Elijah Crumpton poses for a photo before being crowned Richmond Senior High School 2024 prom king.
Multiple members of the Richmond County Community must wait until the next Richmond County Commissioners meeting to voice their concerns with comments a local representative made before Tuesday’s meeting.
Members of the group attended the most recent Richmond County Commissioners meeting in order to address what they describe as homophobic comments made by Commissioner Andy Grooms on Facebook.
“Elijah is an honor roll student. He deserves just as many privileges as the next kid … Andy Grooms, to be so blatantly hateful and allow so much hate to generate from one post, is troubling. It’s troubling we have someone like that running our county, but he was elected there,” said Jennifer Crumpton, whose son Elijah Crumpton was the subject of Grooms’ post. “This experience shows you that it’s important to vote. If you don’t vote, then you can’t speak to who is in a position of power in our community. We went to a county commissioners meeting right after this happened. He saw us there. A simple apology could have went a long way, but he chose not to. You have to be mindful what you say and what you do, especially when you are in a position of power and have people following you. Something so small could have turned into something so, so bad.”
Grooms’ comments came after he shared a post from the school district recognizing Elijah Crumpton after his classmates elected him as 2024 Richmond Senior High School prom king. Crumpton is gay, and identifies as a male. The only difference between his crowning and years past is he chose to wear a dress instead of a tuxedo.
“It’s to be expected, but from who is very disappointing. Have a conversation, have a laugh, but publicly, on a social media platform; it’s ridiculous because there were a lot of parents commenting on there as well,” Crumpton said. “It’s a lot of parents commenting on there as well. Our children go to school together. They could possibly be friends. Just to have so much hate toward someone for being who they choose to be unapologetically is just weird to me … When Andy shared the post, all he said was ‘The is sick.’ He literally kept that post up for maybe two hours, and it was hay-fire.”
Crumpton said he did not actively campaign to become prom king, nor did his crowning receive blowback from his classmates during the ceremony. He feels posts like Grooms may have a chilling effect throughout Richmond County’s LGBTQ+ community.
“I know a lot of people who are not out of the closet, and this could push them backward instead of forward. For people to be so hateful, this could effect other kids as well, just not me … For Andy Grooms and grownups to have such hateful opinions about me, it’s disheartening,” Elijah Crumpton said.
For Crumpton, however, he has no intent to remain silent.
“I always knew hate was very big in the LGBTQ (community), but this pushed me to speak out way more than I have already. There are a lot of ignorant people in this world. I’m not looking to change anybody’s mind, but more so be respectful to each and everyone,” Elijah Crumpton said. “If people show respect to everyone, then we will live in peace. That’s all we’re looking for is peace, and coexisting. That’s it. This shaped me to speak out more.”
For Jennifer Crumpton, she said she is proud of how her son handled the controversy, and hopes it can be a point of growth for the Richmond County community.
“You can say ‘I don’t agree with this.’ Not everybody is going to agree with it. It’s not what you choose to say but how you say it. It was just hateful. From those posts you got high school kids chiming in. You got other adults chiming in,” Jennifer Crumpton said. “They are threatening each other. They’re talking about each other’s family members, and this is coming from both sides. Something so simple turned so bad off of one post, shared by an elected official we put into office and trust. It’s crazy.”