Amy Bartner

amy.bartner@indystar.com

INDIANAPOLIS - Alan Belmont stood between the other North Central High School prom king finalists, waiting for the junior class student council president to announce the winner.

Belmont, a 17-year-old junior, stood a few inches taller than each of his opponents, decked in a brown tux jacket with black satin lapels and matching bow tie. There was a dramatic pause before Emma Burris emphatically articulated, "Alan Belmont!"

And then, the shrill screams of the crowd.

"It was honestly one of the most heartwarming feelings that I’ve ever felt," Belmont said. "Just to feel an audience of my peers and an audience of believers in progression, to hear that my peers were on the same page that I was was incredible and to know that there were juniors I hadn’t met yet who voted for me was incredible."

Because this race wasn't about popularity, Belmont said. It was about his message of raising awareness for people who are transgender.

"I want to help the T part of the acronym," he said. "People saw the cause that I was going for and supported that and supported the message."

Belmont is North Central's first transgender prom king, and he's hoping his story helps others.

During his campaign for prom king, a group of kids during lunch crossed out "king" and wrote "queen" on one of his "Al Belmont for prom king" posters. His reaction, though, wasn't one of shame or fear: He always had expected something like that to happen.

"I knew that there were going to be some people who weren't as accepting as others," he said. "I couldn’t let myself be depressed because if I did, I would let them know that they won, and I didn’t want them to have that."

So he posted a picture of the defaced flier to Instagram, captioning it with the reason he decided to run for prom king:

"Despite all the love and support I've received, there's still so much ignorance in the world. I want my trans friends to know that this is nothing but stupidity and hate."

The post was liked nearly 400 times and had dozens of comments, many from people he didn't know.

"It blew up," Belmont said, adding that he thought he had a chance of winning after that. "That was the hope, but I didn't want to get my hopes up."

Before starting at North Central, Belmont said he was in a "relatively sheltered" school with the same 60 kids from an early age. He was taunted as being a lesbian, though not out, in middle school.

"I wasn't really exposed to a lot," he said. "It's kind of interesting."

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But as a freshman at North Central, Belmont saw classmates who were proud and confident to be who they were. He joined the LGBT student group early in high school, and a transgender speaker came in one afternoon.

"I knew nothing about what being trans meant," he said. "Even though I was an advocate for the LGBT community, I never looked into what the T meant. I wasn’t out, but I was very open about being an advocate for gay people. It all kind of connected why I was super into it. I decided I should I stop convincing myself I was something I was not."

He remembers one trip to the movies with his mom, and he tucked his already-short hair into his hat to make it look even shorter.

"She said, 'Are you trying to be a boy?'" he said. "And I was like, 'No! Of course I'm not.' But in my mind, I was like 'maybe.'"

At 15, Belmont began transitioning. He changed his name to Alan, began using male pronouns and came out to his parents and friends.

"I never really had to come out as liking females; it was always kinda obvious," he said. "It was really interesting then to come into my identity as a guy."

Belmont identifies as a straight boy.

"That's a weird thing with sexuality terms," he said. "There are a lot of people who base their sexuality on biology."

It's becoming less uncommon for transgender teens, or kids even younger, to come out, said Kit Malone, transgender education and advocacy coordinator for the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana.

"You're seeing that teens and young adults are feeling more safe. We're seeing public opinion change enough and acceptance in their daily lives," she said. "It's not like the old days when you basically had to go into a witness protection program to transition."

Increased visibility of people who are transgender leads to more advocacy, understanding and acceptance, she said

"Now, independently of whatever minority characteristics you embody, you're seen as a whole person," Malone said. "A young man like Alan can become a prom king. That's what acceptance is, right? It means being able to have other characteristics of you recognized, that you're worthy of being prom king or you're a good athlete or a good business person. It's not just that you're a trans person who is able to survive."

North Central Principal Evans Branigan said no thought was given to Belmont being transgender in the prom court selection process, which was handled no differently this year than any other.

"My students give me cause for celebration every day through their support for one another," Branigan said in a statement. "This community takes pride in its diversity and willingness to stand behind one another."

Belmont hopes that someday transgender prom kings and queens will lose the "transgender" qualifier before the title and simply be crowned as prom king or queen.

"I'm very happy to be the first at my school. But it's bittersweet in that I'm the first, and that's incredible. But we haven't gotten there yet," he said. "I think it's going to pick up speed very quickly. I think that a lot of people agree that we should be created equally and treated."

Call IndyStar reporter Amy Bartner at (317) 444-6752. Follow her on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.