Transgender teen told can’t run as prom king, only prom queen

Long gone are the days when school administrators biggest worries for high school graduation included keeping boys and girls at a "safe" distance, ensuring a lack of alcohol, and making sure the D.J. didn't play songs with profanity.

Here we are in 2013. Teachers now get to think about whether a transgender boy should be allowed to run as prom king.

"I've always known I was different. I knew I wasn't like the other kids," says 18-year-old Issak Wolfe of Red Lion Senior High School in Pennsylvania.

Wolfe identifies as a male, but was born a female. And when he discovered that after campaigning to run for prom king he was listed by school officials to run as prom queen instead, he was notably upset, reports York Daily Record.

His female birth name, Sierra Stambaugh, was put on the prom queen list.

Also see: American women's university, Smith College, rejects transgender applicant

"For a transgendered person, it is degrading to have that, and I wasn't even warned," says Wolfe, who claims he got permission in advance from the prom committee to run as prom king.

After speaking with a guidance counsellor he was told it was principal Mark Shue who made the decision to switch Wolfe's name and role.

"I wish he made a more progressive decision," Wolfe's father, William Stambaugh, tells York Daily Record.

Wolfe has now contacted the American Civil Liberties Union, but says he wishes no ill will on Shue or the school district.

"I would like an apology, at a minimum,"Wolfe says. "I wasn't given a fair opportunity. I mean, if I don't win, I don't win ... but I'm not a queen."

Also see: Transgender child, 6, banned from bathroom

The issue of transgender students and their challenges navigating high school life has been a hot topic as of late, readily making news in all manner of stories, both in Canada and abroad.

Last July, an Ontario transgender teen girl was named prom queen at her high school in small town Trenton.

Earlier this month, a transgender Nova Scotia teen girl faced suspension at her rural high school in Milford Station for using the girls' bathroom.

Last November, a transgender teen boy from in Clarington, Ont. was told he couldn't use the boys' bathroom despite having half of the students at his high school sign a petition in favour of it.

And just this past Thursday, a Swedish high school announced it was opening a gender-neutral change room to accommodate transgender students.