A transgender cheerleader at San Ysidro High School nearly became San Diego County’s first-ever transgender homecoming queen this Friday.
Violet Ri, 17, was born a boy but decided last year that she felt more comfortable being a girl and thus began the transition. According to local ABC News affiliate 10 News in San Diego, Ri started taking hormones in July.
Ri was reportedly one of five seniors that were in the running to be crowned as the queen. 10 Nes notes that the cheer club at her school nominated her as one of the contenders for the crown.
Ultimately, senior Pamela Guadiana was announced as the winner during halftime at Friday night’s football game.
Ri said she was not disheartened, and told NBC News affiliate in the region that she was “pretty impressed by the huge amount of support I’ve gotten” and insisted that she wants “to be an advocate because [the] trans youth [number] is growing.”
However, she did admit that she had imagined herself winning. “I see myself crying … an accepted girl, a successful girl,” Ri told CBS News.
This October, a student at California’s Denair High School became the first transgender teen in the small town. Breitbart News reported that Anry Fuentes, 19, made the cut on the Denair High cheerleading team this year after unsuccessfully trying out for the squad last year.
Also in October, California passed a new policy that uses taxpayer dollars to pay for sex change surgeries for trans inmates at Golden State’s prisons.
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