CA high school crowns first lesbian homecoming ‘king’

posted at 3:46 pm on November 4, 2011 by Howard Portnoy
[ Political Correctness ]   

“I now pronounce you… er—I dunno. What should I pronounce you?”

A story out of sunny California has left me wondering whether that scenario or ones like it have played out in zip codes like my own, where gay marriage is now the law of the land.

Homosexuals want to be treated equally in the world of couples—that much I get. Where the confusion sets in is when a lesbian is anointed her high school’s homecoming king.

The Blaze reports that Rebeca Arellano, a senior at Patrick Henry High School in San Diego, and her girlfriend Haileigh Adams “could be the first lesbian homecoming royal couple in the country if Adams—one of two female students nominated for homecoming queen—is crowned as well.”

(For fans of equal opportunity oddity, the article also supplies word that Francis Shervinski, a freshman at Columbia College in Chicago, was crowned his school’s “homecoming queen” several months back.)

A video clip from the ABC News affiliate in San Diego includes well-wishing occupants of a passing car shouting at Arellano and Adams, “You guys are an amazing couple!” (That one—the generic usage of guys to refer to individuals of either sex and even inanimate objects—I understand.)

The problem here is one of forcing an agenda, which is not how positive and constructive social change is affected. Gay advocates could say—probably have said—that events like this coronation advance the cause of gay rights in the same way that Rosa Parks’ refusal to vacate her seat on a bus advanced the cause of civil rights. Nothing could be further from the truth. The crowning of a female as “king” or a male as “queen” (putting aside the historical connotations of the second term) is a deliberate obfuscation of gender (a term I am using here in its sole grammatical sense) in the interests of cuteness. Those who support it would claim it is “opening eyes”—but I would say, if so to what?

Should we be looking forward to a time when Arellano and Adams marry and become Mr. and Mrs. Rebeca Arellano? What is achieved by the confusion resulting from that sort of convention? Natural human language is hard-wired to avoid ambiguity wherever possible. Circumventing that tendency is a way of building walls, not tearing them down.

While many applaud the strides that the gay community has made in recent years, there are at least as many who do not and who, moreover, don’t feel comfortable with these changes. Some cite religious reasons for their discomfiture. To call these people barbaric or homophobic (which I still insist means “afraid of being the same”) is a demonstration of the worst kind of intolerance coming from a group that seeks tolerance in others.

As has been written about repeatedly in this space, the views of gay advocates and of the people who oppose their lifestyle are both protected by the First Amendment. Neither side has a prior claim to constitutional protections. If gays want to win over hearts and minds, they need to exercise patience and diligence. They would also be well counseled to avoid cutesy stunts.

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