What’s Wrong with the Harvey Milk High School? (Cathryn Crawford)

Washington Dispatch ^ | September 12, 2003 | Cathryn Crawford

[Scenic Sounds]

I grew up thinking that segregation was over, done with, a thing of the past, but apparently I was mistaken. It seems that we have a new form of segregation here in the United States. The Harvey Milk High School in New York City underwent 3.2 million dollars in renovations this summer and has opened now as the first ever taxpayer funded school for gays and lesbians. It’s been around for twenty years as an “alternative program”, but now it’s an official public school, and it’s expected to have 170 students by September 2004.

NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg thinks it’s a wonderful idea, which is not surprising coming from someone who once said that he “…couldn’t understand why anyone would carry a gun; guns kill people…” His take on Harvey Milk: "It lets them (gays and lesbians) get an education without having to worry. It solves a discipline problem. And from a pedagogical point of view, this administration — and previous administrations — have thought it was a good idea and we'll continue with that."

It’s an interesting perspective. Here we have a school that is founded and based solely on the basis of the student’s sexual orientation. There is no pretense of academics playing a role in who is admitted – you simply have to be a gay, lesbian, transgender – in other words, you have to be something other than a homophobic (because you know, we all are) straight person.

The reasoning behind the school is that many gay and lesbians are made fun of and ridiculed for their lifestyle choices – and I’m sure that’s true. Just like I was made fun of because I wore different colored socks every day to school when I was in high school. That was a lifestyle choice, too, and I didn’t ask for a school where I would only be with other people who were colorblind. That seems ridiculous. Somehow, however, people don’t find this idea ridiculous – despite the fact that this is a public school which is allowing segregation based strictly on one aspect of the student’s life – an aspect that has nothing to do with education. It smells putridly of racial segregation – and members of both sides, blacks and whites, supported that segregation, just as gays and lesbians and straights support this segregation.

My question is –what is next? Will New York next create individual public schools based on things like religion or race in order to keep kids from being made fun of? Are we going to see all Christian or all Muslim or all Hispanic schools? It’s a distinct possibility, because our government has a nature that is ravenously hungry for power. When you give it an inch, as the saying goes, it takes a mile. If you set a precedent that says that it’s all right to segregate children for their sexual orientation, it is going to inevitably lead to other things, because that is the very nature of our government. That’s why there are limits and laws – that’s why we have a Constitution. If we allow this to happen in this one small school in New York City – if we allow the government to fund segregation yet again – we are taking the first step backwards on a long road that we were beginning to near the end of. Is it worth it?

Cathryn Crawford is a student at the University of Texas. She can be reached with comment at feedback@washingtondispatch.com.

[E.G.C.]

BTTT!!!!!!

[Scenic Sounds]

Another very nicely argued and well written piece, Cathryn.

You're still the best, young lady. ;-)

[Willie Green]

What’s Wrong with the Harvey Milk High School?

Filthy restrooms.

Lawmakers send Davis bill requiring clean school restrooms

[Mark17]

My question is –what is next?

That is the first thing that came to my mind also.

[Mark17]

Maybe they should hand out instruction manuals and condoms too.

The odds are that they do this every day at this school.

[optimistically_conservative]

Nicely done CC, thanks for the ping SS.

[Cathryn Crawford]

They spent $3.2 million on this school over the summer to renovate it. Was there not an inner city school that could have used those millions to improve their school(s) instead of using it to encourage segregation?

[aculeus]

What’s Wrong with the Harvey Milk High School?

Poor football prospects. Too many wide receivers, not enough tight ends.

[MHGinTN]

Could they not have taken a segment within an already operating school, to set up this 'pilot project' designed to give special treatment to these 'special students'? I'm sorry, but this sort of insane liebral bilge is so typical of democrat mutation of our society. Look at what the democrat CA legislature has done! They have voted to give tuition to illegal aliens ... they have robbed the CA taxpayer and created an entitlement program for illegals in the hope that these now dependent aliens will vote them back into control of the tax dollars! And the stupid Kalifornians don't get it yet!! This socialist societal engineering is merely typical democrat methodology and now it's spilling over into Pubby thinking. We are in a whole lot of deep doodoo if the liebralisation trend continues.

[honeygrl]

Great article! Not only is this a new type of segregation, it's also encouraging teens to be sexually active.

But hey.. on the bright side: I bet the school will have a low (or non-existent) teen pregnancy rate.

[marron]

Individual citizenship, color-blind citizenship, equal before a law that is blind to your personal circumstances, once you stray from this principle anything becomes possible.

We all count ourselves as members of one group or another, but the law must be blind to this. Our citizenship must be independent of this, or liberty as we know it erodes, corrodes, crumbles. And is gone.

[honeygrl]

"There already are private Christian schools. A public Christian school is an impossibility, when the government believes that the separation of church and state is a valid argument for removing prayer from the schools. "

But I wouldn't be surprised if they started a public muslim, pagan, or athiest school. Oh wait.. they are already athiest..

[Scenic Sounds]

Individual citizenship, color-blind citizenship, equal before a law that is blind to your personal circumstances, once you stray from this principle anything becomes possible.

I tend to agree with you on that, but we've never really tried too hard to honor that "principle" when it comes to public education. Every state has made a commitment to provide public education to all kids, but by organizing and providing that education through small, local school districts, states have been able to usually provide greater than average levels of resources to students in wealthy school districts. "Personal circumstances" (at least in the form of where a student's parents happen to live) can play a major role in what kind of public education a state affords to a student.

[jmc813]

Just like I was made fun of because I wore different colored socks every day to school when I was in high school.

Dork.

[Cathryn Crawford]

Here's an interesting email I got:

Ms. Crawford,

Lady, you're too deluded for words.

Look, I'm a gay man who adhores the bitter, self-absorbed and unsatisfiable radicals on the gay left. I'm leery of the creation of the Harvey Milk school, because it fosters and perpetuates this kind of identity politics in youngsters who really need to understand that there's a whole big world out there beyond their genitals. So there we agree. But when you start in with that preposterous canard about how being gay is a "lifestyle choice", and then compare it to choosing to your wear different colored socks in high school, I have to conclude that I'm dealing with a genuinely stunted mind.

I knew my sexual orientation when I was 15. Nobody coerced me, nobody propagandized me, (this was in 1970, please note) and nobody molested and in so doing "recruited" me. I was well aware of society's and my peers' view of homosexuality, and believe me, if I could have changed my sexuality as easily as you changed your socks (Mother of God, what a thimble-witted comparison!!) I would have: Anything to get away from the torment. Please understand, what I went through was no great trial in the annals of human suffering. That's one reason why I don't care for the self-dramatizing of the professional faggots. We all have our crosses to bear, and mine wasn't all that big. But seeing you trot out that hoary, nonesensical charge that gayness is a just a lifestyle choice make me conclude that your skills as a public thinker are not nearly as well developed as you imagine.

Carlton Casey

[marron]

I suspect there are several causes for homosexuality, my memory of the changes I observed in some of my acquaintenances during adolescence leads me to believe that there is an element of choice, there are personality factors, elements of family history or family dynamics, some fairly obvious and some more difficult to isolate.

The problem is that investigating the roots of it is now off-limits. Getting people to discuss it frankly would be difficult enough, but in the present climate I doubt anyone is going to tackle the project.

[UnklGene]

lifestyle choices – and I’m sure that’s true. Just like I was made fun of because I wore different colored socks every day to school when I was in high school.

Different colored socks? You were weird, Cathryn!

[Scenic Sounds]

Well, it seems to me that there are two completely independent issues here - one concerning why gay people are gay and one concerning the best way to educate those who are gay. While there does exist that stubborn nature/nurture issue (LOL), I don't see how the resolution of that issue would dictate any particular opinion concerning the desireablity of maintaining a separate school for gay kids.

So, although it does seem that this fella has some pretty strong feelings about the development of his sexual preference, he seems to agree with you on the main point of your piece - that segregation of gay students is poor policy.

In retrospect, it almost seems inevitable that someone would come along and feel the need to take issue with that one minor part of your column, Cathryn. I guess you just can't please everyone. ;-)

[UnklGene]

You certainly gave Calton Casey a "wedgie."

[Cathryn Crawford]

He must not agree with me. I'm too deluded for words, I have a stunted mind, I'm thimble-witted, and my skills as a public speaker are under-developed. How could he agree with someone like me? :-)