The times they are a changin’, and this Salt Lake City high school could very well be the ambassador for LGBT support.

Maka Brown, an 18-year old student at Salt Lake City’s School of the Performing Arts, was happy when she was voted homecoming queen at her prom last month. At the same homecoming, the title of Prom King went to Jasper Clayton. Two perfectly normal teenagers living out their lives.

To some though, it was a proud moment. You see, Jasper is gay and Maka is transgender.

The fact that Maka and I won prom king and queen was really amazing. It made huge waves in the media. And everyone at our school was like, confused why it was in the news. No one had a second thought. It’s just normal.

The fact that the high school barely blinked is almost a miracle – Utah is a rather conservative state and Salt Lake City used to have “one of the most virulently homophobic school districts in the nation”.

It all started in 1995 and thanks can be given to Erin Wiser, who at the time was a 16-year old male who identified as a lesbian. Erin and his then girlfriend wanted to start a Gay-Straight Alliance club at their school but were faced with huge challenges. It got to a stage where the Salt Lake City school district wanted to “ban all extracurricular student clubs” so that Erin wouldn’t have his club.

Thankfully someone with an open mind thought this ridiculous and paved the way forward for the LGBT community in Utah.

But back to the prom king and queen:

There is hope.

[Source: The Daily Beast]