Wednesday, June 01, 2011

The First Transgender High School Prom Queen

It happened at McFatter Technical High School in Miami, where 17 year-old Andrew-or, as "she" prefers to call "herself", Andii-beat out fourteen others at the school where she had been bullied and tormented for years. At the advice of her counselor, she ignored the demands that she not be allowed to run. It seems as though nobody was as surprised as she was when she was named Prom Queen.


Andrew/Andii gets all the support she needs at home, including from her father, who admits that many of his co-workers have questioned his devotion to his son, saying things like "Oh,you didn't beat him up?"

Far from beating him up, Andrew's father, who works for a private garbage collection company in Fort Lauderdale, brought Andrew a gown, shoes, and make-up for the big night, and says he views Andrew as a straight female, as does his wife and Andrew's mother.

“I’ve always loved him unconditionally,” said Oscar Viveros, who still uses male pronouns when talking about Andrew. “I’ve told my other kids, they have to support him. He thinks he’s a girl in a man’s body. In school, he hears this and that, but I’ve made sure in our house he’s free to act and do whatever makes him comfortable.”

"He doesn’t consider himself gay. He likes men. I understand that. He’s just in the wrong body,’’ said Viveros, who recalls a young Andrew wanting to try on Cinderella’s dress at Disney World.

“I’d tell him, ‘You’re a boy,’’’ Viveros said. “He’d try it on anyway. He was happy.”


Below is Andrew alongside the night's "Prom King", who is also, no surprise here, gay.