By Isabelle Lee, Tori Luttrell, Andrea Silva, and Destiny Strand
This past homecoming, the class of 2020 made a progressive movement and crowned Jake Garner, a member of the LGBTQ+ community, as homecoming king. Jake Garner is a gay male who is very open about his sexual identity. When asked, “What made your confidence skyrocket?” he replied, “Basically, I just don’t care. I genuinely just don’t care about anything” [that people say about me]. He shared that during his sophomore year, he encountered an awakening that allowed him to proceed with confidence and be open about his identity to his peers. He explained one day, he just woke up, accepted his identity, and he learned to express himself with an assertive persona. When he was crowned homecoming king, he received an elated response from multiple crowds across multiple grade levels. Jake told us he knew he would receive a joyous cheer, but he was not expecting vulgar comments. Unfortunately, not everyone was supportive; however, he inspired and gathered positive responses from students he has never encountered before. Jake explained, “Some people I had right after winning homecoming, like literally ten minutes after I won, I got like 300 Snapchat notifications all just flooding in, and every single message I checked was either someone coming out to me, or they were telling me how they just came out to their parents over the phone just because I won. After winning homecoming, Jake began to notice the hashtags #notmyhocoking and #notmypromking, yet he decided to use that phrase for his prom king campaign. By using the phrase, #notmypromking, he mocked the idea of the derogatory comments he received. He essentially took charge of the hashtag. In order to gather multiple responses on how the students of Loganville High School felt about Jake’s win, we created a survey to be given to random students. The survey consisted of three choices for reactions to his win: Positive, Neutral, or Negative. The students were told to circle the emotion they felt, and they were asked to describe why they felt that emotion. Out of the students given a survey, sixty-five percent responded to Jake’s win positively, nineteen percent neutral, and sixteen percent were negative. On the bottom of each page, students could choose whether they would like to be named or left anonymous. One student who responded positively, Kai Hayes, a freshman, said “It was kind of surprising,” and as for Jake’s prom king campaign, he responded, “I feel like it would be a good representation of other people at this school.” Another student who responded positively on the survey remarked, “Because I am gay and trans and, I feel represented in a way.” Jake winning homecoming not only represented the LGBTQ+ community, but it also paved the way for further progression of Loganville High School. One specific advocate for this progression is Ms. Pohlel, who created the OPEN club for students to have a safe space to advocate for themselves and others. Ms. Pohlel explained that the idea for the OPEN club came from “some of the LHS students who were looking for a space to talk about issues of sexuality, race, and the marginalization that students experience by living outside the ‘mainstream’.” As an advocate for progression and representation, she was pleased to see many students celebrating Jake’s win, even saying that she felt the acceptance and love in the room. Although not everyone felt positively impacted by Jake’s win, his win has helped Loganville advanced greatly. Hopefully, LHS will continue to evolve into more mature ways of viewing the world.