AMY SALISBURY
PRIDE STAFF WRITER

I can’t tell whether this university wants to have a homecoming celebration or not. Based on the limited school spirit and developing athletic department, one can’t really expect to enjoy any sort of traditional homecoming events. Enter King and Queen elections.

Yes. You get to witness the first Cal State San Marcos Homecoming King and Queen receive his and her crowns at the homecoming soccer game at noon on Oct. 1. On Thursday, Sept. 29, the top three candidates based on the results of an electronic ballot (currently live through today at csusm.edu/homecoming) will be announced at 12:30 p.m. during CougarFest according to campus announcements.

Each student is allowed one vote, so choose your top three candidates wisely. The student body nominated eight candidates for king and 11 for queen; students can read about the candidates’ reasons for running in short statements posted on the ballot.

The ballot interestingly makes a distinct separation between king and queen, perhaps because there are candidates of both genders running for both positions.

Jennifer Meneray and Arthur Silverstein are running for king and queen, respectively. Notice that I did indeed get my order of words correct: we have a female running for king and a male running for queen.

When I first discovered this nontraditional homecoming ballot, the first thought to enter my mind was something to the effect of, “Why haven’t I heard of this yet?”

“I could not care less,” senior Amanda Puckett said. “I’m happy they have free time,” Puckett continued, saying that homecoming is more of a distraction than anything.

Puckett’s statement bears validity with me, especially considering her choice word of “apathetic” when describing her feelings about homecoming in general.

“[Meneray and Silverstein] want people to question gender identity. They want voters to question why a king is a king and a queen is a queen,” Puckett said.

“Homecoming Kings are often looked at as people who take charge of things, who are leaders, who challenge injustice and encourage understanding of different identities,” Meneray said in her campaign statement, leading readers to believe that she is in the business of redefining who can fit that role.

“I did not nominate myself for homecoming court,” Meneray said in an email interview with me. The person who nominated Meneray only nominated her to run, but not for king or queen specifically. “To be honest and true to my personal identity and to support one of the communities I am part of, I knew that I had to run for king.”

I wondered why Meneray felt she could not be as effective of a leader if crowned as a queen. She responded, “Queen just doesn’t feel right to me, and I would hate to try and take on that label without identifying with it.”

The Pride asked Silverstein the same questions as Meneray, but he did not offer comment.

“I work with [Silverstein], the guy running for queen,” Brandon Torres said, junior and Psychology and Sociology major. “Arthur is more tongue-in-cheek about it—more on the comical side, like he’s saying, ‘Yeah, I’ll be queen’ “I think [Meneray’s] reasons for running are more political,” Torres continued.

“On campus I am very active in a variety of organizations that support social justice,” Meneray said in an interview. She is the president of the Women’s Studies Student Association and is a certified Sexual Assault/Domestic Violence advocate for the Women’s Resource Center in Oceanside.

Meneray continued to clarify her reasons for running as Homecoming King: “Does it have to do with the politics of the labels and how exclusive the labels are? Yes, it has a lot to do with the labels and how they normally distributed.”

Although Meneray has not run for homecoming court at any other institution, she did attend high school prom with her samesex partner. Although she said she has not experienced any negativity from CSUSM thus far about her choice to run as king, she did feel some resistance to expressing her lifestyle in high school. “People said we made a great couple, but our yearbook editors would not publish our prom picture in my yearbook since we were both women.”

Students on campus responded positively to the news of Silverstein’s and Meneray’s choices to run as queen and king. “I think times are changing. People are more accepting and I’m really happy about that,” sophomore and Kinesiology major Joanne Cayabyab said.

“I think it’s great,” Julio Zuniga, History and Political Science major, said. “We passed a barrier— broke down a wall.”

After talking with several students, I’ve come to conclude that while no one really cares about homecoming on this campus, people are happy that the university will allow students to express different lifestyles through the homecoming celebration. I can’t say that this means our university is more accepting than other universities; from my years on this campus, I’ve come to determine that CSUSM is a conservative institution that is quite concerned with maintaining a certain image. But, I won’t go there today.

It would appear that “not caring” is one of the first steps toward progress. Acceptance seems to create a positive blindness to social change—sort of that, “Oh, I didn’t notice” effect.

When I asked Torres why he thought people didn’t seem to react much to the news of Silverstein and Meneray, he responded quite appropriately: “Why should you?”

The Pride makes no claim to support or endorse one candidate over another.

Photo provided by Jennifer Meneray