Derrek Lutz wears dress to prom, wins prom king

This story is a bit old, but too good not to share. Amidst all of the queer and gender non-conforming panic around prom season (remember Constance McMillen?), Derrek Lutz’s story was buried.
Derrek is a high school student in New Jersey who self-identifies as a crossdresser. While some folks have used crossdresser as a derrogatory term to refer to trans or gender non-conforming folks, there is a community of people who self-identify as crossdressers. This might mean they sometimes dress in clothes of the gender they weren’t assigned at birth. It doesn’t mean they are gay or queer necessarily. The most vocal part of the crossdressing community is male-assigned folks who dress as women.
Okay, gender 101 lesson over! Now back to Derrek’s story. When Derrek made it public that he planned to wear a dress to prom, the school administrators tried to claim it was against school policy. After some facebook hubbub, Derrek was allowed to go to prom in his chosen outfit and was even crowned prom king!
It’s sad that there is this kind of reaction to kids and their desires for gendered self-expression, but I think these stories and the attention they garner actually bring about positive change for folks in the gender non-conforming community. Derrek obviously had the support of his classmates, which is awesome.

Via Queerty