Transgender student who won school's Homecoming King crown is dethroned because she is still a woman



Facebook protest: Michigan students have taken to the internet after Oakleigh Reed was stripped of the Homecoming King crown because she is still a woman

A transgender student who won her school Homecoming King crown has been stripped of the title because she is still a woman.

Oakleigh Reed, who was born as Oakleigh Marie, but now wants to be a man and calls herself Oakleigh Marshall, was thrilled when fellow students voted her into first place.

But school bosses in Muskegon, Michigan took the 17-year-old's title away because they say that the crown has to be won by a man.

On Oakleigh’s enrollment form the student is listed as a woman and this bars her from the title, they claim.

Friends have now started a Facebook page calling for Oakliegh to be reinstated and she is considering appealing their decision.

The case has brought into focus the thorny issue of gender politics in schools and left her family appalled that a individuals’ right to self-determination has been taken away.

Oakleigh has struggled with her gender for many years and after extensive counselling plans to have a sex-swap operation at the age of 18 to become a man.

She has already cut her hair short and wears jeans and polo shirts in an effort to look much like any other teenage boy.

Oakleigh entered the Homecoming King competition with minimal effort and just one day’s campaigning on Facebook.

Affirmation: Oakleigh, above with a friend in an image taken from Facebook, is due to have a sex-swap operation next year

'Oak is my king': Oakleigh has the support of students who have protested the decision

She said that on the day itself Mona Shores High School in Muskegon, Michigan did make a lot of concessions.

‘They let me wear a male tux for band uniform, and they're going to let me wear the male robe and cap for graduation,’ said Oakleigh.

‘I just said, 'Vote for me for Homecoming King.' I don't see why there's any reasons why someone who's different shouldn't be on court. I thought, 'Hey, why not put myself out there? I have just as much qualifications as anyone else in the school.

‘I knew I had a lot of votes because people were telling me in the hallway, 'Hey, I voted for you, I voted for you.’’

But when it became clear that she has won the vote, the principal called Oakleigh into her office and said her votes would not be counted.

Initiative: The students have even come up with several T-shirt logos for the protest

‘They told me that they took me off because they had to invalidate all of my votes because I'm enrolled at Mona Shores as a female,’ Oakleigh said.

Oakleigh was happy with the support from classmates, but ‘sometimes it's nice to have something tangible,’ she said.



Friends rallied in support and urged Oakleigh to appeal to school bosses.

‘From what I heard Oakleigh should have won by a landslide,’ one friend said.



Her mother was furious.

‘He was voted for Homecoming King and, according to the votes, he should have been Homecoming King, and it's just sad, and it just breaks my heart that all these people all voted and it was taken away, it was completely taken away from him,’ she said.

School Assistant Superintendent Todd Geerlings that the issue was simple and that a boy had to be king and a girl had to be queen.



He added that in school records Oakleigh is still listed as a female.