The transgender 16-year-old who was named Homecoming Queen at her Southern California high school cried tears of joy when her name was announced on Friday. But by the weekend, she was shedding unhappy tears after fielding vicious, "negative and ignorant" remarks from those both inside her conservative Orange County community and from bigoted commenters online.
Cassidy Lynn Campbell was named Homecoming queen of Marina High School in Huntington Beach, Calif., on Friday. Cambell beat out four other students to earn the crown. At the time, she told NBC Los Angeles she was "so proud to win this, not just for me, but for everyone out there and for every kid -- transgender, gay, straight, black, white, Mexican, Asian." Campbell's mother told the Los Angeles Times she was "amazed" and "so proud" of her daughter's victory.
But in a video posted to her YouTube channel Saturday, Cambell said she was fed up with the bigoted backlash to her victory, which motivated online commenters to reject her gender identity, use transphobic slurs, and invalidate her win.
"Why is it that I fucking won homecoming queen but I'm not happy?" Campbell cries in her almost nine-minute video. "I'm so sad, I'm so distraught and so broken down and so upset and so deteriorated and so tired of the world."
In the text published along with her video, Campbell says she is "usually a very strong and confident person, but I have my moments, too. Although there was a lot of positive feedback, there was a lot of negative, too, and the negative affected me more than it ever has before."
In the video below, Campbell talks about how the "judgmental," "mean," and "ignorant" comments she's endured on social media have impacted her mood and, understandably, wounded her pride.