Students at the College of William and Mary in Virginia have elected a transgender student as their homecoming queen.  Jessee Vasold, who uses the gender-neutral pronouns “ze” and “zir”, was chosen by popular vote of the student body.

William and Mary’s campus newspaper The Flat Hat gets Vasold’s response to the election:

“I’ve only had people congratulating me. I know that one of my friends was in a conversation with someone who didn’t think that it was fair that I was able to run, because I’m not female-bodied,” Vasold said. “But it generated a really good conversation, so they were able to talk about a lot of different things.”

For Vasold, the election of the College’s first transgender homecoming queen is a significant step forward for the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender community on campus.

“It’s definitely amazing that the students are in a really good position, in a really good spot on how they think about things,” Vasold said. “I think that it would be a good time to show student support on these issues.”