The Shawnee Mission East class of '08 loves its gay homecoming king

The rift with his mom took longer to heal. "We still had a relationship, but for me, it always felt a little part was just keeping us apart. It wasn't fun," he says. He admits that he wasn't mature enough to understand where she was coming from and that he over-reacted and misinterpreted her questions and actions as being anti-gay. During his freshman year, he hung out a lot with juniors and seniors and sometimes sneaked out of the house to meet his friends. He took umbrage at his mom's suggestions that he needed more friends his age as well as her attempts to enforce his curfew. "You never put these rules on Katie or Michael. I can't believe you're doing this to me!" he told her.

"We needed to get our cards on the table. And we did," he said.

At the dance, the 12 homecoming king candidates were introduced, and the announcer started counting down the five runners-up.

After the first runner-up was announced, he realized, "Oh, I haven't been called yet." He looked around, trying to figure out which of the remaining candidates was going to be the next king. He conveyed this to Sarah, who assured him again, "You're going to get it."

He felt nervous and reminded himself to calm down.

When the announcer read his name, he stood there, shocked. His heart kept racing. "You won!" Sarah screamed over the uproar from the crowd. She started jumping up and down and grabbed him.

There's no way I'm homecoming king. No way, he thought. Sarah helped him walk to the middle of the stage, where Laura Wetzel, the queen, crowned him and gave him a big hug. "That's awesome, Matthew!" she said.

Matthew's cheeks were red, and his face hurt from smiling so much. Looking out, he waved to his mom, who was jumping up and down. He saw Serena, perched on someone's shoulders, clapping and yelling loudly. He and Laura posed for pictures, and then they walked out of the gym with their court following.

Out in the hallway, he was mobbed by people congratulating him. His mom rushed up and started taking pictures. She knew how much he wanted to be nominated and how much his win meant. "I'm just so proud of you!" she said. He was a little surprised that she attended homecoming, but for the rest of senior year, she attended more events and games than before.

Matthew didn't realize just how many people he knew until they all congratulated him after his victory. In the meantime, James was overwhelmed. After meeting at least 20 people, he said, "I cannot believe how many people you know." After that night, he got a ton of Facebook.com friend requests.

Looking back, Matthew describes that night. "It was just," he says and then pauses, searching for the right words, "all happy."

Wherever he goes from here, the memory of homecoming will help carry him through: "It was the ultimate feeling of being accepted. I'll be going on now for the rest of my life having that experience. Everyone accepted me, so it's really cool."

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