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

Annie Wise and Riley Loudermilk, two high school students from Kings Mill, Ohio, have been in a relationship for six months. The entire school supports them, and they were voted prom king and queen. Annie and Riley believe this is the first time an LGBTQ couple has received crowns in their district.

It goes without saying that the couple was very excited about this, and Wise described the moment: “My crown fell off, and it broke. There was a lot going on, but it’s something I’ll never forget. It was amazing.” Many say that this is merely a recognition of their popularity, but Annie and Riley believe it's much more than that. “I do hope it kind of just helps people realize that it’s OK to come out,” the prom queen told reporters.

However, some people were against a lesbian couple receiving 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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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.