A transgender teenager in Cardigan, Wales has been chosen by her classmates as this year’s prom queen, describing it as “the best moment in her life”.
Lori Beynon—who is believed to be the first transgender prom queen in the UK—says she had no idea that all of her friends had voted for her.
“But when they called out my name it was amazing. It was quite scary walking up in front of everyone. It was probably the best moment of my life.
“Everyone was standing up and clapping. I didn’t feel like I was a girl – I felt like I was a queen.”
The 16-year-old says it was the first time she’d worn a “proper dress”. “I felt really nice I had fake tan on and I was really happy,” she says.
Lori says that being called ‘him’ and ‘he’ never “really felt real" to her.
“It always felt wrong. It was weird,” she says.
“As a kid I used to wear all my sister’s clothes. I used to put a towel on my head to pretend it was long hair.
“When I was about ten I searched on the internet for ‘I feel like I girl and I don’t know what to do’.
“I had no idea what it meant to be transgender then. I had no clue. I read lots of articles about it and watched a few documentaries.
“I knew that was me but I kept it inside for a really long time.”
The teenager came out to her mother when she was 13 via a text message because she was “too scared to tell her face to face.”
“I had done lots of research on it and I told her that I was 100 per cent sure that I wanted to do it – that I was transgender."
Her mother Sarah Young is an NHS health care support worker and has been supportive from the beginning. Lori is about to start hormone treatment and has been undergoing counselling at Gender Identity Development Service at London’s Tavistock Clinic.
Young says of her daughter: “I couldn’t be more proud of Lori.
“I’m not sure there’s been another transgender prom queen so I believe my daughter is the first.”
