Lesbian wins Prom King

-- Lars (larsguy@yahoo.com), May 05, 2001

Answers

BellinghamHerald.com May 5, 2001

Lesbian prom king wears crown with pride after Ferndale election

Jim Donaldson and Kari Thorene Shaw, THE BELLINGHAM HERALD

FERNDALE -- Krystal Bennett became a candidate on a whim, and she was as surprised as anyone when she was elected king at Ferndale High School's junior-senior prom last Saturday.

Bennett was crowned with a paper crown from Burger King last Saturday as Ferndale's first female prom king. She posed with queen Kara Johnson for pictures, but they didn't dance together.

Bennett considered the coronation a victory for herself and others, despite the rumors that many cast votes for her to embarrass her and Johnson. She identifies herself as the high school's only out lesbian.

"Most people cheered and clapped, all the stuff you're supposed to do, but when I got back to school on Monday, people were not really happy with it," Bennett said.

Principal David Hutchinson received phone calls earlier this week from concerned parents and community members, but he said most students supported Bennett.

"I believe, from what they (students) have told me, they were simply saying we care for this person and this is how we want to express it. That's their choice, as long as it's not a hurtful, hateful thing," he said.

"We don't want her to be discriminated against. She's a kid and she has feelings."

'Wanted to have fun'

Bennett, 18, and her date, 19-year-old Connie Terrell, started the evening at Coconut Kenny's, a Hawaiian-themed restaurant where they wore goggles and leis with their prom clothes.

"We didn't want to be too serious about it," Bennett said. "We wanted to have fun."

While in line for prom pictures at the dance, Bennett scratched out the "boy's outfit" part of the photo order form and wrote in "girl's outfit." She wore a tuxedo and stared down the doubletakes.

When it came time to vote for royalty, Bennett was joking with friends about her nomination. "I didn't think I would actually win," she said. "It was really something I wanted, but I didn't think it was actually possible."

She nominated herself for king to "defy the gender basis" of such royalty competitions, she said. "I'm the only open lesbian at school. That played a big part in it."

About 120 couples attended the prom, but about half that many were still around when the vote for king and queen was held at around 11:30 p.m., Hutchinson said. When the prom royalty was announced and Bennett was named king, part of the room cheered while the rest stood in quiet shock, according to senior Joey Joshua.

Johnson, 18, said she got confused looks from her friends. So she did what made sense: She high-fived Bennett and hugged her.

Johnson said that broke the tension.

"They were like, she's OK with it so I am, too," Johnson said.

Bennett was thrilled. "I was really excited. The whole rest of the night I was pretty pumped."

Rumors abound

Rumors were flying by the end of the school week: People had cast votes as jokes. Bennett's friends had stuffed the ballot box. It had been a planned publicity stunt by the Whatcom County gay community.

"From what I understand, it was played on the prom queen as a joke," said senior Kristie Howard, 18. She doesn't see anything wrong with a lesbian winning prom queen, but prom king should be a title reserved for boys, she said.

"I don't agree with it. Within my religion, I do not believe it is right at all," Howard said. "But I've been brought up in the sense that you have to accept people for who they are ... you have to accept difference."

Joshua, 18 and runner-up for prom king, said he doesn't mind being runner-up to a girl.

"I'm excited for her. I'm glad she got it," he said. "I believe in equal rights for everybody."

Joshua was certain the vote was sincere.

"It wasn't to make fun of her," Joshua said. "When they announced who the king was, there was a distinct group of people who were cheering. Where I was ... it just seemed like a shock because it was a girl. People just stood there like, what?

"I'm glad she came out and that she was accepted like that in our school," Joshua said.

The next day, Bennett told her family the news. Her sister screamed and called all her friends to brag. Her parents, though, seemed confused. "My dad was kind of like, 'What does that mean?' And I said, 'It means I beat the boys, Dad.' "

Hutchinson said the vote does not reflect a school policy supporting gay or lesbian lifestyles.

"We are not supporting this choice of lifestyle. We have let the kids make a choice," Hutchinson said. "They knew that some people might look at it as they support that lifestyle, and there might be some other people who want that intent."

Knew she was gay

Bennett said she knew she was gay "the same way other people know they are interested in boys." At age 4, she wrote a song called "Girl Lover" and played it on her guitar. In middle school, she found herself attracted to her friends who were fretting over boyfriends.

She came out as a freshman to a few friends and word quickly spread around the school. "It was really embarrassing," she said. "I heard people talking about me a lot."

When a school counselor pulled her into his office and told her it wasn't in her best interest to confirm the rumors, her response was obvious: "I told everybody," she said.

But she has paid a price. People ask her all the time how could she know at such a young age that she was gay. They call her names. Some friends refused to talk to her. Someone broke a ceramic art project she made to protest schoolyard brutality against gay students: a black ceramic mold of a gun with the impression of a child's face and the words, "Queer youth are seven times more likely to commit suicide." She found it broken and stuffed in a corner of the pottery room.

At the urging of her art teacher, she is putting it back together and will put it on display May 11 at Allied Arts, in a show sponsored by Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG).

In the meantime, area gay and lesbian advocates are calling Bennett's coronation a step in the right direction.

Gina Fagen Kley, co-chair of the local chapter of PFLAG, said high school students face a particularly tough time when talking to their peers about their sexual orientation. One of Kley's two sons is gay, and he was so tired of being harassed that he refused to go through graduation ceremonies with his FHS classmates in 1997, she said.

"I have not heard of any other lesbian winning prom king," said Zan McColloch-Lussier, communications manager for the Seattle-based Pride Foundation. "I think it's amazing that her peers showed her that type of acceptance. It's progress when students aren't ostracized for their sexuality in school."

Bennett said she expects a lecture from school administrators on Monday for talking to the media and isn't sure what else to expect before graduation.

"It'll be an interesting last 23 days of high school and hopefully a fast 23 days," she said.

-- Lars (larsguy@yahoo.com), May 05, 2001.

Junior Bruce (juicy Brucie) Gunderson announced his candidacy for next year's Prom Queen.

-- (LizSmith@NY.Post), May 05, 2001.