Students at a high school near Erie, Pennsylvania, are standing firmly behind their homecoming queen after her election sparked a wave of anti-transgender backlash online.
Sammi, a transgender student at Fairview High School, was crowned homecoming queen during the school’s September 26 homecoming celebration after receiving the most votes from her fellow upperclassmen. But what should have been a joyful high school milestone quickly became the target of hateful social media posts from adults upset that a transgender girl had won the crown.
Her classmates, however, weren’t having it.
“Sammi was voted by the students, and some parents didn’t like that,” student Preston Johnson told Erie television station Your Erie. “I think that’s quite silly. The whole point of homecoming king and queen is the student votes. And we voted, and Sammi is our homecoming queen.”
The controversy began after news of Sammi’s election spread online, attracting attention from anti-LGBTQ+ social media accounts, including Libs of TikTok, which has millions of followers. The account’s operator, Chaya Raichik, posted about Sammi’s victory while misgendering the teenager and accusing the school of allowing a transgender student to take the crown from cisgender girls.
But the students who actually voted in the election had already made their choice.
Rather than allowing the online attacks to go unanswered, members of the Fairview school community organized a public show of support for Sammi.
According to Your Erie, a teacher helped organize a group to attend the Fairview School Board meeting on Monday, September 28, just two days after the homecoming dance. Dozens of students and supporters filled the meeting room, leaving standing room only.
Despite expectations that the meeting could draw heated public comments from both supporters and opponents of Sammi’s election, no one spoke against her during the meeting. One student addressed the board on behalf of those who had gathered to show their support.
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Fairview School District Superintendent Donald Stark also defended the student-led selection process and emphasized the district’s commitment to inclusion.
“Fairview School District has student-led festivities, homecoming being one of them. That includes the selection of homecoming court,” Stark told Your Erie. “We promote inclusion. That reflects our vision statement which emphasizes respecting and embracing the uniqueness of each individual in the pursuit of their personal success.”
Stark also urged people to remember that a real teenager was at the center of the controversy.
Speaking with the Centre Daily Times, he reminded critics that there is a young student on the receiving end of their comments who is still growing into the person she wants to become.
The outpouring of support in Fairview stands in sharp contrast to the hostility Sammi faced online. While strangers debated whether a transgender girl should be allowed to wear a homecoming crown, the students who knew her had already elected her to represent them.
The response also highlights the role that classmates and educators can play in creating supportive school environments for LGBTQ+ young people, particularly when those students become targets of public harassment.
In this case, students chose their homecoming queen through the same voting process used to select homecoming royalty. And when that decision drew national attention and hostility, members of their school community showed up to defend it.
The online backlash may have brought unwanted attention to Sammi’s homecoming celebration, but it didn’t change the outcome of the election.
Her classmates voted for her. She won. And when others challenged that decision, they stood by their queen.
