Transgender Student Runs for Prom King

Until she gets the surgery, she's a woman who lives like a man. Once she gets a surgery, she would henceforth be a man who lives like a man.

And if no surgery is availible...ruh roh!

Yes, but welcome to the wonderful world of etiquette and gender politics. A person born as a woman who chooses to live his life as a man is a man, and is referred to by the male pronoun. A person born as a man who chooses to live his life as a woman is a woman, and is referred to by the female pronoun.

It gets trickier when you talk about those people who are only trans at times -- drag queens and drag kings. When a man is in drag (and I'm speaking about people who do drag as a lifestyle choice, not fratboys who wear a dress for Halloween), the correct pronoun to use is 'she.'

In short, you use the pronoun to reflect the gender that the person is projecting. Tony Covarrubias (nee Cinthia) chooses to be seen as a man. The correct pronoun to use is the masculine one. What's in Tony/Cinthia's pants is irrelevant.

RegBarc: I'd suggest that the pronouns should refer to identity rather than biology.

Wrong pronoun throughout article.

How do we know that Cinthia, who "sometimes" identifies herself as Tony, didn't either (a) express a preference for the female pronoun or (b) express apathy towards which pronoun was used?

It seems, given that gender identity lies on a continuum, that it is ignorant to assume what her or his preference is without asking. Sure, it's possible that the AP writer got it wrong, but why is it not possible for a female that is transgender to not use the female pronoun? Seems to me the choice is up to the individual, not to those who seek to label them with their own view of the situation.

That's certainly possible, but I'm making my guess based on the phrasing of the article, and my good buddy Occam and his handy razor. I think in this case, to assume that in the case when an article about a transgender student who prefers to dress as a man, express himself as a man, name himself as a man, and run for his class's prom king uses the feminine pronoun to refer to him, the article is probably erroneous or the author uninformed, and to reach for the explanation that the student might maybe have requested to be referred to as female -- despite all the facts in evidence -- is tantamount to hearing hoofbeats and looking for a zebra.

Y'know?

My thoughts exactly, but you beat me to the post. How chauvinistic, Mr. Logan @_@

Ha -- yes. "I like lesbians, as long as they stay in my straight-boy-exciting porn where they belong!"

I think you folks are being unfair here. It is likely that Mr. Logan means he defends the concept of equal rights regardless of sexual or gender orientation, but that he also feels the process is somehow being mocked or disrupted. It's not difficult to see how this steps on the rights of the other nominees to expect this competition to be taken seriously. Admittedly, if you'll permit me to engage in some gender stereotyping, it's not too likely that the guys nominated here care very much about who wins. But imagine the reverse situation. Imagine a group of female students nominated for Prom Queen, only to see something some of them have been looking forward to for a long time turned into a media circus when a transvestite decides to compete. These young ladies would have a right to have this process respected, however much all of it may seem like a joke to many of us.

The point is that Mr. Logan most likely intends full respect for gay rights but nonetheless feels there is something categorically amiss. If anything, it is those here who can't resist jumping to stereotypical assumptions that Logan is indulging "hot lesbian" fantasies who are more guilty of narrow and all too common assumptions. The person who expresses opinions that cannot pass through your politically correct filters is not necessarily guilty of the thought crimes too many are so eager to assign. There is no perfect resolution to issues like this, especially outside of schools large enough to entertain separate competitions for both traditional and rainbow categories. As for this particular case, fine, err on the side of inclusion, but don't indulge in superficial assumptions to disparage those who don't happen to share what you take to be your more enlightened conclusions.

Fair points, all of them. Personally, I wouldn't have a problem with a female-identifying male student who wanted to run for prom queen, though...I recognize that some students might (and I recognize that high school students' opinions change as they get older, so I cut them plenty of slack).

I don't feel that a transgender female student running for prom king, or a transgender male student running for prom queen, makes a mockery of the process...because at the core, the process is an election. It is up to the students of the school who they want to have as their prom king/queen (at least, at some schools...at my school there was only a prom queen, and the prom king was whoever she took to the dance, but that's rather beside the point). If the majority of the students don't feel that a particular person -- for whatever reason, be it his looks, his personality, his clique, his reputation, or his physical gender -- shouldn't represent the student body as prom king, then they'll simply vote for someone else.

But you made valid points -- although the quote given in the article read, to some, as if the guy was saying that lesbians have their place, as long as it's staying where lesbians belong, he may have just phrased himself badly.

Aw, man, when did Fred Phelps sign up for Newsvine?