“I felt really supported.”Īcceptance is difficult to measure or quantify. “Everyone in the stands was cheering,” she said later. When Berry looked up into the crowd, squinting through the Friday night lights, she said she felt joy.
Everyone saw Berry that night.Īnd she saw them, too. They roared their approval of their chosen queen, radiant with a megawatt smile and tight brown curls that cascaded around her crown. The packed football stands held the weight of Berry’s classmates and their families, many of whom had been evacuated as the fire reached into their neighborhoods. Dressed in slacks, a button-down shirt, bow tie and a rainbow belt, she was the first gay girl to receive the honor. In October, as flames from the Decker Fire lit up the mountainside above Salida High School in rural central Colorado, Zakiah Berry was named homecoming queen of 2019.