May 02, 2008

THE BOY WHO WOULD BE (PROM) QUEEN



It was sometime his freshman year, probably the worst year for Gomez, as far as accepting who he was and getting his friends to understand. He lost a lot of friends that year.

“After that I was like, ‘You know what, no, OK, if you’re going to call me a queen I might as well have a good title with it … prom queen,’ ” Gomez said. “Since the beginning of freshman year I’ve been trying to take things in stride and trying not to be so negative about it.”

Gomez has learned to navigate the complicated minefield that high school can be, especially for an openly gay student. He’s been called worse. Queen never seemed that bad, he said.

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