Posted on 09/13/2003 5:53:26 AM PDT by ejdrapes
Gay high school in New York debuts to protests NEW YORK — For the vast majority of the 1.1 million students in the nation’s largest public school system, Monday, Sept. 8, was much like any other first day of school. But for the students at the world’s first public high school specifically designed for gay students, the day was anything but normal. Along with routine questions about new schoolrooms and textbooks, the students at Harvey Milk School had to run a gauntlet of protesters, counter-protesters, the media and public officials. Considering the recent furor over Milk School, it is probably not surprising that Rev. Fred Phelps of Kansas entered the fray. Phelps, who has gained notoriety from his hatred of gays and protested at the funeral of slain Wyoming student Mathew Shepard, brought a small group of conservative Christians to downtown Manhattan, where HMS is located. The protesters were met by gay activists and their allies, who numbered as many as 250 at various times throughout the day. The pro-HMS counter-protesters were held back from the entrance of the school’s building by a police barricade. The anti-HMS protesters were penned in across the street from their adversaries and arriving students. Both sides gathered around 7:30 a.m. to greet the students. There was a strong police presence throughout the day, along with several members of the media covering the event. The demonstrators shouted anti-gay, Christian messages about repentance and the eternal damnation awaiting “sodomites.” “I’m offended over having a sodomite school,” said Ruben Israel, a 43-year-old construction worker from Los Angeles. The self-identified “Bible-believer Christian” had anticipated demonstrating for the entire week. “I’m here to preach the Gospel, to turn to Jesus Christ.” Peter Reyes, supervisor of school safety at the New York Police Department, identified at least seven of the 10 Christian demonstrators as “Phelps people,” not from New York. Phelps himself apparently made an appearance as the children were arriving at school. “He pulled up in his limousine,” said Debra Smock, director of the school for four years. “He saw that his four people were going to be OK and pulled off.” Phelps was later involved in a demonstration against Sirius Satellite Radio, for its gay-themed Sirius OutQ programs, outside of the company’s broadcasting offices in Rockefeller Center in Midtown Manhattan. For 17-year-old Kimberly Howard, a student at the school for two years, the protesters did nothing to dissuade her. In many ways, Howard is probably representative of a public student who, without the school, would most likely not make it to graduation. “I decided to come to here to get my education, to focus straight,” Howard said. “I’m not worried about getting beat up.” Before the Milk School, Howard said she attended P.S. 157 in Jamaica, a working-class neighborhood in Queens. As a gender-variant student, Howard said she was tormented almost every day, called names like, “faggot” and “queer.” At that time, a public school administrator told her to “keep your head up.” After someone hit her, she said, she sought help at the Long Island Consultation Center in Rego Park, where a counselor referred her to the Milk School. “The majority of these kids would not have completed their education,” Smock said of her gay students. Thanks largely to the safety afforded by the Harvey Milk School, nearly 95 percent are expected to graduate and 60 percent are expected to go on to advanced programs or college, according to David Mensah, executive director of the Hetrick-Martin Institute, which has overseen HMS since its inception. The school is open to all public school students regardless of sexual orientation. State Sen. Rev. Ruben Diaz (D-Bronx) is suing the school along with the support of Michael Long, head of the Conservative Party of New York State, on the grounds that it is unconstitutional and discriminatory. In a very public show of support for the school by gay and straight artists, on Nov. 8, Yoko Ono, Cyndi Lauper, Rufus Wainwright, John Cameron Mitchell and other performers hope to raise $300,000 for the school at a concert at Roseland Ballroom.
Religious conservatives met by gay sympathizers
She left behind the kids with big ears, and the kids that smell badly but are all "hetero-oriented" to take all the harrassement.
Now she will have to be harrassed by "jock-homos" and "socialite-lesbi's".
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.