{"id":11605,"date":"2015-06-02T12:27:01","date_gmt":"2015-06-02T17:27:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/?p=11605"},"modified":"2015-06-03T05:46:51","modified_gmt":"2015-06-03T10:46:51","slug":"changing-the-homecomingprom-titles-to-gender-neutral-titles-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/?p=11605","title":{"rendered":"Changing the Homecoming\/Prom Titles to Gender Neutral Titles"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Juniors Eric Burch and Daniel Johnson attended Plymouth High School’s 2015 prom together. Photo contributed by: Daniel Johnson<\/p><\/div>\n

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By Jay Brown<\/p>\n

There are students at Plymouth High School who believe that the Homecoming\/Prom titles could be changed to gender neutral titles. Junior Stacy Diaz said, \u201cI feel like it would be an amazing opportunity to include the LGBT into homecoming\/prom so that it shows that we, as PHS, are a very loving and supportive school.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Changing Homecoming\/Prom titles would allow all students to feel included in the selection. Sophomore Ashley Liggins said, \u201c[The titles] should be changed to something more equal that has both meanings to it because if not then people will start saying that Plymouth High School is against the LGBT community.\u201d Freshman Class President Leah Smith believes that it is vital to include all of PHS’s students, making sure that everybody feels welcome. Ms. Stephanie Wezeman, PGSA advisor (Plymouth Gay Straight Alliance) said, \u201cI believe that whatever creates the most inclusive and least restrictive environment for students on the full spectrum of gender identity is the right thing to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

The LGBT+ community may feel even more welcome into homecoming\/prom.\u00a0 Freshman Aiden Miller said, \u201cChanging the Homecoming\/Prom titles would make LGBT students at PHS feel more accepted. It would also normalize homosexual relationships and transgenders.\u201d Junior Hope Barrow believes that not only would the LGBT+ community feel more accepted, but their self esteem would skyrocket. \u201cPeople wouldn’t feel a sense of dysphoria or self-hate. We would also be helping the community become more open minded, and at the same time, we could be educating the community!\u201d<\/p>\n

PHS students have reasons why these titles would be a positive change for the school. Diaz said, \u201cI seriously think that this is an amazing idea, because it shows that the LGBT community wants to be noticed, without sexuality intervening in voting. If the school were to hold such a supportive event I’m sure Plymouth would be recognized for showing love to those who may be seen as outcasts.\u201d Miller said, \u201cChanging the titles normalizes the LGBT community which causes a ripple effect. One small action of acceptance motivates others to make changes and soon being transgender, homosexual, or asexual will not be a big deal anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms. Samantha Schwartz, one of the junior class sponsors said, \u201cI would love to see this happen. I think the idea of changing the titles is a good one, especially if it is done well and appropriately explained. This allows students to feel comfortable being nominated for those roles. Although, I would want to make sure that people understand what these roles represent and that they are actually designed to make all people feel comfortable and not just one group.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not every student agrees on changing the titles. Juniors Hayley Brown and Ty Irwin believe that the titles should stay the same. Irwin goes as far as to claim that \u201cthere wouldn\u2019t be any benefits.\u201d Brown said that \u201c[people are] still going to view themselves as a gender. If they are born a girl but like to be known as a boy then they would just run for prince, not princess. All people view themselves as a gender. If they don’t then are they an alien?\u201d However, Ms. Wezeman counters her by saying, \u201cThanks to significant medical research, we have long known that gender is not the strict binary (male\/female) that we have traditionally identified, but people fear what they do not understand.\u201d<\/p>\n

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One of PHS’s Prom Posters. Photo by: Jay Brown<\/p><\/div>\n

Both Brown and Irwin agree that changing the titles should not happen because of tradition. Brown said,\u201cIt’s tradition and it might seem disrespectful to some people to change it. It is tradition to have prince, princess, queen, and king. Yes I do support LGBT people but I don’t believe it should change because they can still run for what they want.\u00a0<\/span>\u201d Irwin said, \u201cNo [I would not change it], because they’ve been known as king and queen for a very long time.\u201d Smith isn’t sure what would be best, saying, “I want to make sure that everybody is comfortable which makes this hard.” She goes on to explain that she wants the LGBT+ community to feel more comfortable in these social events but doesn’t want to make anybody else feel uncomfortable. However, Miller said, \u201cAccepting people for who they are is more important than tradition. We change traditions all the time and no one flips out, what’s different about this change?\u201d Junior Amber Gonzalez said, \u201cI think it’s more important to accept people for who they are because you can not hurt people by changing traditions, but people get hurt if they are not accepted.\u201d Art teacher Ms. Haley Church, said, \u201cI appreciate tradition but I\u2019m not stuck in the mud and opposed to change.\u201d She continues on to say, \u201cIt puts me in a tough position because I support my students but I also support my administration.\u201d Ms. Schwartz joined in, saying, \u201cI realize change is difficult for a lot of people and I do have to say that as the person in charge of prom nominations, I didn’t want to make changes in my first year for fear of making a mistake or making others uncomfortable. But I think with support from the student body to make a change in prom and homecoming naming would be a positive change for students who do not fit into the binary gender roles as is usually stated in prom king or prom queen.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are students who have contributed ideas about gender neutral titles. Miller said, \u201cI really like Homecoming Royalty as a new title.\u201d Freshman Nick Balkema joined in by saying, \u201cI would change [the current titles] to the Prom Champions.\u201d Ms. Schwartz also said, \u201cI would like to change the titles and I have ideas but I do not know if they would be better: perhaps Prom Regent or Prom Royalty or Prom Majesty as the roles. I would like to see students decide on what names of new roles they prefer so that the ones chosen are actually desired.\u201d Junior Katy Corsaw said, \u201cI would just change it to general “Homecoming\/Prom Court.”\u201d Corsaw continued on to say that it would make more sense for the two people, regardless of gender, with the most votes to win.<\/p>\n

Discussing the changing of Prom\/Homecoming titles may prompt various opinions. Diaz said, \u201cI feel like there would be some comments made but nothing that would actually get too serious.\u201d Barrow added on, \u201cHonestly, I don’t think they would change right away. However, I feel as if they would change over time, due to the changes in culture and people.\u201d Ms. Wezeman said, \u201cI think initially, at least, changing the titles would divide the community – in and out of the school – because change is challenging. I would expect major tension for a while – as Frederick Douglass so eloquently put it, \u2018If there is no struggle, there is no progress.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Change can\u00a0 affect some individuals either way. Ms. Church said, \u201cI don\u2019t necessarily feel swayed on, one side or the other.\u00a0 I\u2019m not against it at all. I don\u2019t think [changing the titles] will be the biggest deal in the world.\u201d Joining in, sophomore Jennifer Sayer, does not care either way, only saying, \u201cJust love everybody and don’t tear them down for anything. Be nice to people and love everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  By Jay Brown There are students at Plymouth High School who believe that the Homecoming\/Prom titles could be changed to gender neutral titles. Junior Stacy Diaz said, \u201cI feel like it would be an amazing opportunity to include the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":178,"featured_media":11119,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[67],"class_list":["post-11605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-school-news","tag-june-2015"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11605"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/178"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11605"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11605\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11671,"href":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11605\/revisions\/11671"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}