Trentonian Runs Story Suggesting Transgender Teen Didn’t Fairly Win Homecoming Queen
In DepthOn Friday, Jae Irizarry was elected homecoming queen of Trenton Central High School, making her the first transgender student in the city’s history to hold the title. Two days later, The Trentonian published a story written by Penny Ray questioning the validity of the results, reporting that “sources with intimate knowledge of activities at the school say the vote was a fraud.”
But who the sources were and how they received their information is unclear. In a version of their story updated Monday, Ray wrote:
A source who works at TCHS and asked to remain anonymous out of fear of retribution said the teacher who was in charge of the voting process for this year’s homecoming court failed to properly oversee the votes, which allowed students to stuff the ballot box as an alleged practical joke.
But other sources say the teacher was involved in stuffing the ballot box and did so because she wanted to “make history.”
Ray then includes a quote not from a TCHS staff member familiar with the voting process, but a concerned parent named Marie “Murf” Antionette, who said:
“We are not bashing the [transgender teen]; how [she] chooses to live [her] life is not our issue. But the teen is registered at the school as a male. So why was the teacher allowed to let this person compete with other females?”
That immensely helpful commentary was followed by more quotes from concerned parents speculating about the voter fraud and saying things like “allowing a transgender teen to be crowned queen sends a message to young girls that ‘they’re not good enough.’”