If you’ve heard of Constance McMillen or Derrick Martin then you know how hellish prom can be for gay teens. But two gay friends Charlie Ferrusi and Timmy Howard of Hudson, New York (pictured) just got crowned queen and king of their prom. And this from the school that refused to let a male student run for prom queen back in 2008.
While Ferrusi and Howard are not the first gays to win a public school prom title — New Jersey’s Derrek Lutz wore a dress and won a crown this year — they’re might just be the first pair of gay men to win the king and queen spots. In fact, they won by such a large margin that the school didn’t even bother acknowledging runners-up.
And while that’s great for the boys, the school and all, I kinda wonder about the girl whose dreams they shattered by taking her tiara. I will shed a single unicorn tear for this uncrowned monarch.
scott ny'er
On one hand this is cool and great. It seems openess, acceptance, and great spirit has taken over this school.
OTOH, I don’t get how a dude can be a Queen. Yeah, I know, in the LGBT world, guys are big Queens, blah, blah. But, that’s just some slang word used in our community. Is not Prom King a dude and Prom Queen a woman?
Now, if they did away with Prom Queen and had 2 Prom Kings, that might make sense but why would they do that? It’s not an all boys school. Young woman should have the right to enter the competition and win against their own gender.
BillySaint
The youth are braving a path thatly a few years ago was unheard of. Thx to all of you for your example of extreme valor and bravery. You are true heroes.
Aaron
This also comes 1 week before the City of Hudson celebrates it’s first Pride. Visit http://www.hudsonpride.com for more information.
jake
the idea of having one prom king and one prom queen seems very heterosexual to me.
Yet Another
Yeah, I don’t view this as a matter of equality. Its a boy and girl. The King & Queen pairing may seem like a “heterosexual” concept, but in reality its just the most popular guy and the most popular girl.
DR
@scott ny’er:
Agreed. Men identifying as men, regardless of sexual orientation, ought to be running for Prom King, not Prom Queen, and women who identify as women regardless of sexual orientation ought to be running for Prom Queen (I’ll not touch the tux versus dress subject, whatever).
Seems unfair to take this away from a young lady who can’t run for prom king. It may not seem like a big deal to some of the posters here, but it’s a big deal to her and the other girls running, why couldn’t this guy run for prom king against his friend?
I’m glad the students were open to the idea, and I’m glad that these young men went about this maturely and responsibly in terms of letting all the right people know. But I think that the boys need to be considerate of their fellow students, too. Part of me found this unnecessary just to make a point.
Lane
I don’t have a problem with 2 guys as prom King and Queen. The girls in the school had a chance but they just did not get the votes.
Toby
Here’s my thing, I call my boyfriend, a boyfriend. When I get married, I will call him my husband….
I guess what I’m trying to say is, just because I like guys (actually I LOVE them), DOESN’T MEAN I’m a woman. It DOESN’T MEAN I’m woman-like.
I totally commend the school and the true meaning behind this (which is acceptance).
But next time someone wants to honor a gay couple in school, try to do the same as we do at Gay weddings (You know putting two guys in tuxedos on the cake, NOT a guy in a tux and a guy in a dress on top of the cake).
Now with that said, if we are talking about transgender…totally completely different.
scott ny'er
@Lane: That’s not the point. It’s like having a democrat run on a republican’s ticket and then in the end 2 democrats run against each other for President. (I actually wouldn’t mind this but our country’s laws prevent this). A democrat cannot run on a republican’s ticket and visa versa. Nor should a dude being running for Prom Queen. Queen = woman. The dude is not a woman. Thus he is ineligible to run.
Riley
Most readers commenting are taking this way too seriously – it’s high school, life isn’t so serious.
Jake
@Riley: You’re right, it shouldn’t be. But in a country that already doesn’t understand us, blurring concepts of sexual orientation & gender and then putting it in the news is of questionable effect.
This actually sort of leaves a sour taste in my mouth. If it was a “most popular couple” sort of vote, then it would be wonderful and amazing. But these are singular “most popular guy” & “most popular girl” votes. So regardless of their sexual orientation, someone male-identified should not be running for Prom Queen. It takes away from other girls (read; anyone female-identified, regardless of birth sex) who are vyeing (sp?) for the title.
This only further muddies up our image in the eyes of the ignorant masses. Brave? Maybe. Commendable? No.
gilber
thing like this are what strengthen the social programing allowing for the “heterosexualization” of homogeneous couplings.it does what the heterosexual agenda exactly has been doing for thousands of years,:the erosion of both sorts of homosexuality.this allows them to cover the natural physical mechanisms of sexual deviancy and inversion talking place between male/antimale interactions, by creating labels,roles and rewards for blatant sexual deviant behavior such as intersexual oral sex and asymmetric/uneven coupling.
Devonasa
I truly don’t understand the whole wanting to win Queen thing…
When I was in high school, I was more than happy winning King, and my boyfriend was just happy to be there with me to support me. I feel bad for the girls who had their dreams squashed…
Todd
I rarely comment, but these comments are just odd. These guys ran as a pair, obviously. And the school voted them in as a pair. That happens in some schools. In other schools, you run separately. There’s a girl and a boy, running separately. This OBVIOUSLY wasn’t how this school does it. And they won overwhelmingly, so I don’t think there were many girls upset that they weren’t queen.
This site has more young fags that are so pc, no not that, I’m going to go out on a very thin limb and say self-hating. Stop looking for the bad in being gay. For someone of my generation this event is historic, fabulous, even. My goodness. And they aren’t even boyfriends. Just two gay friends. Oh how I wish this sentiment had illuminated my prom.
tjhjr6497
Ok im one of these guys you are talking about, actually im the queen. You people have no clue what we did and how it happened. Our classmates wanted us to run like this and no girls dreams were crushed in the process. they all voted for us! it was ment as a joke and a fun thing to do for our class. I know im not a girl.(which by the way many females in history have claimed the title of King, so why cant i take queen?) Even if we didnt mean it as a stament it still is so im going to treat it as one and try to get as much good publicity for my school and for the gay community in general. if you dont like it then oh well. I dont like how people act like their is no person behind these kinds of article when their is. Again it was only ment as a joke, their was no dream crushing in the making of this prom.
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
@tjhjr6497: Good for you guys…..Unfortunately on Queerty St. some posters like to take a positive and try with all their might to squeeze some bitter juice out of it.
The fact that the entire student body voted for you guys is a huge win for Gay students. It shows that a school can accept the Gays without it spontaniously imploding, or falling directley into a sinkhole created by Satan himself………
Good luck and thanks for having the balls to come out and be proud of who you are………
NewYorkTaxpayer
I am a gay male in my 40’s. I have known I was gay pretty much my entire life. As a teenager I mostly hid it because it wasn’t really talked about much and certainly wasn’t accepted back then. When I became an adult I met a wonderful man who I have been married to for many years and we have a wonderful child together.
I give my background because now I want to give my opinion. First, I would like to say how proud I am of these two young men that they are comfortable with themselves and know who they are, and also I would like to commend their parents for accepting them as well. But, I don’t agree with the boy who ran for queen. Being openly gay is not about flaunting it, but rather simply accepting it. If you accept it yourself and do not feel the need to be “in your face” about it, others will accept you as well.
Ellen DeGeneres is a perfect example of that and a wonderful role model for the gay community. She is popular and famous not because she is gay, but because she is a wonderful comedienne, a philanthropist and an intelligent and kind individual. She doesn’t walk around with a clown nose on her face shouting, “look at me, I’m gay”.
I think also that, in terms of all the kids voting for Timmy as queen, I’ll bet if you asked them, the majority did it because they thought it would be funny. These are teenagers. Most teenagers can’t see past Friday night. They aren’t thinking about helping the gay kid make a stand.
My advise to these boys is, be comfortable with who you are, study hard, make something of yourself, and most importantly, don’t feel the need to walk around with a sticker on your forehead saying, “I’m gay.” It’s not necessary. You will be accepted in life for who you are, not what you are. I can tell you from personal experience that even the most conservative person in the world will accept and respect you if you don’t have a chip on your shoulder trying to prove to the world why you are right and they are wrong.
tjhjr6497
It wasent to make a stand!!! It was for fun!
tjhjr6497
@NewYorkTaxpayer: We only did it for fun! It wasent to make a stand or any of that. It was only a fun thing for our class to do. I didnt want to make a stand and i still dont. It was only about fun. you know nothing. None of us thought about making a stand.
patrick
@tjhjr6497: I’m confused. Did you do it to make a stand?
Yaël
@gilber: When you begin a post with “thing like this are what strengthen the social programming allowing for…
you lose your audience by writing badly and being boring.
If, like me, you’re a foreigner, then ask someone to help with your English, find a good ESL website, or study a little grammar. I still make mistakes all the time, but less than I used to.
If you’re just boring, you can read those books on “How Not To Be So Boring.”
Yaël
@tjhjr6497: Apparently you spent more time running for Prom Queen than in school learning how to write!
Good luck in college!
Taylor Siluwé
No. 15 · tjhjr6497
First off, Bravo! Second, don’t concern yourself with the vitriol spewed by some of the bitter and/or overly-fearful souls on this site. Most come from a time when such overt acts were wildly unthinkable, and yet, in a much more tolerate climate, they still can’t seem to get their heads around it.
Case in point — No. 17 · NewYorkTaxpayer – who’s wisdom and experience still allow him to advise you not to “flaunt” your gay identity. To which I’d say, Ellen (who he believes doesn’t flaunt), in some peoples perspective, certainly DOES flaunt her gayness. No, not with a rainbow sticker on her forehead, but there are those in America who wish she would just stop going to events with her girlfriends. “Flaunting” is subjective.
There are sparks of good advice here though. My favorite is this:
No. 2 · BillySaint
The youth are braving a path that… a few years ago was unheard of. Thx to all of you for your example of extreme valor and bravery. You are true heroes.
I wholeheartedly second that. Kudos to you, your brave King, and your entire valiant, fearless generation!!
patrick
@Yaël: My sentiments exactly, on both postings. And yes, gilber is just mind-numbingly boring.
scott ny'er
@tjhjr6497: Ahhh. So, there was no big concept behind this. No dude acting on his gay, femme forefather’s and really wanting to “Queen” out. It was just like, “hey, i know, I’ll run for Queen, wouldn’t that be a kick”.
Well, kudos. But, and not to be negative, then this “news” article is about nothing really. It has nothing to do with gays or our progress or rights. It’s really just about kids having fun.
Timothy Howard
@scott ny’er: Ya at first it was for kicks but now that we both see what a big thing it is we are going to try and make some change. “You must be the change you want to see in the world”- Mahatma Gandhi
Timothy Howard
Ok and to those who are making fun of my spelling… I suck at english, I cant spell and my grammer is horrible. However it does not mean im stupid. I think its rather pathetic that you have to go that low to attack me. I do perfectly fine in school as I will in college. If im able to get a 100 on my ap biology mid-term then I think im good. So what, im not good at english. Im sure you have you weak points.
jeffree
@Timothy Howard: Tim: Don’t ever let the haters get you down. I had all kinds of problems learning to read & write, and still struggle. I had to repeat 7th grade.
I am now in college, the first person in my family to do that.
My school does offer a learning center where we can get help with writing papers — maybe your school will have something like that. I was very embarrassed to ask for help, but they have helped me a lot.
Good luck. It was great to hear your story. You are much braver than I was in high school.
Maria
I thnk that is so sweet.
Leslie
This is all in the spirit of fun. Thankfully these young men can be open. As for being prom queen and a girl didn’t get to be, so be it. I have a niece who just graduated from high school. She has an over inflated sense of what being attractive means. She and other girls like her don’t need to be a prom queen. To have a meaningful event over supporting a high school senior’s girl dream to once again capitalize on her appearance or superficial popular status is much better.