UPDATED::Transgender homecoming queen Landon Patterson of Oak Park High is honored to be in national spotlight | The Kansas City Star

UPDATE::  10/6/2015 - How kewl is this!!

Watch as WBC is driven away, in record time, from the school where they decided to protest the election of a Transgender woman as Homecoming Queen. Long Live the Queen!

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What a marvelous story presented by writer, Lisa Gutierrez.  Landon's family as well as the school should be applauded,,,

“I was tired of hiding who I was and wearing a dress was what would make me feel like myself.”

Even though she had “built up a scenario” in her head, not one person said anything mean or cruel to her, a supportive school environment that continues for her today.

“When I came out as trans I was so afraid that I was expecting a lot of hate, but surprisingly there wasn’t much at all,” she told Buzzfeed. “There was some here and there but it was stuff that was never said to my face.”

When she told her mom that she wanted to live life as a girl they started working with counselors to guide them through the transition. Patterson began hormone therapy but prefers to keep other details of her transition private.
Then came the issue of her cheerleading uniform.

Patterson has cheered all four years at Oak Park. Her freshman and sophomore years, and part of her junior year, she cheered as a boy on the school’s co-ed squad. But she hated wearing the pants and top of the guy’s uniforms. “I felt so ugly,” she said.

She was afraid to tell her cheerleading coach about her transition. “I didn’t want to let anyone down,” she said. “I started crying because I was overwhelmed. But she said she knew this conversation was coming. She just didn’t know when.”

Her coach and school officials worked with the Missouri State High School Athletic Association to iron out particulars such as which bathroom and locker room she would use when she cheered.

The toughest part for Patterson, though, was waiting to hear whether she could wear the girls’ cheer uniform — the skirt, the bow in the hair.

In May, the cheer squad appeared at a T-Bones game “and I got to wear it,” she said. “It was just so exciting. And I felt so pretty. And I finally felt complete.”

Transgender homecoming queen Landon Patterson of Oak Park High is honored to be in national spotlight | The Kansas City Star