A Gender Fluid Take on Homecoming

While this year’s homecoming festivities have been planned to go off without a hitch, concern hangs in the back of the minds of City High students and staff alike as they begin to question the tradition of king and queen.

“It’s a tradition to value popularity,” said GLOW sponsor, Tony Balcaen. “I see the bad side [but] I know that American schools value students’ achievements and recognition.”

The term “binary” refers to the gender system of man/woman. People who are non-binary identify as neither a man or a woman, and see gender as a spectrum, with stereotypical male and female identities at either end, and genderqueer at the center.

If gender is understood as an inborn, fixed identity, then the terms king and queen fit. However, some of those who feel gender is on a continuum rather than a fixed identity have a problem with these separately specified gender terms. Non-binary City High students ask the question: why are the options on the ballot only “king” and “queen?”

“Some [non-binary] people would really want to be one of those people sitting on the stage,” Sam Johnson*, GLOW member, said.

Staff are open to adjusting, but the issue was brought to their attention only recently.

“I would be glad to make a change [to the ballot],” Principal John Bacon said. “I would love to have dialogue with some of those individuals who could help me understand the changes we could potentially make that would be more inclusive.”

The origins of the homecoming royalty tradition are unknown, but they have deep roots in America’s high schools.

“I think [the tradition] exists because it has been in place at schools across the country for a long, long time,” Bacon said.

“Even in the context of tradition, Balcaen finds no justification in homecoming royalty.

“It’s the same thing as the Miss America pageant; there’s really no point to it but people are still doing it,” Tony Balcaen said.

However Elias Lenz ‘18, GLOW member, believes in the viability of homecoming.

“We’ve done it for such a long time that it would matter if we completely took it away,” Lenz said.

“It’s like the amendments to the Constitution,” Charlie Escorcia ‘17 added. “They didn’t want to redo [the ballot], so they just fixed it.”

Currently, the term non-binary remains widely unrecognized.

“[People] get confused and nitpick at what you go by,”Johnson said.

“A lot of the time when I tell my teachers I go by they/them pronouns they [don’t understand],” agreed Owen Babcock ‘19, GLOW member.

Although lack of awareness of the presence of non-binary people plays a factor in how they are perceived by their peers, these students haven’t received any negative comments.

“Most people will just listen to me when I say that I’m neither [gender], and it’ll be fine,” Lenz said. They won’t say anything nasty about it.”

Babcock has had similar experiences.

“They just move on,” Babcock agreed. “[City’s] a pretty accepting place.”

GLOW members  have come to a consensus that a change on the ballot would make a difference in the way non-binary students are perceived at City High.

“I’d add an option for an ‘other” gender,’ Lenz said.“Instead of king or queen, they’d put in their own type of name and run as that,”

“I’d probably do ‘your highness,’ or something like that,” added Escorcia.

While some non-binary students would love a third option on the ballot, some who fall in the non-binary category prefer to use binary words.

“It just makes more sense to me,” Lenz said.

Johnson agrees, choosing to use the binary word “he” as well.

“It’s my mom’s dream for me to be a queen, but I’m more of a king,” Johnson said. “And it’s okay.”

Although City High has only begun to consider the gender spectrum’s presence at school, one of City’s defining characteristics is one of absolute acceptance.

“We are a very diverse high school. We have people from all walks of life here,” Bacon said. “Everybody’s different, and that’s perfectly fine with us.”

“The whole mentality of the school,” Balcaen said, “Is that everyone is part of the family.”

*These names have been changed.