Three Cheers for Cassidy Campbell!

This past Friday, Cassidy Lynn Campbell, a senior at Marina High School in Huntington Beach, CA, was voted homecoming queen by her peers.  You might be thinking: So? That’s happened at every school, every fall in, like, the entire history of forever.  Yes, this is true; however, this particular time is slightly more important than most… Cassidy is a transgender teen.  

To me, it’s definitely telling that young people like Cassidy and all the Marina High students who voted for her are making such huge and historic statements like this.

One of the many things I enjoy about my job at the Library is that I get to hang out with an awesome bunch of talented and thoughtful teens.  As a result, I often find myself thinking back to when I was a teenager and comparing how my peers and I differed from the young adults I see everyday at the Library.  While I suppose there might be some truth to the saying that some things never change, one noticeable distinction that stands out to me is how open and more accepting of individual differences most young people I meet are, as opposed to those I was surrounded by way back when – and, at the risk of sounding overly dramatic, this is definitely one thing that gives me hope for the future of this country.

So a big congrats to Cassidy and all the teens who voted for her!  Just think, one day something like this won’t make the national news circuit – just like every other homecoming in the entire history of forever.

Jon : Carrick