San Diego State abandons ‘king and queen’ names for homecoming, now called ‘royals’
San Diego State University has ended the longtime tradition of naming a homecoming “king” and “queen,” and 2015 will mark the first use of the gender-neutral term “royals,” the Daily Aztec campus newspaper reports.
As recently as last year SDSU named a homecoming “king” and “queen” during its annual football game, according to the university’s website.
Saturday when the Aztecs take on the University of Wyoming Cowboys, the Royal Court will end up with the “final two Royals,” the website adds. There was no statement on whether the final two “royals” will be one male and one female, or some other iteration of the LGBTQAAII spectrum.
photo Marcus Werthmann
“During the application process, candidates were allowed to select gender-neutral pronouns to identify themselves,” the Daily Aztec campus newspaper reports. “These gender-inclusive pronouns aim to dispel the common gender binary of categorizing people as solely masculine or feminine.”
“It’s just a case of the PC police feeling the need to screw with an all-American tradition under the façade of ‘progression,’” Jordan Dennison, chairman of the SDSU College Republicans, said Wednesday in an email to The College Fix. “Imagine all of the alumni at the game who are going to see that and wonder ‘what the hell was SDSU thinking?’”
But other students have voiced support for the decision.
“We are lucky to be on a campus that is really diverse, and so I think having systems in place that reflect the students on campus is a really positive thing,” SDSU Women’s Resource Center Coordinator Jessica Nare told the Daily Aztec. “The reality is we don’t live in a gender-binary system and so really recognizing that in a public way is really important and exciting.”
