Who won the world? Apparently a recent high school grad in Shropshire.
The young man’s performance of Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive” on his last day of high school has wasted no time in going viral, and rightly so.
16-year-old Philipp Penning originally wanted to perform as Edna in Charlton School’s production of Hairspray.
Related: Teen Outed By High School Principal, Silenced From Speaking At Graduation
How about we take this to the next level?
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But that first spark of inspiration gave way to an even better idea: He would perform in drag at the “Leavers Assembly.”
He asked teachers whether they’d back his high-heeled fever dream.
They initially denied his request, and one teacher said it would be “unrespectable.” (This was hopefully not an English teacher.)
But Penning wasn’t going to take this minor setback lying down. The next day, the student body prepared a petition, which quickly racked up 283 signatures from Penning’s classmates.
When the petition was handed over to the principal, it swayed his opinion: Phillipp could perform in drag. He must perform in drag…
So last Friday, Philipp entertained his graduating class with a raucous lip sync set to Gaynor’s disco classic.
It went a little something like this:
As you can see, he seized the moment in clompy black heels, red dress, and black fright wig.
He had the crowd of students and teachers eating out of his hand: they screamed and clapped, shouting “I love you!”
Related: Is Forcing Female Students To Wear Skirts At Graduation Illegal Or Just Sexist?
“I know you all wanted me to do ‘Born This Way,'” he jokes, “but I’m afraid I can’t move that fast in six-inch heels.”
“Instead we’re going to be playing a song that’s very special to me and it’s one you will know… ‘I Will Survive.'”
Don’t worry: there’s a moment where he defiantly snatches off his wig, Annie Lennox-style.
Taking his bow, Philipp quips: “That is the gayest thing to ever happen at Charlton School!”
Juniors of Charlton, we hope you’re taking this as a challenge and starting to hash out your choreography.
Because it’s on.
h/t: Gay Star News
VitaVagabonda
Dear Derek de Koff: If you’re going to use the word “hopefully” incorrectly, you probably shouldn’t be making snarky comments about teachers’ use of English.
jayceecook
As somebody once said, “You are not some stalwart defender of the purity or virtue of the English language, you’re just somebody who refuses to accept that one of the strengths of language is its flexibility.”
Danny595
I don’t know why any boy would be so eager to prance around in school in a ladies dress. It’s disturbing. I also don’t understand why Queerty is constantly pushing cross-dressing behavior and other strange gender deviance on us. Most gay and bi men have no desire to dress as women and will never cross-dress in their lives. It is a practice among a small minority of G/B men. Stop pushing this on us. We aren’t interested.
nebskram
i did not know everything had to pass through your computer for you to decide if “everyone ” would be interested in watching or not
it dose seam that it sparked some interest as you spent the time to make a comment that made you out to be Danny the toad
Roan
That’s not a fright wig. It’s a simply a black, natural hair wig.
Bob LaBlah
My, how times have changed. I must say this beats the shit out of the fire truck and firemen coming by to talk to us about fire safety as the big event of the school year back in my day. I can even remember when a teacher was sent home for wearing a pants suit because it was deemed inappropriate for us kids to see. Lord, how times have changed.
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Terrycloth
I hope if his parents are there he’s already our and he’s told them what he’s going to do..otherwise a very interesting evening