Ohio High School Students Voted Lesbian Couple as Prom King and Queen, and It Made Some Parents Enraged

Annie Wise and Riley Loudermilk never expected their prom night to turn into a local flashpoint. The Kings Mill, Ohio high school students had been dating for six months, and when their classmates voted them prom king and queen, the moment quickly spread far beyond the gym.

For Annie and Riley, the crowns felt like more than a popularity contest, they saw it as a sign of support for an LGBTQ couple in a small school district. But once the photos hit Facebook, the praise came with a wave of backlash, and the reaction from some parents only made the story bigger.

What started as a sweet prom win soon turned into a heated debate about tradition, identity, and who gets to wear the crowns.

Annie and Riley, the 18-year-old lesbian couple, didn’t expect to be voted Kings High School’s prom king and queen

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The local school district shared a photo of Annie and Riley on their official Facebook page, and it quickly went viral, garnering more than 4.8k likes and 2.4k comments. Sadly, not all comments were positive.

Annie and Riley have been dating for half a year, and they hope that this honor “just helps people realize that it’s OK to come out”

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NBC News reports that the school district had to delete the negative comments. The two girls stated that many of those unpleasant comments implied that they “need Jesus,” while others believed that a prom king must be a man.

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The fury spiraled out of control during the following school board meeting, where one parent expressed her anger about the king and queen being LGBTQ. “Sorry, but I believe that there are still two genders, a male and a female,” WLWT5 news reports. Fox19 reports that another parent at the meeting said: “I think tradition stands for a queen that has a vagina, a king that has a penis and testicles.”

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For more “who gets invited” backlash, see the bride debating whether to cut off her grandparents over outdated marriage views.

These homophobic comments didn't affect the school board's decision. Dawn Goulding, a community relations coordinator for the school district, commented on the matter: "This is solely a Kings High School senior class nominated and voted-on initiative."

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One week after prom, an unnamed parent organized a school meeting where she protested against the decision to nominate the LGBTQ couple

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Nasty comments soon came flooding in

But many people showed support for the young couple.

Prom drama like Annie and Riley’s is wild, but check out an AITA mom who excluded parents from her wedding after they disowned her for coming out.