Colo. Students Come Out In Support of Trans Homecoming Princess

Despite sharing a city with anti-LGBT group Focus on the Family, students at Colorado Springs' Sand Creek High School have expressed support for their elected Homecoming Princess, trans teen Scarlett Lenh, reports GLAAD.

Lenh, a 16-year-old junior, has experienced hurtful, transphobic comments from members of her conservative community after coming out last year and being allowed, in accordance with statewide policy, to use the girls' bathrooms and locker rooms. This week, she's encountered several students and parents upset about her appointment to Sand Creek's homecoming court.

But, Lenh told local outlet KDRO News, "For every one person that does not like what I'm doing, I know that there's 100 that support me." Indeed, Sand Creek High's school district and many students have come forward in support of trans-inclusive policies and of Lenh's crowning.

"I think you should be your own person and it's awesome they are letting Scarlett be her," Sand Creek student Shana Berhite told the Associated Press. "Be yourself. Don't be anything but yourself."

A second student added, "I'm fine with it. She can do whatever she wants. She's perfect the way she is."

The response to her win has been a defining one for Lenh, who once feared being out as a transgender woman. From initially never expecting to be nominated for the crown to accepting the honor in front of her junior class, Lenh shares that the whole experience has come to have a larger meaning for her.

"This is something I wanted to do since my freshman year," she told the Colorado Springs Gazette. "I want people to be themselves and not feel uncomfortable in their own body and mind."