Nothing pleases us more than seeing gay young people accepted in their schools. We scoffed at our high school’s gay-straight alliance (we were still in the closet and struggling to self-identify, cut us some slack); but some schools don’t even have them. So to hear California’s Murrieta Valley High School senior Chad King crowned prom king is good news for all of us — we thought. King, who’s been out since his sophomore year, was awarded the honor at prom alongside queen Taylor Osland, who has both Down syndrome and alopecia — a fact that didn’t make us feel all that comfortable.
On one hand, King’s winning the crown suggests his fellow students accept him as their peer, regardless of sexual orientation. But voting for him alongside a mentally disabled person connects two dots that shouldn’t necessarily be associated. Don’t misunderstand: We’ve got nothing wrong voting for the underdog, and there’s no reason why a gay or mentally disabled student shouldn’t be crowned king or queen. But the student body’s concerted effort to get these two to sit in the prom thrones side-by-side sounds more like a pity vote and suggests an equating of homosexuality and mental retardation. Nonetheless, congratulations to them both.
Homosexual prom king, special needs prom queen shatter norms at Murrieta Valley [NC Times]
Don Hotay
You are kidding, right?
Shirley
You do realize King & Queen are voted on SEPERATELY — they both just happened to win — they weren’t paired up until that photo was taken.
Dean
I’d say you are waayyyyy off base on this one, David.
Di
i actually agree. my high school voted a mentally retarded person as queen and the biggest geek as king just to see them dance together and make fun of them. it was malicious, to be honest. sure, this situation might be different, but i have a hard time believing these two won over their classmates without someone pushing some sort of agenda.
Les
Look at this comment that someone left on the article site:
JawBone wrote on May 30, 2006 9:32 AM:”Was this a sick joke pulled off by students who thought it would be disruptive to turn their prom into a carnival side show? While there should be no malice towards the prom “king” and “queen” I question the motives and the intentions of the students who voted for these two. I hope that this doesn’t turn out to be a cruel prank by students who have read too many Stephen King novels like “Carrie.” ”
It makes sense.
logan
The assumption here is that being mentally disabled = not cool. And gay people should be moving toward being accepted by their peers as cool. But mentally disabled can never be accepted as cool, right? People still need to be ostracized, just not the gays…
I sort of get what the author is saying. But it does come off more so as an attack on the mentally disabled than it comes off as questioning the motives behind this vote. The author assumes that because a mentally disabled girl was elected prom queen, the vote was a sort of mocking. But that doesn’t seem to be the case.
… and also, as painful as it may be, it’ s maybe not unfair to compare the ostracization of mentally disabled studenst and gay students in high school. and both are wrong. right??
Di
and notice how no other students were interviewed? only people like the principal, the girl’s mother, and the spokesperson? i wonder if it would’ve been hard to find students with nice things to say…
chris eckenrode
your glib Dave, your glib!
arkadin
i’m going to have to agree with logan on this one, though i understand david’s squidginess. since homosexuality was, for many years, classified in the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (DSM) as a mental disorder, i can understand the resistance to any representation of homosexuality that equates or suggests equation of homosexuality and cognitive disability.
however. i prefer to look at this purely in terms of minority identity politics, and feel that the “dots being connected” are less the “homosexuality = (cognitive) disability” dots and more the “here are two representatives of different minority groups that have been recognized by their peers in ways traditionally reserved for the hegemonic culture.”
that was obtuse. what i mean is that i’m glad to see this, and feel perfectly all right having homosexuality stand side by side with disability, mostly because we homosexuals (as a minority group) have, over time, accrued a number of rights and privileges that were denied us for many years, and hopefully we can now work to help other minority groups achieve the same kinds of rights (not that our work is done – see the US Senate on Monday or so for further details).
after all, homosexuals wouldn’t have half the rights we do today if it hadn’t been for feminist groups getting the ball rolling.
djdavi
I thin you might have it wrong. I don’t think these were at all pity votes. You vote for who you want. I didn’t even vote for a prom king. I voted for Queen only. I wanted the sweet cool big black girl to win…and she did!
Ray
You guys are waaay off base with this one, I think.
As both a crip and a queer, I think it’s cool that *ahem* a crip and a queer got voted prom Queen and King. High school kids have obviously gotten a lot more worldly since I was one.
Why do you assume that either/both were pity votes? It could very well be that these two should be the King and Queen, because people like them/respect them/they threw the biggest parties. Whatever. We won. Stop being so cynical.
john
i’m with you on this one ray.
why do we have to automatically assume “the worst?”
these two people were voted prom queen and king. let’s enjoy that and stop searching for the negatives. we have enough of those without having to look for more.
Chad
Hey,
I’m the Chad that won prom king…
My school didn’t vote me prom king b/c they wanted two losers to dance together or whatever–it wasn’t a joke. Taylor and I are actually very well liked and well-known.
(just to prove it, I was also on the Homecoming court, and my class voted me Best Personality this year)
The reason there were no students quoted was because the author of the article obviously had her own agenda and spun the article to make it seem as if we won pity votes to sell more papers. She asked us if we wanted her to contact anybody else to be interviewed, and I told her to call my date to the prom (a girl who happens to be my best friend) but she never did. Also, she was in contact with a friend of mine whom she routinely questions about the happenings at school (cuz he’s super-smart and responsible [and gay too surprisingly] and it is her job to write about education) However, she neglected to contact either one of them about the article….
So basically, I just want to say WE did win here. This wasn’t a joke–just a bad reporter.
thanks for featuring my story too, I feel like a celebrity or something now! Lol