LONG LIVE THE KING!

Transgender Teen Crowned Homecoming King At New Hampshire High School, Gets High-Fives From Strangers

A transgender teen in New Hampshire has been voted Homecoming King by a “landslide” victory at his local high school.

17-year-old Ray Ramsey was elected Homecoming King at Concord High School last weekend.

Cheers erupted from the crowd as he walked over to his dad, who took him by the shoulders, looked him in the eye, and said: “I am so proud of you.”

Ramsey first told his friends and family that he was interested in girls when he was in eighth grade. During his junior year of high school, he came out as transgender.

In an interview with the Valley News, he said that when he first decided he wanted to be called Ray, he was nervous about telling his parents. Instead of telling them face to face, he wrote his dad a note and left it by the coffee pot one morning.

“We were driving home from work one day and he was like, ‘You know you can talk to me about anything, right?’ and I knew that’s when it was coming,” Ramsey recalled.

His dad told him he was okay with Ramsey’s decision, then said he would take him to the doctor and support him in any way possible. Ramsey began talking with his doctors about surgical options last fall.

He is the first transgender student in the history of Concord High School to be crowned Homecoming King.

“It’s a big deal,” Heather Oullette-Cygan, an advisor for the school’s LGBT club, said. “I think it means a lot for our school, it certainly means a lot for the kids in the club and even the LGBT students who aren’t necessarily in the club.”

“He’s just been through a lot, and he’s just a really strong person,” Anna Robert, the homecoming queen and Ramsey’s good friend, added. “When I heard his name called, I was like, ‘I can’t even believe it.'”

Since his win last weekend, Ramsey said that students he doesn’t even know have been offering high fives and congratulating him in the hallways.

The school’s Principal, Gene Connolly, says Ramsey’s win shows the best of what Concord High is and can be.

“Kids here have a heart and they know what’s right, and they love Ray and they support Ray,” he said. “It’s one of the things that really makes this school special.”

Photo credit: The Crimson Review.

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