Penncrest AP Senior, Prom King, Track Star, and Gay Teen Advocate Makes National News

Student Council president, Prom King, six-time state medalist in track, AP scholar student, blogger and a gay teen advocate makes this senior standout amongst his peers.

Craig Cassey Jr. wasn’t voted Prom King and Student Council president for being "the popular kid" either. He says he’s worked hard throughout his high school career to include and accept everyone and said he thinks that is why his fellow classmates continue to choose him to represent Penncrest.

"I never woke up and didn’t want to go to school," Cassey says. "And I want everyone to feel that way. I want the people who are bullied to receive help and the people who do the bullying to be reprimanded."

Cassey, who will attend Georgetown University in the fall, was recently pushed into the national news spotlight when word got out that he was a gay Prom King and was interviewed on MSNBC.com.

Cassey says the experience was amazing but really it’s only one side of this well-rounded 19 year olds life.

"Being gay isn’t limiting," he says. "It’s a small portion of who you are and it’s been a gift."

Cassey first came out to his family about three years ago and says his experience was more of a gradual coming out process. He says by junior year of high school "everybody knew."

He says he didn’t post it loud and proud on Facebook that he was gay just to get the shock value.

"Out of shock, comes conflict," Cassey says, "so I worked it out on more of a one-on-one level."

But once word was out, Cassey says he felt nothing but acceptance.

"I can’t say everyone (agrees with my lifestyle) but I’ve never had any backlash and have never had any issues with the school’s administration or bullying or anything," he says. "(The school) works hard to prevent bullying and the teachers are active and don’t just stand on the sidelines waiting."

Cassey created a blog called, Craig’s Gay Word, about four months ago because he wanted to tell his story and experiences of being a gay teen who wasn’t just partying and being promiscuous.

He says he read other gay teen blogs and they were helpful to him but he wanted to be more authentic and also show the side of a gay athlete as well.

Cassey runs track and cross country for Penncrest. He’s also the captain for both teams. He runs in the 800 individual, 4x400 and 4x800 relays and has six state medals.

"I wanted to show the world more of a positive side," Cassey says. "Partying is not all a gay teen (or a teen for that matter) does."

He talked it out with his family and they were somewhat concerned about Cassey telling the world about his private business on the Internet but they agreed in the long run it would be a great opportunity and accomplishment.

"They are much more comfortable with it and happy with it now," he says. "They think it’s important and beneficial to people like me in the community."

Craig’s Gay Word has brought Cassey more than an outlet to express himself. Through the blog he met his boyfriend of four months, Carl Morelli.

Cassey says in order to build an online presence and spread the word about this blog he would go on gay teen forums and through Gay Straight Alliance, a national advocacy group and type of after-school club for teens, he met a friend who eventually introduced him to Morelli.

Morelli however was not by Cassey’s side when he received the honor of Prom King.

Cassey says after talking it out with his family it was decided that Morelli wouldn’t be Cassey’s Prom date.

He says he doesn’t regret the decision and felt it was a decision he needed to make so he and his family could all enjoy Prom and have a stress-free day.

Cassey shared his throne with Prom Queen Molly Mills who is a great friend of Cassey’s.

"She is by far the nicest girl in our grade," Cassey says.

Cassey actually missed the announcement that he was King because he was enjoying the night outside on the balcony of the Drexelbrook with friends. They called his name and his friends came rushing to find him.

After being crowned, Cassey and Mills took to the dance floor but Morelli wasn’t far away.

Before the "kind couple’s" celebratory dance was over Cassey’s friends had texted Morelli to tell him that his boyfriend was now Prom King.

"He congratulated me and said he wished he could have been there," Cassey says.

But the excitement didn’t stop there.

Cassey soon posted on his blog that he won Prom King and it was picked up by OutSports.com, then there was an article on a LGBT advocacy magazine and from there came the MSNBC.com interview.

(Editor's Note: Click here to read Cassey’s blog entry on Media Patch describing the experience.)

With all of his accomplishments Cassey stays humble and helpful and practices what he preaches about being a positive gay teen advocate.

He counsels gay teens through his blog, referrals and the Student Council National Conference. He’s helped teens in Pennsylvania, California and Arizona, he says.

"I give them proper support," Cassey says. "A lot of them live in rural areas so they lack the support groups. I help give them positive thinking strategies and help them to learn to accept themselves. But then being only in high school I work to connect them to true counselors in their area."

He says he finds counselors and experts to help the teens and their families more than he can.

"As long as they get the help they need that’s all that’s important," Cassey says.

Cassey will head off to Georgetown University in the fall where he says he’ll minor in Chinese for sure and either major in public policy or political science.

But there’s no doubt, no matter where Cassey is, Craig’s Gay Word will continue to spread.