A transgender teen was named homecoming queen of Marina High School in Orange County.  Following the win, Cassidy Lynn Campbell said, “I’m so proud to win this not just for me but for everyone out there and for every kid; transgender, gay, straight, black, white, Mexican, Asian. It doesn’t matter, you can be yourself.”  The high school senior has been sharing her transformation from male to female on You Tube offering advice on issues as varied as applying makeup to injecting estrogen.

Cassidy said that until this year, when she started living life fully as a female, she wasn’t able to be herself. “I realized it wasn’t for me anymore, I was doing this for so many people all around.” While there is an important lesson to be learned from her win, there were many who didn’t agree and were vocal about it on social media.

There will always be people who hate others because they’re different.  And that’s the worst reason in the world to hate someone.  Furthermore, living such a difficult existence is extremely sad.  No one would ask to be born a particular sex only to feel trapped in the wrong body.  How sad for anyone caught in the midst of such confusion.  None of us could possibly imagine what that feels like and our hearts, (not ridicule and hatred) should go out to these individuals.

However, while Cassidy is taking hormones and living as a female, until she is truly a female she shouldn’t qualify to be Homecoming Queen.  It simply isn’t fair to all of the other female students despite the fact they are all happy about taking this stand.  When tennis player Renee Richards underwent gender reassignment surgery she was ultimately awarded the right to play women’s professional tennis.  Had she not had the surgery, despite taking hormones, she would have had a distinct physical advantage.  Even after the surgery, she was still hitting the ball harder than most of the other female tennis players.  The point here is, while we should work towards building a better, friendlier more inclusive world, we shouldn’t change the ground rules in order to do so.  Cassidy has male genitalia for now and is therefore a male.  To crown Cassidy a homecoming queen is again a case of the Emperors New Clothes and is totally unacceptable.  Building a better world is not about make believe.  We shouldn’t stop keeping score in little league because the team that loses feels badly.  That’s just life.  You win some and you lose some and every person should experience both.  So congratulations to Marina High School for making a statement but let’s not lose perspective.