Queer High School Students Are Totally Winning

All over the country, stories are emerging of LGBT students not only being accepted by their peers, but celebrated.

For queer high school students everything isn't always easy or simple. Thankfully a lot of schools are embracing and celebrating LGBT students:

autostraddle.com

For the schools, students and teachers who are doing it right: Thank you. For the schools that aren't, this is how it's done.

Transgender Middleboro High School senior Cody Tubman was crowned prom queen:

Just last week Cody Tubman was thrilled to take home the prize of prom queen at her Boston-area high school. According to Queerty, Tubman began identifying as transgender in ninth grade. She says she feels “confident and comfortable” in her body, and has received nothing but support from fellow classmates and teachers. She told CBS Boston, “You’re always going to have people that understand you and if you’re different it’s going to be hard. It was kind of like a realization that people are accepting and it doesn’t really matter to them. So it was a good feeling.”

Dylan Meehan and Brad Taylor voted "cutest couple" for the 2013 school year:

These two stole the hearts of Carmel High School’s student body, and took home the yearbook title of "cutest couple." The couple’s close friend Chelsea Blaney posted the image to her Tumblr, and people took notice quickly. Chelsea wrote, “Two of my best friends won Cutest Couple of our senior class. First time in my school history a same sex couple has even been able to run for this category, not to mention winning it. So proud of them, and my school.” They are the first same-sex couple at Carmel High School to win this honor. As if that wasn't cute enough, they went to prom together.

Jacob Rudolph came out to his entire high school during a graduation speech, and received a standing ovation:

Jacob bravely decided to come out to his entire school during an award acceptance speech. With his dad filming him, the entire school gave him a standing ovation .

Sarah Lindstrom and Desiree Shelton fought for the right to walk in the homecoming court together:

jezebel.com

In 2011, two gay students were voted onto the royalty court at their high school in Minneapolis. Normally a boy-girl couple walk the procession during the ceremony. After Lindstrom and Shelton were elected, school officials changed the procedure and announced court members would walk individually. School officials claimed they only wanted to prevent the two from being teased. After public outcry, and an impending lawsuit, the school officials eventually gave in. Students were allowed to walk with anyone meaningful to them.

Read the full story here.

Ted Chalfen thanked his class for accepting him during a graduation speech at Fairview High School in Boulder, CO.

youtube.com

Ted said in his speech about coming out, "I was fully prepared to endure taunting, social ostracization, and even physical abuse. But I knew what I knew, and I couldn’t hide it anymore [...] The response that I have received, by and large, has been stunning. The amount of people who actually seemed happy to hear that I was gay outnumbered those who didn’t care. And those who didn’t care far outnumbered the small group who reacted negatively.”

McFatter Technical High School in Florida elected transgender senior, Andii Viveros, as prom queen.

miamiherald.typepad.com

According to the Miami Herald, Andii ran against 14 other students. She wanted to run for prom queen in order to show other transgender teens “it gets better.” In the past she had trouble with the school, as they asked her to not dress as feminine or "tone it down" in class. WIth the hiring of a new principle things turned around, the principle even encouraged her to run for prom queen.

All you queer students out there, never stop fighting. Never stop winning.