Transgender teen voted homecoming queen in Huntington Beach

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. (KABC) -- A transgender teen has been elected homecoming queen at a high school in Huntington Beach.

Friday was homecoming for the Marina High School Vikings. It was a big game for the football team, but the players weren't the only ones hoping to end the night victorious.

Cassidy Lynn Campbell was one of five students in the running for homecoming queen. She's the school's first transgender teen nominated to the court. Up until this year, she lived life as Lance Campbell.

A YouTube video of Campbell shows the transformation she makes daily in order to look how she feels inside. Fellow students have been supportive and many of them voted for Campbell to be this year's homecoming queen.

"I think it's really cool how we allowed her to run, and I just think it's a really good thing," said student Kelsey Callanan.

Campbell received the most votes to earn the crown -- a crown she didn't think was within reach, but now wears with her head held high.

"I wasn't doing this for me. I was doing this for so many others, so many others around the nation," said Campbell.

Her mother, Christine Campbell, is very proud.

"I never would have thought in my lifetime that I would see this. It's wonderful. She really did it," Christine Campbell said.

Cassidy Campbell says she has dealt with some negativity since she decided to run for homecoming queen. She says it's all fueled by ignorance.

"They think that I'm just a boy doing this for fun, and I'm just a boy dressing up as a girl and trying to win a crown when that is completely the opposite of what it is," she said. "I've always seen myself as a girl."

She hopes her courage will inspire other transgender teens to live life without hiding who they are.

"If this could help one child or more, or hundreds or thousands or millions, then it was more than worth it," she said.

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