BY STEVE ROTHAUS, srothaus@MiamiHerald.com
They’ve bullied and taunted her, calling her names and writing on her locker.
And now, the seniors at McFatter Technical High School have elected Andrew Viveros their 2011 prom queen.
“They called my name and I was in total shock,’’ said Andrew, a 17-year-old who was born male but has publicly presented herself as female for the last two years.
With her long wavy brown hair, Andrew wore a royal blue dress and got a fresh manicure for the Friday night dance.
Andrew, also known as Andii, plans to someday change her name to Andrea. She wanted to run for prom queen in order to show other transgender teens “it gets better.”
She ran against 14 others.
Andrew said some McFatter teens pleaded with school management not to allow her to run for queen.
“Many students have started a petition to have me removed from the ballot,” Andrew wrote last week in a Facebook message. “They also are outraged and say I am making a mockery of prom, because I am going in an evening gown.”
Last year, school officials suggested Andrew not dress as a female in class and to “tone it down,” she said.
“This year we got a new principal and she’s very supportive of me,” Andrew said, even encouraging her to run for prom queen. “She said “Stay in the running. Don’t back down for anything.’”
McFatter seniors who voted Friday night also chose a prom king: Juan Macias, a 17-year-old gay male senior.
Before the big night, Andrew’s father, Oscar Viveros, bought her a gown, shoes and makeup.
“My parents support me. They always have,” said Andrew, the oldest of four siblings.
“I’ve always loved him unconditionally,” said Oscar Viveros, who still uses male pronouns when talking about Andrew. “I’ve told my other kids, they have to support him. He thinks he’s a girl in a man’s body. In school, he hears this and that, but I’ve made sure in our house he’s free to act and do whatever makes him comfortable.”
Viveros, 46, a supervisor at a private garbage-collection company in Fort Lauderdale, said his co-workers aren’t as tolerant.
“I’ve got guys at work who say, ‘Oh, you didn’t beat him up?’’’ Viveros said. “I love him too much.”
Viveros said he and his wife, Bernadette, 42, view Andrew as a straight female.
“He doesn’t consider himself gay. He likes men. I understand that. He’s just in the wrong body,’’ said Viveros, who recalls a young Andrew wanting to try on Cinderella’s dress at Disney World.
“I’d tell him, ‘You’re a boy,’’’ Viveros said. “He’d try it on anyway. He was happy.”
Life as a transgender teen is a challenge, Andrew says.
Some McFatter students have taunted her, “but they know not to mess with me,” she said.
“I’ve filed bullying reports over and over again with people. I’ve had many incidents. People would call me ‘faggot.’ People would write on my locker, repeatedly.
“The looks you get going out, you have to deal with that. They are going to look at you because you’re different,” Andrew said. “Applying for jobs is hard. If you’re going to apply, you can’t be who you are.”
Andrew now plans to attend Broward College and get a degree in culinary arts management.
Oscar Viveros has advice for other parents with gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender children:
“Let them grow to be whatever they want to be, as long as they’re good,” Viveros said. “Let them blossom into whatever they want to be. Support them 100 percent.”
I'm astonished at the support and praise someone is getting because HE is choosing to be what HE is not! It is like someone choosing to lie verse tell the truth! It is a choice and unfortunately, HE is making the wrong choice. HE was born a male which is undeniable! For those of you that want to argue that, good luck! Find me a time and place in our history that simply doesn't state that fact when someone is born! We are born either Male of Female!
I can't help but feel for this young MAN for the lack of guidance in HIS life that has allowed HIM to get to this point! I hope at some point that someone that is close to HIM or in HIS life will give HIM the guidance HE needs!
Before any of you get in uproar, I will not be reading this post again so don't waste your time trying to argue or prove a point with me. I just read the article and wanted to say what needed to be said about this young MAN and HIS choices. May God bless you all!
Posted by: Scott | June 06, 2011 at 12:45 PM
I have been married to a transvestite for many, many years - if I could have figured out a way to leave him without putting my children on food stamps, I would have. His beatings of me because of his frustration over his cross dressing have not been worth it and I don't respect him anymore. I told him to never bring this "thing" into my home or I'd have him arrested. This "thing" has changed my sex life to zero - zilch - nada and has left its mark on me, one who thought she was marrying a MAN who would be her knight in shining armor. Check them out, women who are about to marry somebody who is supposed to be one sex or the other - they go out to "clubs" and I wonder, is he dancing? if he is, does he dance with a man, a gay man, another man dressed as a woman, or what? It is a paul that hangs over my head and I hate it. I hate what it has done to me, and my life, personally. My children know and won't talk about it - they say they sometimes try to picture him that way,
but then they have to stop and put it away as it is awful to them.
God have mercy on those who have been fooled into thinking they were marrying a MALE who doesn't know whether he wants to live as a MALE or FEMALE. I am not talking transgender, here, but that digusts me too.
Posted by: Kara Smith | June 06, 2011 at 01:56 PM
Is nothing sacred anymore?
Posted by: wendall | June 07, 2011 at 10:14 PM
How sad that we call what is wrong right! God did not create Adam and Steve. God loves the sinner, and we are misleading our children and not teaching them to revere the laws of God. Then we wonder why has God turned away from us. How many 911's, earthquakes, and plegues must come so we start living a life that would honor the God that this Nation has turned away from. It is heart breaking.
Posted by: anonymous | June 08, 2011 at 11:51 AM
Both of these perverted animals should have been kicked out of school.
Posted by: BillyBob | June 09, 2011 at 06:18 PM
McFatter Student - what you're doing is basing your (prom queen) vote on the character of the person. There's not a thing wrong or bad about that in fact it's one of the more mature comments this article evoked.
Now, it seems, 'Andii' is speaking out to help other teens who may be in turmoil so maybe she's matured a bit since prom.
peace out !
Posted by: Mick Koons | June 11, 2011 at 11:53 PM
Honestly,
Yes, this story has a pro on the LGBT community,
but
even so, just because someone is GAY, BY, LESBIAN, or TRANSGENDER, does not mean that they are a good person.
You should not get mad at people for sharing their opinion, you should not say someone is right, or someone is wrong.
And just because they are what ever they are, shouldn't mean that the get treated better then any other person.
She was once a he, and she got voted prom queen.
YAY! People recognize that it is okay,
but obviously from what people wrote,
it was a joke, it wasn't cus they liked her.
She obviously hurt some people like any other stereo typical teenage girl, that is all out there. She probably did annoy people, who doesn't?
It's highschool,
but what they are trying to say is, STOP PRAISING SOMEONE AND TREATING THEM LIKE THEY ARE A GOOD PERSON, WHEN THEY AREN'T. SO WHAT IF ANDII IS TRANSGENDER, IT DOESN'T MAKE HER A GOOD PERSON INSIDE.
But, again, this is a good thing for the LGBT.
Posted by: Highschool SUCKS | June 17, 2011 at 06:11 PM
Has anyone else noticed that all of the comments from anonymous McFatter student(s) have the same exact writing style, the same grammatical issues, the same points and the same agenda? The first set of them were all together consecutively so it was assumed those were all written by one bitter person. The subsequent ones read very much like someone defending their own previous points. I just had to point that out. Perhaps we don't need to refer to them as students. It may be one student bitter over one specific thing. It is even possible in this anonymous forum that it could be one overzealous person who is 64 years old who never met the current class and is simply pushing a campaign of defamation for his or her own anti-transgender agenda. That being pointed out, I agree with so many others here who state that 17 year olds are not perfect and countless (most?) prom queens are not nice people but simply the most photogenic in their class. In most schools it's usually a beauty contest plain and simple. The reason this particular case deserves attention is that this country needs more things like this hitting the media that can make questioning youth feel better about their own self-determinism.
Posted by: Jennifer | June 23, 2011 at 01:48 PM