If there’s one thing you never deny a queen, it’s her crown. Openly gay high school senior Coy Villasenor wanted to rule the court of the Lehman High School prom, but those dreams were dashed when Coy was disqualified from the race for being a boy. But like every good fairytale, this one has a happy ending.
Last week, Coy waged a battle to run for prom queen in Kyle, Texas —population 29,000. Coy’s request was denied by Lehman principal Michelle Chae, who argued that Coy was not legally a transgendered individual, even though Coy identifies more as a female than a male.
“I just want the same opportunity to run for queen because that’s how I express myself – as a woman,” Coy told The Hays Free Press. “I wear foundation, fill in my eyebrows and wear tight pants. That’s not very masculine, is it?”
Well, that depends on your view of masculinity, but for the sake of the principal’s argument, Coy’s sense of self wasn’t enough to justify a run for prom queen. Coy went to the Hays Consolidated Independent School District and the superintendent to accuse Lehman of discrimination, but they both sided with the principal, claiming that allowing Coy to run for prom queen would in fact be discriminatory:
How about we take this to the next level?
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Requiring male students who are legally male and who present themselves as male to run in the male category and female students who are legally female and who present themselves as female to run in the female category protects the equal access for male and female students to each achieve a place on the prom court.
“What the superintendent told me was that I was supposed to have a history of dressing like a girl in the past,” Coy told Austin’s Fox 9. “I’ve had hair down to [my chest] for four years. I donated it…I was considered a girl. So, if that wasn’t good enough for them, then I just think they’re making it up.”
So Coy was deemed not female enough to run for prom queen, but at the night to remember last Saturday, Coy still managed to snatch the crown:
“I didnt win but the girl who won is my friend and she supported me 100 percent and gave everything she won to me,” Coy told the Free Press. “Everyone chanted ‘KOI KOI KOI KOI!!!!’”
We guess because someone was serving fish.
Dakotahgeo
Absolutely brilliant! Now that’s the kind of friend we all want in our corner! I smell a nice little ACLU lawsuit if this happens again, and I couldn’t be happier at that prospect. Let them continue learning the hard way… through their district pocketbooks/checkbooks!
Homophile
Go gurrl or whatevs.
I think it would be cooler if he ran for King and won. A fem boy winning Queen = /yawn. A fem boy winning King = statement.
MikeE
@Homophile: +1
Deepdow
@Homophile:
Absolutely.
evdanker
However he may act, he is still a male. I support him in his attempt to “be himself”, but I also believe it would have been an even greater statement if he had run for prom king.
Ferris8
Yea – let’s keep plugging away and reinforcing those negative stereotypes! They are so important for young people to know that being gay is all about crossdressing!
Homophile
@Ferris8:
Welcome to the future where we accept each other and let people be themselves, and we’ve stopped trying to “pass” so the straight people will like us.
I don’t give a shit what some straight person thinks of me whether I’m fem or butch in pants or in a dress.
Deepdow
@Homophile:
Stop making it a straight vs. gay thing though…
Badger88
If the teen was transgendered, then it’d make sense for him to want to be prom queen. But he’s not. He’s still a boy, just an effeminate one. Nothing wrong with him being effeminate, but then I don’t get why he was vying for the female position of queen. He should have tried to be elected prom king, and then if he preferred, dressed and acted the way he felt comfortable.
Badger88
@Badger88: It’s like a very effeminate boy complaining that his school tells him that he must play on the boy’s basketball team instead of the girl’s basketball team. It’s not bigoted. It’s just biology.
technicolornina
Seconding/thirding/whatever all of the people asking why he didn’t run for prom king. He claims he identifies “more as a woman than as a man” but if that’s the case wouldn’t he identify as either genderqueer or flat-out female?
Sorry, Coy, this sounds like a ploy to raise the roof, to me.
DarthKitsune
Like we need another shit-stirrer, I’m with the school on this one, just because you’re a mincing queen doesn’t you’re allowed to break the rules. Be a fabulous king, and be proud of your penis.
technicolornina
@DarthKitsune: I’d like to point out that the school said if he was trans* they would have supported a run as prom queen, too. That’s more than a lot of schools will do and really he should cut the shenanigans.
csports286
Whoa I went to that school! Wow!! And I wore heels to prom last year (black 4″ booties), and kept them on all night!! <3 I'm sooooo much fishier than that guy!! But I knew better than to run for prom queen lol! I didn't know Coy had it in him! 😀 HE WAS ROBBED!
daniwitz13
@Homophile: In thus world, one has to show Proof of what they “claim”. Does he have Female organs, No. does he have Female Genitals, No. Does he have the Female chromosomes, No. Does his birth Certificate say Female, No. Does any of his ID’ s indicate Female, No. What proof does he have to prove otherwise, Nome. To walk like a duck, does not apply here. Further more, he can’t even prove that he is Gay. Pity.
nature boy
@darthkitsune “be proud of your penis” LOL. Absolutely.
I think it sometimes just takes some age and experience to fully live into the knowledge that there are all kinds of men. Perhaps he is still wrestling with the overwhelming cultural stereotypes of butch men/ fem women…. not yet fully feeling that he can be a fierce fem man and proud of it.
To me this is actually on one level kind of a spiritual issue… about finding deep inner peace with the body that you were “born with” or “created with” but still living your life as yourself…. “as God/Creator/the Universe” (take your pic depending on your faith tradition) made you … in body, mind, and spirit, openly and proudly. Living new definitions of masculinity.
It was a big eye-opener (no pun intended hahaha) for me at a young age to learn that some very “feminine” men with long hair…. also had big dicks and were very passionate tops. That was such a surprise to me at the time!
Even with FTM transexuals, I sometimes (I admit probably ignorantly) think that it is a shame they sugically alter their female genitalia to try to create an imperfect male one… now that I am older, I think it would be very cool to meet a man with a uterus and vagina!
The school district does actually seem more progressive than I would have guessed, but at the same time there is still an implicit homophobia in the King/Queen genetic dichotomy that would unfairly prevent, say, a gay male couple from being Prom King and King if their school so wanted to elect them. I don’t really care about the King/Queen label issue but perhaps there should just be an option for the top two vote winners to select their own titles. If they both want to be Kings or Queens then fine.
Homophile
@Deepdow:
Ferris was the one making a straight v gay thing.
Homophile
@daniwitz13:
I’m sorry, I’m having trouble understanding your point.
Dionte
What a brave Two-Spirit.
dick_pumper
I don’t get it. Why run for Prom Queen when you have a penis, even if you fancy yourself a girl? I like to blow guys. I like to be topped by guys, but I don’t want a sissy nor am I. I like males for what they are…Male. If I want something feminine then I am going to sleep with a girl. In my High School, a few of us guys would get together and fool around but nobody knew what we were doing. If you were to walk around limp wristed or tried to run for Prom Queen when in fact you were a male, I am certain you would have had your ass kicked. Now I don’t condone violence in any way but that was the way it was and still is in some parts of the Country. Why can’t a man who likes men, just be a man? I can be submissive but I’m never a sissy, I’m all man.
Teleny
@dick_pumper:
Why can’t we be a bit more understanding of people’s gender identity and personal expression? Don’t gay men come in a lot of different varieties? Some are born “effemininate” and some masculine. Whose to say masculine is right and feminine is wrong or vice versa.
Finally, we are talking about a high school kid. In five years he may be a post-op ts, a leather daddy, or anything in between. Lets give him time to grow up and really figure out who.what he/she is. At any rate, it takes a lot of guts to admit that they are sexual/gender non-conformist at such a young age. Also great that he has an understanding female ally,
litper
So, if she’s a woman, be a woman. Why call her a gay “man”? A gay man is a man who likes other men.
heatstroke1981
Very true, in 5 years he can be any identity over the rainbow. But until he is certain, he’s taking away from someone who’s got a vag, is getting pretty for the night and doing her own thing to be fierce. I don’t think he was in any way descriminated upon.
dick_pumper
@Teleny:
The sissy boy or the butch female are the stereotypical images when a lot of people think of what a gay person is. I never questioned my gender identity, I was born with a penis and that made me male. Just as this kid. I like guys who act like men, not women. I don’t like them to be to machismo either though like they are compensating for some short coming.
Just a normal guy who likes to get with other guys.
scotshot
The only prom queen I’ve ever wanted to be is Carrie.
Kieran
This is why that whole “GLBT” label isn’t worth a shit. Being gay and being trangendered are two separate things. If Coy identifies as a girl than she is transgendered–not gay. This kind of stuff just confuses everybody. I’m all for the gay community being allies of oppressed transgendered folks, but let’s not link the two as if they are one in the same. They’re not.
litper
dick_pumper, I so agree with you. Infact the majority of gay men are not like that femmy queen. If she wants to be a woman, fine. Just don’t call yourself gay. Because gay men like penis, ad it seems like she hates penis and everything that comes with it!
Teleny
@dick_pumper:
But those are your experiences and tastes. Nothing wrong with that… But it’s also true of his kid. Or any other femme gay man. If he turns out a feminine gay male, that’s who he is and we should support him wherever in the rainbow he lands.
Teleny
@Kieran:
Actually they are interrelated. Trans people have been denied the validity of or permission to marry on the grounds that it is a same sex marriage. The butch lesbian who gets discriminated against for how she looks is experiencing the same discrimination based on gender. Grand people and gay men and lesbians have long shared social and communal spaces.
Deepdow
@Kieran:
Actually, because equality, or the idea that ALL decent people under the sun have share the same birthrights of opportunity and liberty – ours is one and the same with trans folk. Just because our dilemma is about anti-homosexualism and theirs is about anti-transgenderism doesn’t mean that they aren’t linked. The same people that hate us, hate them.
The time calls for a new direction.
End misanthropy in all forms.
murphy0071
Sex and gender orientation are based in well medically documented research that shows quite a bit of variation. Most appears to be based on genetics and in utero neuro-hormones. Assignment at sex is not always correct and specifically does not represent the sex chromosomes of the newborn. XY, androgen insensitive, “women” are born appearing completely female and their male testes, which are extremely immature, are removed to prevent cancer. Most people with this sex variation are never told by medical personnel.
This appears to be a case of a true transsexual who may or may not want to go through surgery. Cases of “male” lesbians have been reported by some sex researchers.
Homophile
For a class of people who want to be treated equally and with respect, we sure do turn on our own easily.
oilburner
@Homophile: I agree if this kid was a trans prom Queen candidate it would make more sense but instead he’s just a boy wanting to wear a crown for attention. Good. Bye.
litper
She’s not our own, she’s not “homo”. Gender and sexuality are different issues. I’m tired of sexuality being confused with gender identity. Gay men like men, not because they’re “women” but because they’re just men who like men.
Deepdow
@litper:
But they’re not being confused as one and the same. You do realize the Susan B. Anthony fought for women’s rights at the same time she fought for abolition?
I wonder just how tired you really are.
Homophile
@litper:
Stop defining what it is to be gay for me, or anyone. You are only speaking for yourself. Fine, you don’t like feminine men. Cool, good for you!
There are plenty of guys who fit into your narrow definition of “masculinity”, so go forth and do manly things with manly men.
No one is asking you to like guys like Coy, just at the very least to let them be.
dkmagby
If that was the outfit he wore to prom…I’m sure that school had fishier queens than thus won. Def a pity victory.
hotshot70
I personally think the whole prom king/queen thing is stupid. DOes it REALLY mean anything after you graduate? When you apply for a job, do you likst taht you wee Prom queen or homecoming queen? It’s all a bunch of fluff. Like class president. If you get that title, what do you get? No power. Just the ability to have a reason to act like a bigger douchebag.
Surg
I know I may get shot for it but here’s my opinion; It seems to me like he did this for attention, he knew it would create trouble and people would talk about it. I don’t see why he couldn’t just go for the title of prom king, unless like I said….. You want some attention from local news and websites advertising you out and telling people your stories. And to be honest that wouldn’t really be fair, if he would if won he would have taken the spot of a girl wearing a dress. He had a tux on, he could ran for king.
balehead
What happened to women’s rights to be Prom Queen?….Just another Media Ho in training…..Gay’s not a talent….
miagoodguy
Prom Queen = Female If he wants to run for prom queen, then have a sex change. I wonder if people would support him or other guys who want to us female restrooms.
QuintoLover
I’m guessing he was inspired by the episode of Glee where Kurt won Prom Queen… Jesus.
scotshot
@hotshot70: Remember today all this stuff follows you forever.