A trans teenager in Kansas City, Missouri is speaking out after winning homecoming queen at her high school and facing harassment from right-wingers on social media.
Seventeen-year-old Tristan Young won the title, which was voted on by her 1,500 classmates, at Oak Park High School’s homecoming football game on September 15.
“I was overwhelmed,” Young recalled in an interview with the Kansas City Star. “I thought I was never going to be in this position. And in that moment, I had tears welling in my eyes because I just felt so supported. And I just felt like, this school wants me to be who I am, and not who other people want me to be.”
But because conservatives refuse to let trans kids enjoy their lives in peace, Young’s win was soon co-opted by hateful online posts from accounts like Libs of TikTok and conservative commentator Riley Gaines, many of whom misgendered her and made crude comments about her body — a disturbingly hypocritical but unsurprising reaction from a contingent that doggedly harasses minors in the name of “protecting the children.”
In response, the school district turned off comments on school social media posts announcing Young as homecoming queen, and extra security was hired for Oak Park’s homecoming dance the following Saturday.
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Reports of Young’s win also misinterpreted an Instagram post that she made thanking her peers, in which she thanked her loved ones for helping her through “a very difficult high school journey.” Although numerous commentators assumed that this referred to her transition journey, she pointed out to the Star that she was actually talking about the death of her father, who was killed in a car crash in 2020. In comparison, her transition was “like, fairly smooth.”
For the record, this isn’t even the first time that Oak Park has crowned a trans homecoming queen. In 2015, student Landon Patterson received the honor. The fact that gender-affirming care for minors is now banned in the state of Missouri makes Young’s victory feel even more poignant.
Weeks after the fact, Young refuses to let online hatred affect her experience.
“When I was crowned homecoming queen, why should I make my memories be about fighting back? I want to make my memories of being homecoming queen happy, and they’re going to be happy,” she told the Star. “I’m forever going to remember that moment on the field, where I’m standing with people I love the most… That’s what I’m going to think about years later.”
“I’m not going to think about all this backlash I got,” Young continued. “Because that doesn’t matter to me. What matters to me are the people that support me.”
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