High school elects male student as prom queen

Nasir Fleming, openly gay since 6th grade, was nominated for both prom king and queen at Danbury High School. He opted only to leave his name on the ballot for queen, as he wanted the opportunity to satirize gender rules in our society.

"At the end of the day, we all have a masculine side and a feminine side," noted Fleming. "So, what better way to show it than to run for a girl's title as queen?"

Fleming says the problem with America is we use proms to glorify how popular and how pretty someone is.

"So, when someone who's not ... the average prom queen, you know, a black person and a boy, it's like it's the end of the world," said Fleming.

The YouTube video of Fleming being announced as the winner had received nearly 50,000 hits as of Thursday evening. But, it is not a hit with everyone on social media. One woman wrote the title and video is "absolutely disgusting." And a man suggested the 17-year-old high honors student will "burn in hell."

"At first I was a little offended and then I realized if a 55-year-old is really commenting on my video, leaving these remarks, obviously they have nothing better to do in their life," said Fleming.

Some of the heat Fleming has received has been from the gay community.

"A lot of people are upset because they said I was feeding into stereotypes, which I completely disagree with because I don't think I'm the face of the gay community," the Manhattanville College bound student said.

Danbury High School's senior prom king said he would've danced with Nasir, but the DJ didn't allow it.

"Just seeing him up there doing his thing, being himself, I couldn't just not want to dance with him," said Rohit Das, the prom king. "I'd love to carry on the tradition no matter who it was."