Also, additionally to Tony/Cinthia.

You may already know this, but just in case: you did not disappoint anyone in losing. Be proud for trying.
Mercedes | 04.25.07 - 8:07 am | #

I like how Giles says that Tony/Cinthia's identity is okay, as long as no one has to be confronted by it. Just stay in hiding all your life, and everything will be fine. At the very least, don't ever aspire to anything like "prom king," where anyone will have to see you. All trannies to the back of the bus.

Okay, I'm not usually this bitter, but some of the comments (both in the article and here) make my blood boil.

Changing the outward expression of gender is a slightly visible process. And for many of us, the decision is one of change or suicide. I wonder how many here would prefer the latter, so our changing wouldn't have to inconvenience them.

This is for the people who don't get it; the people who would say to me: "So you're, like, a guy, right?"

No. That's the point. I'm not male, my brain has never been male, and I have never been comfortable in this skin. This is just a body I wore, with a birth defect that I am now correcting. Transition is NOT about becoming somebody else, it is about no longer having to act, no longer having to be somebody else because of the body you were given. It is about finally being able to discover who you are, and let her (or him, in the case of transmen such as Tony/Cinthia) emerge. (Tony/Cinthia may not have decided one way or another, so I'm not pretending to speak for him/her with my example.)

There is some emerging research that indicates that there are a few probable biological causes of transsexuality. But somehow, I suspect that even if there is confirmation of this someday, the general thought will still always be that it's all in our head.

Sorry for making this a soapbox, Tony/Cinthia. And my condolences on the loss.
Mercedes | 04.25.07 - 7:40 am | #

Also, for anyone adamant in their belief in the hard duality of gender, you need to listen to this episode of This American Life
Bryan | 04.23.07 - 3:38 pm | #

"Life is very hard for teenagers as it is, maybe as an adult it would be different."

I am agog at the insensitivity and apparent self-centeredness that people are displaying in these comments.

Not being normal isn't a crime. Because you can identify with one gender and that's normal to you doesn't mean that everyone else can do the same.

I feel sorry for the children of the people commenting here. Your war cries against anything aberrant of your own stodgy thinking push your children toward a short-sighted tomorrow.
Bryan | 04.23.07 - 2:42 pm | #

I have never been so disappointed and so ashamed at the American population than I am right now. After reading all of these hateful comments, it just makes me sick. How can all of you sleep at night with these trashy mouths? She stood up for what she believed and what she felt was right. If you are so closed minded, why even read something like this? Grow up.

Power to you Cinithia!!!
Caitlin | 04.23.07 - 2:40 pm | #

...and FRESNO remains the laughing stock of California and the USA!
Mr Politically Correct | 04.23.07 - 2:13 pm | #

Zie has every right to do what zie did and I'm happy for zir. Furthermore, most people need education. Sex is one's body, gender (identity) is the mind. It's a pity zie didn't want, transgender rights could certainly use a shot like that, but I don't see it happening in my or zir lifetime.

Sure, it might be a little hard on other students to get use to the idea than genetically female person may be a man, but it's much worse on the transgendered person, zirself. People need to learn to change their categories of others, instead of being so arrogantly and hatefully either-or opinionated.

And yes, sex is "assigned" at birth, folks. Because there is the rare individual suffering from deformed genitalia whose sex is decided based on what surgery they're given.
Jack Dahln | 04.23.07 - 2:05 pm | #

I always thought a king was born with a penis?
Shay | 04.23.07 - 1:53 pm | #

Most of you people are right on.
I am a middle aged man, and I grew up around a lot of people. But I don't remember growing up around any girl who thought she was a man, or man who thought he was a lady (he would have just been known as a fag or queer, meaning weird).
This generation is way beyond weird, even the ones that aren't whacked, think it is normal.Let me tell you something,
IT IS NOT NORMAL...........
the good news...fags can't reproduce, unless they cheat.....AND THAT WOULD BE TOO WEIRD, THEY WOULD NEVER HURT THEIR PARTNER............go figure
Dennis | 04.23.07 - 1:46 pm | #

If this person's dillusion had to do with anything other than sex, it would be considered a mental disorders and doctors would be more than happy to perscribe all sorts of drugs and therapy to treat it. Additionally, because of abortion, homosexuality and femenism, liberals do not reproduce very many little liberals, That's why it's so important for them to get to our kids at school and indoctrinate them. Otherwise, their kind would die out in a few generations.
The Truth | 04.23.07 - 1:46 pm | #

It is not the conservative presence that makes its self known; it is the common sense presence that makes its self known. Embracing normality has nothing to do with hate. We are becoming a culture of freaks. Neither here nor there. Disturbed and confused minds are coddled, cultivated and celebrated. Children are targeted at younger and younger ages in hopes to confuse them. Cinthia Covarrubias is just another one of the “IN YOUR FACE” gay circus acts.
Linda | 04.23.07 - 12:53 pm | #

Yuck...
I feel like taking a shower after reading this article...
Yuck...
Roger | 04.23.07 - 12:46 pm | #

Nice liberal touch Denny Boyles. Sex is not "assigned at birth". It is given to everyone at the point of conception. Nice try to make it a clinical issue.
mark | 04.23.07 - 12:42 pm | #

First of all, I think that school should have been looking into why this GIRL was confused about HER gender. It is the fault of the parents that this girl is confused as to what she is.

Second, you are not assigned a gender, you are born with a gender. That is the dumbest sentence I have ever seen in an article. I think what should have been stated was what her parents chose to raise her as by which behavors they chose to reinforce.

Does she pee standing up? I don't think so. She does not have a penis.

Third, what irritates me is that transgender lifestyle is being taught in schools like it is normal and it is not. Most confused people in that category were most likely sexually abused as children and that is not being addressed.
mandi | 04.23.07 - 12:39 pm | #

I guarantee the school had little-to-no-choice. I guarantee it was "let me run or I'll sue "

Liberalism is getting out of control.
Thomas | 04.23.07 - 12:37 pm | #

The dike should just have continued her life quietly if she did not want to attract the attention of the press. But because she lost, now she doesn't want to face the music. Had she won, she would have been all over the papers smiling all the way.
Once more, homosexuals and lesbians are using an "in your face" attitude to affirm themselves, the reason more people are just getting disgusted with them.
I am against homosexuality but I respect the privacy of people as long as they don't flaunt their devious lifestyle to me. I have a nephew who is a homosexual; however he has the decency to be discreet and not try to impose his views. I do business with him and will continue as long as he respects that.
John | 04.23.07 - 12:36 pm | #

Despite the absurdity of a young girl running for prom king (isn't prom queen the more desirable postition anyway), and the danger of intergrating individualism and political correctness into society to the point that something as biologically natural as "gender" becomes the product of a "choice," I'm nonetheless shocked by the ignorant intolerance of some of the responses I've seen. Responses that are best characterized by Deana Giles' quote from the article, where she makes the point that she is not intolerant, only to go on and ask but why should the children have to be subject to this? She even had the audacity to say that "there's a time and place to make a stand," and the prom wasn't it.

What she's doing is simply relocating her own intolerance to the "innocent" children, saying "well I'm not intolerant, but why should the children have be tolerant?" It's ridiculous. I'm sure the situation at prom wasn't any weirder than half the stuff they've seen on Family Guy. So enough of the "won't someone please think of the children" charade.

The last statement further affirms her own intolerance, saying "I've got no problem with people making a stand, as long as its not somewhere where I have to listen."

This whole story is just stupid high school drama, but it has revealed some of the attributes of the discriminatory attitudes of people like Mrs. Giles. So perhaps we should all take a break from lashing out at occurances like this (no matter how absurd) and think about how we may be covering up our own intolerance. Because as long as we can be viewed as intolerant, then meaningless and imature actions such as those of Covarrubias in the name of "Individualism" and "Political Correctness" will appear justified.
Doug | 04.23.07 - 12:25 pm | #

"Transgender, a term for people whose gender identity or expression differs from the sex they were assigned at birth." Could you be anymore PC? Are you reading from their play book? Assigned? So our sex is assigned at birth. Well now I know, I was always wondering how that happened with my four kids, actually, some how the doctors knew well before the birth, something to do with the X and Y chromosome, DNA, genetics, external genitalia. You make it sound like some kind of clerical error.

I love the media; they just keep on digging that hole of irrelevancy. Keep up the good work your credibility is almost totally gone.
Anonymous | 04.23.07 - 12:20 pm | #

Twisted, twisted, twisted. It is the homosexual educators and activist in the schools confusing young children with the constant rant of, "it's normal to question your sexual identity". No it is not normal! Normal people are born a girl or boy and life goes on. People with abnormal thoughts or those that are bombarded with homosexual propaganda question their sexual identity. Get em' young! Get em' dumb!
Linda | 04.23.07 - 12:09 pm | #

liberalism is a mental disorder. liberalism is a mental disorder. liberalism is a mental disorder.
liberalism is a mental disorder.
liberalism is a mental disorder.
james c. bell | 04.23.07 - 11:33 am | #

Ah, the conservative presence makes itself known, answering the age-old question "Who would Jesus hate?" Words like freaks, nuts, queers, idiots. And of course, their opinions HAVE to be everyone's opinions, or they're not happy. What is so scary about a world that contains people who are different from you?
Jack Harkness | 04.23.07 - 11:15 am | #

I think she had every right to run. And her classmates had every right to vote or not to vote for her. Clearly she did not do this for publicity or she wouldn't have sent the cameras away or declined interviews. She is obviously standing up for who she believes she is, a transgendered individual. One student said," Girls are prom queens, boys are prom kings" but unfortunately, that's not the world we live in.

I am a straight, religious, mother of three. I think what is worse than her running for prom king is the nasty and hateful responses of others. Those opinions speak volumes about the individuals they come from and very little about Covarrubias and her actions.
Kate | 04.23.07 - 11:13 am | #

I sure hope reporters will continue to photograph and approach her and her famiy for some time to come. She want's to make some 'statement' by her behavior, but not have to face the consequences of it? You don't get a message out when you run from it. Constant denegration and belittlement to these walking freakshows helps deter these inappropriate jabs at society from happening in the first place when the people that want to trample the public morals and norms are made to account for their 'statements'
Robert | 04.23.07 - 11:02 am | #

I am so sick of this stuff about girls wanting to be prom kings and
guys wanting to be girls, I'm confused! I don't know who is who anymore!
ls jackson | 04.23.07 - 10:30 am | #

I think the Feds should look into the situation, as there may be civil rights violations here.
Acehigh | 04.23.07 - 10:28 am | #

GOOD! I'm glad IT lost. This "I don't know what sex I am" crap is getting waaaaay out of control. This is simply a lifestyle choice and that is all it is. Don't force your divient behavior on the rest of the world!
tmh | 04.23.07 - 9:59 am | #

This whole 'transgendered' thing is utterly insane. Exterior plumbing and chromosomes determine sex, it's not the result of some random 'assingnment' as if whether you have female body parts is the same as whether your locker is on the first floor or the second floor.

Moreover, for someone to deny the obvious about themselves while the media and school officials perpetuate the charade, is ridiculous. What if I decide that instead of a human I'm a dog or a tree? It makes as much sense. Saying I'm something that I'm clearly not does not change me into being something else.
DW | 04.23.07 - 9:49 am | #

I have never been more ashamed than I am right now of the American population. All of these comments on here are truly hateful, have you nothing better to do then belittle others? Please open your eyes and grow up. Power to you Cinthia for being yourself and standing up for what you believe in.
Caitlin | 04.23.07 - 9:20 am | #

I have a question--is she a transexual or a she-male?? The story never really said.
greg | 04.23.07 - 9:02 am | #

Why are we having "gender reassignment" forced on us? SHE is a girl... I am sick of trans gender, gay, lesbian, and homosexual being forced on us.
Doc | 04.23.07 - 8:59 am | #

"sex assigned at birth"???

That is one of the most laughable definitions I have ever heard. You are not "assigned" a sex. What a joke, as if an individual is arbitrarily "assigned" a sex when they are born, and then later discover what sex they are.

We are born men or women. It is that simple. And it is lamentable that people would choose to engage individuals who determine that the would rather live as a sex they are NOT by pretending that your gender is some sort of CHOICE.

The idea that our biology, hormones and chromosomes DON'T dictate our gender is akin to still believing the world is flat.

If you want to pretend to be a male, fine. But don't expect the rest of the world to pretend along with you OR to let you change the definition of gender by using words such as "assigned".

Your gender isn't "assigned" at birth. It is determined by your DNA as you develop in the womb. Webster's or PC speak can't defeat the power of your chromosomes.
Fred Doobs | 04.23.07 - 8:45 am | #

I think this is typical of the me generation. take the focus off of the group and place it on the individual. This girl had no business trying to be the prom king, she is, was and always will be a girl regardless of her sexual preference. A very sad statement of our society.
Gregg Arnold | 04.23.07 - 8:10 am | #

Deana Giles said it all... "Some things should be left as they are." It IS selfish of these people to push their own agendas into the mainstream. If they were TRULY comfortable, they'd not make a fuss. They're attempting to justify and rationalise their abnormality at the expense of the sensibilities of the normal.

Truly selfish...
Tamara J Lawson | 04.23.07 - 7:45 am | #

I like lesbians as much as the next guy (or gal), but either your a man or a woman. You can`t have it both ways. I hate when people have a gender of convenience.
Laurie | 04.23.07 - 7:36 am | #

How stupid. Some bull dyke lesbo wants to show the world that SHE can be prom king. Hey homo's these kinds of actions do NOT help your radical causes. Do us all a favor and get back in the closets. Normal people do not really accpet queers and we certainly do not accept freaks who think they were borm in the wrong body.
Jon | 04.23.07 - 7:23 am | #

Women can not be prom kings, men are KINGS, women are QUEENS that will never change and it's ignorant to think otherwise, "gay" or not!
eb | 04.23.07 - 7:03 am | #

women can not be prom KING, men are kings women are Queens that will never change it's ignorant to think otherwise
Anonymous | 04.23.07 - 7:01 am | #

In the origional story, this GIRL was depicted as a native of Mexico. Since it was not then stated that she was a naturalized citizen, I assume she isn't. It was also never mentioned that she and her family weren't Resident Aliens. Which probably means they aren't. The solution to this controversy is quite simple. DEPORT THEM.

It says a lot about how rediculous political correctness has become if it is in fact the case that they are illegal aliens, and are at the same time brazen enough to bring such a spotlight on themselves.

Am I the only one who noticed this ??
Markham E. Peery | 04.23.07 - 6:42 am | #

"... the sex they were assigned at birth." Is that what Denny Boyles believes. What an unusual thing to say. I believe that one's DNA and chromosomes determine sex, not some arbitrary assignment.
Archon | 04.23.07 - 6:32 am | #

Another filthy sodimite
Anonymous | 04.23.07 - 6:23 am | #

If a person is a homosexual, for whatever reason, that's their choice or affliction depending on one's view of it. It would be nice if they would keep their sexuality in the closet where it belongs. The constant effort to jam homosexuality down the throats (pun intended) of normal people is offensive and wearisome. A girl who is a lesbian and wants to avoid the label by becoming a boy is not a suitable candidate for prom king. Bravo to the students who didn't fall for her scam...especially in the queer State of California!
El gato | 04.23.07 - 6:10 am | #

When are people going to learn, some things can not and will not happen. A chimpanzee can not be president, a chimpanzee can not be a horse, it all seems pretty basic to those of us with a little more brains than GWB. When a school starts having elections for a transgender king and queen, THEN and only THEN will there be a chance for success for a self made trans gender to succeed.
bob graham las vegas | 04.23.07 - 6:07 am | #

Well, It lost...great parents it has that couldn't even impress a identiy on it while they were "raising" it. Too busy with their own lives to actualy raise their daughter. And imagine, getting a school official to carry their water for them to the media...Let's bend over backwards for a seriously confused person but ignore the struggling student that really needs some help to get thier life in order to go out and be a real contributing member of the human race...only on the left coast....
Ken | 04.23.07 - 5:47 am | #

"from the sex they were assigned at birth."

???


assigned? assigned? how about the sex that they were born with. how about saying that they were born one sex and, for some crazy reason, want to be another. how about that?
Steve Harris | 04.23.07 - 5:47 am | #

I find it idiotic that, on Friday, she/he was "glad to have broken the barrier" but, after she loses, she/he doesn't want cameras or interviews. If she/he was so proud, why can't she/he hold her head high when things don't go her/his way?
Chuck | 04.23.07 - 4:06 am | #

She's had her 15 minutes of fame. Her family has been given their lifetime of shame. Now, please! Back to the closet!
Rue | 04.23.07 - 3:48 am | #

This is absolutely disgusting. Giving these nuts attention is exactly what's wrong with the world. How humiliating it must have been to those other people who deserve to enjoy themselves. I'm sickened by this.
A Christian | 04.22.07 - 8:21 am | #

I also think it was wrong for the school to allow her to be one of the running for prom king. Whether she is transgender or not, she still is a female. Life is very hard for teenagers as it is, maybe as an adult it would be different.
Annette Calles | Homepage | 04.22.07 - 6:37 am | #