- HAYWARD -- Girls rule Hayward
High School!
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- Proof is in the regal display at the school's annual
homecoming parade winding through downtown today.
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- Atop the senior class's float is one girl wearing a dress.
The other girl -- a pantsuit. Both waving and smiling. One is homecoming
queen. The other king.
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- "A lot of people didn't want to see us here, but
step back and make way for the royalties," said homecoming king Angela
Anthony, 17.
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- She and homecoming queen Iesha Miller, 17, affectionately
called "the terrible twos," are used to being different. Sophomore
year, they were the only ones wearing baggy pants with boxer shorts peeking
over the waistline. Everyone else wore pants tight.
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- Best friends since they were knee high, they do everything
together.
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- But the two girls both couldn't be queen, and they didn't
want to compete against each other, so Anthony went for king. "Some
things change. Why not change this?" said Miller.
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- Change, however, isn't always simple. The she-king created
a schoolwide debate over gender politics, raised questions about what makes
a "king" and unearthed prejudices no one thought were there,
students said.
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- Angela never meant to make a political statement. Her
running for homecoming king was a joke, hatched over giggles during lunch.
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- Then she did it. Angela won the most nomination votes,
defeating all her male competitors.
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- With only three nominees allowed, Angela took a spot
traditionally given to a senior boy. The senior class chose a king from
the three candidates.
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- "It's been a huge issue," teacher Trudi Hebert
said a few days after Anthony was nominated for king. "Obviously,
the king is traditionally the male position on a royalty court."
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- Chris Gradillas, 17, said he voted for Angela because
he thought a girl king was amusing.
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- "I've never seen that before," he said. "I
thought it was interesting."
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- Initially, senior Chris Eckert, who tried for king, didn't
like the idea of a girl running. He said each gender should have an equal
chance at the throne, a sentiment others share.
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- The next day he changed his mind.
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- "How do you know she doesn't identify with the male,
the king position?" he said. "I'm not saying Angela feels that
way. But she opened the door and all sorts of things came flooding through."
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- When Angela's nomination was questioned, student activist
groups adopted the cause.
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- "We felt that once a girl runs for king, it becomes
a gender issue," said teacher Mike Dwyer, co-adviser for Hayward High's
Gay and Straight Alliance. "As long as some people don't fit neat
definitions of gender, there's going to be gender inequality, gender discrimination,
sexism and heterosexism.
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- Hayward High has no rules defining the gender of homecoming
king and queen. Students and teachers consulted the dictionary, which suggests
a king is male.
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- Despite that definition, Principal Debra Calvin ruled
that Angela could try for king.
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- It wasn't all fun and giggles.
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- A few students called her a lesbian -- which she's not
-- and thought she pulled strings with her student government friends to
win a spot on the royal court.
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- Angela's friends in student government said cronyism
wasn't the only accusation. Racial undertones surfaced.
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- Students overheard others saying that black girls won
the crowns because black girls counted the votes. Miller and Angela are
both African American.
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- Despite some bruised feelings, they say relations are
better now.
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- "The school is not racist," said Eckert, who
overheard the comments. "The school is a mini society, and there's
racism in society."
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- Anthony pressed on because she realized that her running
for king was meaningful to gays on campus.
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- "People said, 'I appreciate what you're doing,'
That's when I realized it was bigger than me," she said. "I gave
them confidence to openly say, 'I'm gay.'"
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- Senior Saied Haddad, 17, said he wouldn't vote for a
female king, even if Anthony is his friend. He had male friends who were
going for the position.
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- "They were disappointed, not that they got beaten
by a girl, but (because) they had something taken away from them,"
he said.
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- He thinks a teenage boy couldn't try for homecoming queen
without facing worse ridicule than that which Anthony endured.
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- When Anthony won the title by a landslide, Haddad accepted
the majority decision.
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- "This is what the senior class chose. I really think
this is democracy over tradition," Haddad said.
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- - Elizabeth Schainbaum covers Cal State Hayward, Chabot
College and Hayward schools. Call her at (510) 293-2480 or e-mail eschainbaum@angnewspapers.com
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