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Gay high school eyes level field (Harvey Milk H.S. and sports teams)
New York Daily News ^ | Sept, 28 2003 | Michael O'Keeffe

Posted on 09/28/2003 8:14:15 AM PDT by mountaineer

Like thousands of New York City kids, Kimberly Howard loves basketball and dreams of playing on her high school team. The softspoken 17-year-old sips on a Sprite in a downtown Starbucks and talks about practicing with her brothers and sister on the court next to her Queens home.

"I played on teams when I was younger," says Howard. "But I've never had a chance to play on a high school team."

Howard acknowledges she's not just a typical kid obsessed with hoops. Born male, Howard takes hormones to become female, which, as she points out, raises a unique question:

"Will transgender students be able to play on the girls' teams?"

PSAL officials might have to answer that question soon: Howard's school, Harvey Milk High, the nation's first state-accredited school for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender students, hopes to field teams in the city's Public Schools Athletic League as soon as September 2004, according to assistant principal Alan Nolan.

"Eventually we need to be part of the PSAL," says Nolan, who is just getting a physical education program started at Harvey Milk. "There's a great interest from the students in competing in basketball, volleyball and other sports."

Gay advocates cheer Harvey Milk's decision and say the school's sports teams will help do for homosexual high school kids what Jackie Robinson did for African-Americans 50 years ago - break down barriers.

"What a great lesson it would be for a Harvey Milk kid to turn around and hit a three-point shot at the buzzer," says Cyd Zeigler of Outsports.com, a gay-oriented sports website. "Once you get on the field and you see someone kick a field goal or make a great catch, nothing else matters. Other kids will learn they're a lot more like them than they thought."

"When you see a bunch of kids playing basketball, it doesn't matter if they are black or white," agrees author and activist Billy Bean, who came out after playing outfield and first base with the Tigers, Dodgers and Padres from 1987 to 1995. "If you can play, you're accepted."

Nolan says Harvey Milk officials aren't interested in pushing gay pride or any other agenda; they simply want to give their students the same opportunities available to other city school kids, including offering a supportive environment to learn the teamwork, discipline and sense of achievement that sports can teach.

Nolan welcomes the interest; he says the school will need help with funding, coaching and facilities. "There's a lot of goodwill outside the school we will tap into," he says. "I'm confident we'll get the help we will need."

Like Jackie Robinson, the athletes at the nation's first openly gay high school will have to be thick-skinned - gay-bashing protesters came from as far away as California for Harvey Milk's first day of classes - and Cardozo basketball coach Ron Naclerio foresees parent protests and thinks some teams might even choose to forfeit games with a gay team.

"They better have good security," adds basketball recruiting expert Tom Konchalski. "They will take a tremendous amount of abuse from fans."

But other high school sports officials predict the controversy will fade quickly - and perhaps, they add, turn into acceptance, or at least a reluctant respect.

"All children, regardless of orientation, should be able to participate in athletics," says Martin Jacobson, the athletic director at Manhattan's Martin Luther King High School. "I would hope that a coach would use a game against a team from a gay high school as an opportunity to teach tolerance."

Harvey Milk High, founded in 1985 by the non-profit Hetrick-Martin Institute, received $3.2 million from the city Department of Education this summer to fund its transformation from a two-room program with 50 students to a full-fledged high school that will ultimately accommodate 170 kids. Nolan says 107 students are currently enrolled.

Hetrick-Martin spokeswoman Lenette Dorman declined to discuss plans for sports teams with the Daily News, saying school officials have been overwhelmed by the intensive press scrutiny and are wary of critical coverage.

But Nolan, in his first year as assistant principal at the East Village school, agreed to discuss the physical education curriculum he's developed and future plans for athletics.

Now that it's a state-accredited school, Harvey Milk students are required to pass health and physical education classes, Nolan says. School officials hope to use another downtown high school or college gym for volleyball and hoops; until then, they'll continue to clear the furniture from a class room where they'll conduct aerobics, yoga and martial arts classes.

"Right now, we're adapting to the fact there is no gym," Nolan says.

Harvey Milk caters to students who have been emotionally or physically abused at other schools, where locker rooms and gyms are prime real estate for bullies. For many Harvey Milk kids, gym was a class to cut. Howard says the phys ed teacher at her old school told her she didn't have to come to class. "It was like, 'We'll excuse you because you're gay,'" Howard says. "'You don't even have to show up.'"

As a result, many of Harvey Milk's students were gasping for air during their first phys ed classes, and Nolan says his students still complain that he's too hard on them. But he's delighted that those same kids are walking with a newfound swagger. "Their level of fitness has increased tremendously in three weeks," he says. "They have strength and flexibility they never had before. They're very proud of it."

(Excerpt) Read more at nydailynews.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events; US: New York
KEYWORDS: catholiclist; gay; genderiddisorder; hmhs; homosexual; homosexualagenda; prisoners; recruiting; sports
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Words fail me.
1 posted on 09/28/2003 8:14:15 AM PDT by mountaineer
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To: mountaineer
WHAT INCONCEIVABLY SICK DOCTOR WOULD GIVE FEMALE HORMONES TO A 17 YEAR OLD BOY!?
2 posted on 09/28/2003 8:21:43 AM PDT by jonascord (Don't bother to run, you'll only die tired...)
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NEW YORK, Sept. 8 — The first publicly funded school in the United States for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender teen-agers opened in New York Monday as a handful of protesters rallied across the street.

THERE WERE also demonstrations of support for the Harvey Milk High School. In front of the building, people cheered and held up banners such as “God made us Queer” on the first day of classes for the school named after a gay San Francisco politician assassinated in 1978.

The school, which for 20 years was funded privately and had just two classes, is now bankrolled jointly by the city education department and a gay rights youth advocacy group, the Hetrick-Martin Institute, a first for the United States.

When city officials announced in July that the school would open in the new academic year in September along with others for New York’s 1.1 million city-educated children, critics in the United States and overseas said creating a special school would not solve the larger problem of homophobia.

“I am offended because this school is only for a particular sexual orientation,” protester Reuben Israel said Monday. “I say it is discriminating ... these people say ’accept us for who we are’ but don’t accept anybody else.”

Some held up banners like “Sodomy It’s to Die For” and another that said, “Death Penalty for Fags.”

Rest of story: http://www.msnbc.com/news/963392.asp
3 posted on 09/28/2003 8:24:40 AM PDT by mountaineer
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To: jonascord
I wondered the same thing, and about his parents, too. This child needs psychological help.
4 posted on 09/28/2003 8:25:59 AM PDT by mountaineer
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To: mountaineer
"Ladybugs" starring Rodney Dangerfield.
5 posted on 09/28/2003 8:27:12 AM PDT by Maelstrom (To prevent misinterpretation or abuse of the Constitution:The Bill of Rights limits government power)
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To: mountaineer
"The softspoken 17-year-old ....[is] not just a typical kid obsessed with hoops. Born male, Howard takes hormones to become female..."

Who on this earth permits their child to undergo such a treatment? Whatever happened to "you'll outgrow it, dear." as a response. Instead of calling child protection services, the city is aiding and abbetting this pervserion.

And as to the question at hand, No "Kimberly" you don't get to play on the girl's team, not with your Y chromosome DNA.

When words fail you, come to me, mountaineer, I always got something to say.
6 posted on 09/28/2003 8:28:04 AM PDT by jocon307 (Moving to New Zealand soon (apologies to F. Zappa))
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To: mountaineer
parents need it more than the kid
7 posted on 09/28/2003 8:29:01 AM PDT by cyborg (dankie jou)
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To: mountaineer
Would "Roughing the Passer" be a hate crime?
8 posted on 09/28/2003 8:30:31 AM PDT by Mike Darancette (Por La Raza Mierda.)
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To: jocon307
Simple. The "female" teams play other male teams, the "male" teams play other female teams, and the "transgender" teams play with themselves.
9 posted on 09/28/2003 8:31:04 AM PDT by Andyman
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To: jonascord
WHAT INCONCEIVABLY SICK DOCTOR WOULD GIVE FEMALE HORMONES TO A 17 YEAR OLD BOY!?

One who likes feminine 17 year old boys, of course.

10 posted on 09/28/2003 8:31:10 AM PDT by dfrussell
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To: mountaineer
Make the school's teams compete in the local district's competitions. That would re-define the game, "Smear the Queer".
11 posted on 09/28/2003 8:41:50 AM PDT by SJSAMPLE
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To: dfrussell
What happened to "First, do no harm..."?
12 posted on 09/28/2003 8:43:04 AM PDT by jonascord (Don't bother to run, you'll only die tired...)
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To: mountaineer
Nolan welcomes the interest; he says the school will need help with funding, coaching and facilities.

I bet the NAMBLA team would LOVE to help out.

13 posted on 09/28/2003 8:52:57 AM PDT by JOE6PAK ("Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils."-Hector Berlioz)
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To: mountaineer
How do you get in Homo High....butt f**k the admittance administrator?

Oh, and on the football team. Gives new meaning to "tight end" and "wide receiver". BWAAHAAAHAAA.

14 posted on 09/28/2003 8:58:13 AM PDT by jslade
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To: mountaineer
All children, regardless of orientation,...

I must be getting old.

Orientation used to be something that you attended and not something that you posessed.

15 posted on 09/28/2003 9:00:17 AM PDT by Bob (http://www.TomMcClintock.com)
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To: jonascord
What sicko? a homosexual.
16 posted on 09/28/2003 9:03:45 AM PDT by longtermmemmory (Vote!)
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To: jonascord
I can't believe that it is legal. It certainly isn't ethical.
17 posted on 09/28/2003 9:04:57 AM PDT by ItisaReligionofPeace ((the original))
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To: jonascord
One that needs to have his mal-practice insurance carrier notified!.... They liability hole for this guy is gigantic.... Imagine sitting on a jury in a few years....

Plantiff..." I was confused this doctor told me I could become a woman..."

Planiff's attorney... " Dr. Soinso... tell me what gave you the medical and psychological authority to perscribe female hormones to a minor.... please describe how that was within your scope of practice...."
18 posted on 09/28/2003 9:10:09 AM PDT by Walkingfeather
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To: mountaineer
"Nolan says Harvey Milk officials aren't interested in pushing gay pride or any other agenda; they simply want to give their students the same opportunities available to other city school kids"

As usual, they think we're all stupid.
19 posted on 09/28/2003 9:17:54 AM PDT by philetus (Keep doing what you always do and you'll keep getting what you always get)
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To: jonascord
Almost certainly, the boy had obvious physical gender abnormalities, and wasn't a full-blown male to begin with.
20 posted on 09/28/2003 9:25:16 AM PDT by GovernmentShrinker
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