event it’s irrelevant to the issue at hand. And that issue is that the tradition of crowning a homecoming king & queen shouldn’t be given the Marxist Deconstruction treatment by allowing two sissy boys to boot out the normal couple.
Read all my posts on this thread and you’ll see that I’m on your side! :-)
Someone a few years ago said that as homosexuality spreads, women lose respect within society. I forgot who it was who said that, but they made some good points.
Sorry, I was being sarcastic along with the truth to come around the corner. What we think can never happen will someday be the norm according to the PC machine.
Yes, they are Gender Specific and are to be voted on individually. The outcome of two princes violates Equal Opportunity laws by putting a man in a position set aside for a woman.
A snide dismissal is putting it mildly. In the McGreevy and Robinson cases it was necessary to make an absolute humiliation of the wife.
It’s just plain disgusting. It’s only a matter of time until drag queens start demanding to enter beauty pageants. There’s really no logical reason for things like this. They’re only being done to mock societal norms and to destroy something traditional, to eradicate the past so as to pave the way to the Orwellian future.
When a boy at Brockton High School was allowed to use the girls room dressed as a girl, I opined if it would be okay for a student to attend school in Black Face and demand to use the “Colored Only” rest room because he had Ethnic Identity Disorder. Would the Black Students be forced to accept that?
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