inevitable

LOS ANGELES - An openly gay teen has been voted prom queen at his Los Angeles high school in a campaign that began as a stunt but ended up spurring discussion on the campus about gender roles and popularity.

Sergio Garcia said he felt "invincible" when he was crowned queen of the Fairfax High School dance at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. Prom is a formal spring dance that is a tradition for American high schools.

Days before the dance, Garcia told fellow students that he was "not your typical prom queen candidate. There's more to me than meets the eye".

He also promised that he would be wearing a suit on prom night, but "don't be fooled: Deep down, I am a queen."

And he made good of that promise on Saturday, wearing a grey tuxedo topped off with the prized tiara.

Garcia, 18, said he saw fliers advertising the prom and the election but they didn't specify that the queen must be female. He thought the role would suit him better than prom king.

"I don't wish to be a girl," he told the Los Angeles Times. "I just wish to be myself."

Senior class president Vanessa Lo said she and other students were initially against the idea but became convinced he wasn't just an attention-seeking clown.

"It just goes to show how open-minded our class is," Lo said.

Unique Payne, 17, said she voted for Garcia because she supported the gay community.

Although many students were supportive of Garcia's run, others were upset and didn't understand why Garcia chose to run for prom queen.

"I'm not really happy about that," said 17-year-old Juan Espinoza. "He should've run for prom king."

- AP

and i agree with jan espinoza

when i first read this, i thought it was mildly amusing, but on reading it again, i started to think

the fact that he ran for prom queen comes across as a bit of a joke, especially as he says that he doesn't want to be a woman. fair enough, but i think it would have made more of a point if he had gone dor, and won prom king. if elected that would have shown that his fellow students accepted him for who he was-a gay male

n.b. did you notice the name of one of the students? unique payne. i wonder if she has a sister