There's something oddly retro, if not completely corny, about the L.A. Times' story of Sergio Garcia, the openly gay Fairfax High School senior who sought and won the title of prom queen. First, there's Fairfax High's proximity to West Hollywood, which has long provided an inspiration for the school's gay student body. (“Fairfax is where the girls are girls and so are the boys,” runs an old campus saw that dates back at least to the early 1970s.) Then again Garcia, the article notes, “is an aspiring choreographer and hairdresser.” This must be comforting even to Republicans, who are great believers in tradition. Even the theatrical pun of a self-proclaimed queen wishing to be a prom queen sounds quaintly old-fashioned.

The more the article's readers might try to focus on Proposition 8, Don't Ask/Don't Tell and other contemporary issues, the more Garcia brings them back to Roger De Bris, the director character in The Producers. Garcia, at least, promises he won't wear a dress — “I don't wish to be a girl,” he says, “I just wish to be myself.”

The feature, by Ari B. Bloomekatz, does record some dissenting views

among the feel-good, John Waters moments of diversity and acceptance.

One girl felt Garcia's victory deprived a female of the crown, and one

young man believed Garcia got the votes he did simply because students

wanted to see two men dance together at the prom.

“I'm not really happy about that,” says the senior. “He should've run for prom king.”

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