Last night, Cassidy Lynn Campbell was named homecoming queen at her California high school. But what set Campbell apart from all other homecoming queens in the school's history is the fact that she identifies as transgender. She was among five other finalists vying for the title. After winning the most votes, Campbell tearfully accepted her crown on the football field of Marina High School. The 16-year-old told reporters, "I wasn't doing this for me. I was doing this for so many others, so many others around the nation."
While it is clearly a first for Marina High School in typically conservative Huntington Beach, Campbell is not the first homecoming title won by a trans student. ABC News notes that earlier this year, Katie Couric's show, Katie, featured a 19-year-old transgender teen named Devon who won the title of Junior Homecoming Princess at her high school, though her peers were unaware that she was born biologically male.
Regrettably but not unexpectedly, Campbell, who was born Lance and transitioned three years ago, faced some criticism from fellow students in the days leading up to homecoming, as well as on social media after she won. "They think that I'm just a boy doing this for fun, and I'm just a boy dressing up as a girl and trying to win a crown when that is completely the opposite of what it is," she said. "I've always seen myself as a girl." (ABC News)
Photo: Via The Los Angeles Times.