Homecoming courts and transgender teens have made headlines nationwide. In California, Cassidy Lynn Campbell, a 16-year-old transgender girl was recently crowned homecoming queen, according to ABC.
This is the first time that a publicly transgender girl has won the homecoming crown in the United States.
In Michigan, the news was not so positive. Despite Oakleigh Reed’s landslide victory in the school’s voting, his crown was taken away, according to NBC.
Reed, a transgender boy, is still technically identified as a female on the school’s records. This disqualified him from running for homecoming king, according to school policy.
Outdated rules such as these prevent transgender teens and teens who don’t fit into the gender binary from participating in many traditions. Homecoming is a very gendered event in high school and remains so on the college level.
Biological sex is a reality that everyone deals with, but male and female are not the only two categories. Intersex individuals do exist. Medical advances in hormone therapy and gender reassignment surgery have made it possible for transgender individuals to create the body they feel most comfortable in.
It is time that society changed the outdated binary of male/female and expanded its horizons to be more inclusive. Homecoming limitations are just one symptom of the wider problem. Campbell’s victory and support from her school’s administration is a step in the right direction.
Cases like Oakleigh Reed’s revoked win illustrate the problem. A teenaged boy who genuinely wanted to win homecoming king and earned the votes from his peers was denied his goal because of a technicality that does not reflect who he really is.
Reed is not the only person in America or in the world who has had a dream denied because of this technicality. It is time we made homecoming an event where anyone’s dreams can come true.