William & Mary & Williamary
The College of William & Mary, the country's second-oldest university, in a year chockablock with historic firsts for the United States of America, has elected its first transgender homecoming queen.
"I think it's a mark of how progressive our values are here," stated the Junior Class President.
Making me thankful once again that not one of our four children spent even one day being educated in State-funded, State-run educational institutions.
And making me re-assert my firm position that I would rather all four of my children had been illiterate than spend even one day being educated in State-funded, State-run educational institutions.
But I digress. Back to our homecoming queen.
And ze is not alone in zis confusion.
Jessee Vasold, who describes himself as "gender queer," was quoted as saying: "I don't identify as a woman. It really just depends on the day and the occasion."
In conversation, Jessee takes care to use "gender neutral" pronouns such as "ze" instead of "he" and "zir" instead of the traditional -- and peskily gender-specific -- "him" or "her."
Ze must not have felt like a woman last weekend in Williamsburg, Virginia, where there was nary a sequin, a strapless, a stiletto, or a scepter in sight as Jessee took the field at halftime of the William & Mary homecoming game.
Zis costume consisted of black pants, a red shirt, and lower-lip jewelry.
If a tiara is part of the deal, Jessee was not wearing it on zis long blondish hair.
The queen is apparently no stranger to the spotlight. Jessee serves as the Student Assembly Undersecretary of Diversity Initiatives for William & Mary's Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Affairs.
(If you can say that quickly five times, you may be a little light in your loafers too.)
Jessee is also past co-president of the Lambda Alliance, William & Mary's GLBT advocacy group.
Happily, whatever else he may lack, our Jessee came equipped with a sense of humor. (Ze is going to need it.) Ze maintains a Facebook page under the name "Kathy Middlesex."
And ze is not alone in zis confusion. In the midst of one particularly spirited on-line comment exchange regarding the hot-button issue, a clever reader threw this anecdote on the heap:
My sister suffers from Body Integrity Identity Disorder. She felt she was a one-legged person born in a two-legged person’s body. After years of searching, we found a doctor willing to perform the surgery.
Afterwards, she changed her name to Eileen.
I really have only one question, because I know that if I had ever been elected homecoming queen, it would have been my first priority:
If there does turn out to be a tiara, does ze plan to wear it to class?
Reader Comments (7)
What is this world coming to? It is just crazy!
Yeah... I don't need a progressive college, if that's what progressive is!
I'm howling over the Eileen joke. And I couldn't help noticing that the thing that what's it's name serves on has the initials SAUDI. Don't know why I found that intriguing. Plus it took up a whole paragraph. To make it sound important I guess. How come it is "not nice" to identify someone as an adulterer, liar, fornicator, or by any of their other sins, but those who choose this particular sin want to be identified by it?
Zis is a travesty----and a tragedy. But what is a poor zoy to do?
Pardon moi, but a transgender homecoming...what? If a transgender, it ain't a king, and it ain't a queen...it's a Quing. Which rhymes with thing. Zo be zo be zo...yeah, progressives have done to colleges what Islamofascists do to open-air markets in the Middle East...
This begs many questions in my mind: Why? and How is this progressive? So on some days she feels like a woman and on others ze doesn't?
I love the Body Identity Integrity Disorder! That says it all.
@ Cheryl ... if you ask me, I think the world is coming to its end as prophesied in Scripture!
@ Mari ... exactly! If the world says it's good, I'd rather be bad.
@ Tracie ... oh, haven't you heard? There's no such thing as right or wrong anymore! There's only do or don't do ... your choice. SAUDI ... now, that's funny!
@ Tim ... agreed, a tragedy and a travesy. Not sure what anybody can do.
@ SF ... a Quing! I'll bet Jessee would like that moniker!
@ Keli ... straaaaange times we live in. Just sayin' ...