A senior at Irondale High School in New Brighton was elected Homecoming King last week, the Pioneer Press reports. Charlie Baca celebrated with fellow students at the Homecoming game on Friday night and told the Pioneer Press that he hopes his accomplishment can help other LGBT students accomplish big things:

“I wanted to kind of help them by showing them that it’s not as scary as the stories they might have heard … that our culture nowadays has become more accepting,” Baca said… “It was just really euphoric because I’ve been trying so hard to make a difference this year as my senior year, and being crowned king is a really big step that I didn’t think I’d accomplish,” he said.

On Facebook, members of the Irondale High School community congratulated Baca. District parent Katie Grone Bowman wrote: “The best part? I have a daughter at the school, I was at the game last night. No one even talked about it. It’s really no big deal. Charlie won, he is liked and accepted and that is the story. The student body does not see this as anything that makes Irondale special or different it is simply who they are: accepting.”