NYC's Gay High School

I'd agree with you. Seems a bit backward to say "we're normal!" but at the same time say "we need a special school!". It looks like it's one of those cases where it sounds like a good idea at first but the end result ends up being the exact opposite of what was intended.

Will they have a football team?

Cheerleaders?

What will the mascot be?

(*ouch*...what I'd say?!?)

The link says the school will specialize in computer tech, cooking and the arts - oy. Talk about a stereotype.

Can you imagine the outcry if there was a "Whites Only" high school supported by public funds? So what's the difference here?

This is sad actually - first gay men want to be treated as normal, and then they want to be segregated as someone different. I wish they can make up minds....

on the other hand, just imagine the dating oppurtunities

Well, this has been a long time coming, so to speak. The Harvey Milk Institute has existed in NYC since 1994 as a non-credit education and social center for gay people. The accredited school was always a long-term goal. I think a discussion of this subject would be incomplete without some background on the man who inspired the idea:

http://www.time.com/time/time100/heroes/profile/milk01.html

Jim, to be fair, whites don't get beat up for being white. At least, not in your average high school.

Unless of course, whites attend a predominantly Black high school, but that is a whole other can of worms.

That's not an average high school.

It states that it is for "gay, lesbian,.... and question youths". What would keep me from saying I'm a 'questioning youth' and getting into the school so I can get a higher quality of education? With only 100 students, it's sounds a bit privledged to me. What is the criteria? How do they go about proving someone's sexual orientation?

There was a time when people were seperated into schools by religion, race and income. It was called segregation then and it's still segregation. I have not heard about school riots because hetero and homosexual students are in the same school together. I know that crimes are commited against gay and lesbians in schools, and whites and blacks and asians and women and men and......

I really don't think having a seperate school is the best way to reinforce understanding and acceptance. It says "Wow, you're are so different from me you even have a special school!"


Just a note - the boy went to a predominately black high school right here in Cambridge. He did get into fights for because he was white. Anything that makes you 'different' makes you a target. It's not right, but it's not just a gay and lesbians issue, even now.

Reminds me of the time, when I did AIDS-prevention:

quite a lot gays, who apostrophed that, were dressed like in the worst prejusticed and abusive cartoons

Hmmm.

I don't see the harm. It's not saying "All gay youths must be segregated into their own schools." This is for a pretty tiny number. There are all-black charter schools, all-girl schools, etc. This one makes sense to me. There are studies about how being removed from sources of everyday stress greatly increase mental aptitude -- something recently about blacks and whites in the workplace.

I don't think they can legally require "proof", but I also think that's why they put "questioning" in there, so if some straight kids want to go, fine. I can't really imagine that straight kids will be breaking down the doors, and if they join specifically to make trouble, I'm sure that'd be dealt with like any other discipline problem.

I think the whole "normal" thing is kind of beside the point. They can be "normal" and still get harrassed, wrongly. And they totally do. (Can look up harrassment/ suicide rates.) While being treated as if they are normal is a valid goal, and total segregation won't achieve it, 100 youths at a time feeling safe and comfortable at their school just doesn't bother me much.

Very true. But people of every race, color, creed and sexual orientation get beat up for "being a dork", wearing glasses, wearing the wrong types of shoes, etc..

I just have an overall aversion to the idea of seperating people into little groups when we're supposed to be working towards making it one big homogenous society.

What happened to the calls for diversity? Is this another form of AA?

Are we working toward making it one big homogenous society? Everyone looking the same, talking the same, acting the same?

I guess my bias here is deaf schools. I have made the "yes I know segregation sucks, BUT..." argument to many superintendents, grantors, etc. For deaf kids, it's a language and culture thing. Being isolated with an interpreter vs. a rich language environment. Also the fact that deaf kids usually have hearing parents, and therefore have a sense of family, belonging, and culture among their deaf peers. There are parallels to the gay and lesbian experience.

Again, I don't this should be done everywhere. But 100 kids...?

Soz, it is not the question of numbers. It is the question of a setting a precedent !!

It's not new, though. There is one in San Francisco that I've been trying to find. This was already happening in ~1989, when I was in high school. (A friend was thinking of going.)

The realities are different in 2003 compared to 1989. Dont you think so ?

OK the article does say this, which I guess is the difference:



Let me ask this -- there are publicly funded girls-only schools, and black-only schools, and have been for years and years and years. What do you guys think about them? What precedent was set there?