By Lori Perkins
The graduating senior class of 1,500 students in a Kansas City high school voted Tristan Young their 2023 homecoming queen, an honor she accepted graciously in her long purple gown and tiara. No one in her school, or town, seemed to have a problem with this traditional high school pageant election (she was actually the second trans teen elected homecoming queen at this high school – the first was in 2015), but a few days later social media erupted with vitriol against the trans teen as she became the focus of the current conservative backlash against transgendered people.
Tristan, who felt this was the greatest honor of her life to be voted homecoming queen by her high school peers, decided to focus on the positive even though she was viciously maligned by the likes of Breitbart and Libs of Tik Tok.
“I’m just not one of those people,” Tristan said. “I like to stay strong. I don’t really buckle unless something is really wrong. Right now, what’s happening is people are trying to turn a joyous thing into something that I should regret. But it’s going to stay a joyous thing.”
Noting that some of her detractors referenced religion, she said, “Well, in the Bible, Jesus says ‘Love thy neighbor.’ Love everyone as they are. This is who I am. … I’m proud of who I am. You can tear me down all you want. I’m not going to give back the crown.”