By Calvin Palmer
Homecoming queens are not what they used to be. Students at George Mason University have elected 22-year-old Ryan Allen as the school’s homecoming queen.
He attracted more votes than the two women who sought the title at the school in suburban Washington, D.C.
Allen, in his final year, entered the contest as his alias – drag queen Reann Ballslee and was suitably attired in a sequined top, black skirt, heels and wig when he was proclaimed the winner during half-time at Saturday’s sold-out basketball game against Northeastern at the Patriot Center.
“When they said ‘Ms Mason 2009 is Reann Ballslee,’ the crowd went wild,” Allen said. “It was one of the best feelings I’ve felt in a long time. I had so many friends supporting me.”
Allen, who is gay and performs at local nightclubs, said he entered as a joke.
But he added: “In the larger scheme of things, winning says so much about the university. We’re one of the most diverse campuses in the country, and . . . we celebrate that.”
Well, perhaps not everyone.
Electing a dude as homecoming queen is not the way to bolster pride, sophomore Grant Bollinger said. Mason was recently named the No. 1 national university to watch by U.S. News & World Report, he said — it should act like it.
“It’s really annoying,” said Bollinger, who works as an ambassador for the admissions office. “The game was on TV. Everyone was there. All eyes were on us. And we do something like this? It’s just stupid.”
One of the competitors Allen beat for the title may also not have been overjoyed.
A government and politics major from Chesapeake and a Chi Omega sorority member told the school newspaper she should win because “I have pride in Mason to the point where my towels are green and gold.”
Still, I bet those towels came in handing for wiping away the tears of disappointment.
No reports have yet been received of Fred Phelps and his daughter Shirley Phelps-Roper, of the Westboro Baptist Church, planning to picket George Mason University. But give them time. They are still in the process of trying to get their refund on their air tickets to Britain.
Phelps and his daughter were banned from entering the country because of their extreme anti-gay views. They are not welcome, not even by the Baptist Union of Britain, the Evangelical Alliance, The Methodist Church and the United Reform Church.
According to George Pitcher, in The Daily Telegraph, those churches joined together to say of the two representatives of Westboro Baptist Church: “Neither the style nor substance of their preaching expresses the historic, orthodox Christian faith.”
Praise the Lord and continue the condemnation.
[Based on reports by The Washington Post and newsday.com.]
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