Two and a half years of being out at a middle class
protestant high school and i was exhausted-everyone
knew i was gay, that i would fight back, and that i
found most of the student body insufferable. They were
the daughters and sons of oil execs and power company
bureaucrats, a BMW at 16 was not unheard of, and
everyone was rich and connected to the seats of power.
Being not only queer but poor, and pissed off about
being poor, made me deeply unpopular. I went to class
with a metis girl called Kendra, nice girl-smart and
funny, willing to fuck over those who did harm to her
circle-and i was part of her circle. I went to the
prom with her, because I wasn't shagging a boy at the
time, and because she was one of 4 people who wasn't
white, and it was well known that she was poor. I
liked her, and if the world was different, i could
imagine us as more than friends.
She dressed more butch than I did--in ripped up blue
jeans and old fashioned t shirts- almost as armour. We
both hadn't decided a thing, but sitting together in a
useless job prep course, hating ever minute until
grad--she looked over at me, smiled and said are you
going with anyone. I told her no--she asked wanna go
with me. We split the cost down the middle, assuming
that it was going to cost a fortune, and realizing
neither our parents nor us had it.
Prom date - being the nascent theory queen I was, I
was a bit worried about playing breeder and engaging
in heteronormative rituals. My parents dropped me off
at her house, and she was astounding, wearing a black
floor length dress found for ten dollars at value
village. We drove in her parents 20 year old minivan,
stopping at the gas station, where she pulled her gown
up and pumped fuel. We gossiped on the way there, sat
with a mother and a father and a sister and a brother,
drank bad wine, had rubber chicken, danced a bit to
some bad pop.
I wish i could say it was a waste of money and time,
but it wasn't, i had a good time. The key I think was
realizing that we didn't care--Kendra didn't give a
fuck if she went, I didn't give a fuck if I went. We
didn't expect to do any drunken bush parties or trash
hotels afterwards, and everyone in the hall knew that
I liked boys and that she was poor. To let them have
the victory of excluding us would have been worse then
not going at all.

submitted to an editor of queer prom stories