According to most reporting, Fresno High student Cinthia Covarrubias (also known as Tony) was the first known transgender candidate for Prom King in the country last month. She ended up losing, but gay rights activists praised California and Fresno Unified School District for even letting her participate in her gender of choice (or "true" gender, depending who's telling the story).
Well, try to imagine how they felt yesterday when it was announced that Johnny Vera (also known as Crystal) is in the running for Prom Queen at Roosevelt High School, also of Fresno.
That's right, not only were we first, we were also second! We win!
What do we win? I'm not sure exactly. We are definitely on the front lines of the continuing erosion of the concept of gender as we know it in this country, for better or worse. How Fresno, historically a strong socio-politically conservative safe-haven, became the state's oasis of liberal progressivism is a mystery to me. (Then again, our police chief wants to GPS paroled known gang members and set up Eye in the Sky surveillance cameras around the city to watch over us, so maybe we're not quite San Francisco just yet.)
At the other end of the spectrum, we were ranked 317 out of 375 in a recent study of best cities/metro areas to live in...unless, of course, you are a transgender teen with a dream of prom royalty, or a police chief with a totalitarian streak.
No comments:
Post a Comment