kinda OT :: Gay HS in NYC/ Queer Eye mention of Regis and Kelly- Page 2

Posted: 7/30/03 at 3:10pm

I loved Bang Bang You're Dead as well. I cried! I want to produce this play sometime soon.

P.S. - I saw Randy Harrison on the street! He was wearing a white t-shirt and blue jeans. It was between Lafayette and 2nd Avenue. Soooooooooo awesome. His hair is still long

[CapnHook]

Posted: 7/30/03 at 3:17pm

I did BBYD (the play) twice. I was Josh in a production then I student directed another. The movie is SO MUCH better than the play.

[TheaterBaby]

Posted: 7/30/03 at 3:28pm

This is not completely the same as segregation. No one is saying that a gay person cannot attend a regular school, they are just giving them another option for school. They still have only Catholic schools, only Jewish schools for those people to go to if they so choose. It doesn't mean that because they are Catholic, Jewish, Gay, whatever that they can't go to public or private school as opposed to a school that caters to their specific religion or sexuality.

[Dollypop]

Posted: 7/30/03 at 5:21pm

How are they going to staff the new and expanded Harvey Milk School? I work for the NYC Dep't of Education and there was nothing on my job application about my sexual orientation. There haven't been any memos sent to us about job availability there, either. How will they know a teacher is gay?

Personally, I would love to teach at the Harvey Milk School. Sequins and glitter would be a happy alternative to the doo-rags and bling bling chains that populate my classroom at the Mecca of Education!!!!

[luluhed]

Posted: 7/30/03 at 5:54pm

I have been in the company of mostly gay people for over 22 years, and never was I aware of my gay friends being 'so different' that they would need their own school. Now are you claiming that yes indeed, gays are so different from straights outside the bedroom? I always thought the whole idea was to show stupid homophobes that there is no difference-we're all just PEOPLE.

Also, I have not been convinced that the teasing one gets for being gay is any more traumatic or harmful than that thrown at an obese student, or a too thin student, or a 'nerdy' student, etc. You get the picture. Those kids are just supposed to stay in the regular school and 'deal with it', right?

I taught in an inner city school just like NY for 25 years. I know what I saw.

[Dollypop]

Posted: 7/31/03 at 10:31pm

The homophobia I have experienced in the NYC classrooms is unbelievable. Please know that we are dealing with street kids with ghetto mentalities. Any young man with feminine characteristics is in great danger. Oddly enough, lesbians have a much better time of it in our school at least. The entire girl's basketball team consists of dykes and they openly walk down the halls with their arms around each other. With that in mind, I think the gay high school is needed in New York City. I hear of suburban schools where the students have inaugurated gay and lesbian alliances and great progress is being made in the area of tolerance. That's not the case in the school where I work.

I do not talk about my sexual orientation to my students. I am there to teach English, not sex ed. However, my students have picked up on my orientation and frequently harass me by shouting "homo" when they pass my classroom and writing threatening comments on the desks in my classroom. Please remember, these kids hold Mike Tyson and Eminem in great esteem. The only movies they see are slasher films and the only literature they read is NATIVE SON (if they read at all!) Their earphones blast that hateful rap music into their skulls and poison their minds about anything with an ounce of beauty. It is no place for a sensitive gay youth to grow up in. One boy had his collar bone broken when he was tossed into a mountain of shoveled snow by the football team who did it because he was gay. Is this the way "nerds" or overweight students are treated elsewhere?

Sex is extremely obvious where I work. The boys line the hallways between classes, eyeing the girls. When they see one they like they grab their crotches in a gesture of "manhood". They also brag about the number of babies they've made, but I doubt that any one of them contributes any child support. This is NOT the minority in my school. This is the way the MAJORITY of students behave. I find it deplorable.

Gay students need special attention. It is a great goal to put them in an environment where they can talk openly about their sexuality and have teachers who are role models for them. How I would love to work in that school and face my classes as an openly gay teacher!

The situation may be different outside New York City, but working in the NYC Public Schools is like working in the Blackboard Jungle. I can't wait to retire!

[PJ]

Posted: 7/31/03 at 10:49pm

Kids can be so cruel. I see it everyday at my high school and it honestly breaks my heart. I hate when people are called "fat" or "dork." For some reason it just really gets under my skin. Let alone someone harassing an openly gay student OR teacher. Who are those kids to judge anybody? Although I'm not sure if a seperate school is my choice in this debate, I do think students who are harassed do deserve the right to feel safe and comfortable in their environment. Free from harassment and ridicule.

[luluhed]

Posted: 7/31/03 at 11:30pm

There is almost no difference between NY schools and where I taught, which is Jersey City. And yes- I still maintain what I said about obese students, and others as well.

I have to admit that when I was in elementary school, there was one very heavy girl in our class. She probably was the heaviest kid in school. When I think back to the torture she endured due to the constant teasing, laughing, songs made up about her, being left out of everything, whispering behind her back, and laughing in front of her- and I was part of it! I wish I hadn't teased her-kids are cruel- her childhood must have been the ruination of her life.

I'd also like to add that there were plenty of openly gay students in my schools. Many of them were very popular with the general school population due to their winning personalities. I think that the kids I taught were much too street wise to be phased by a gay person. Some of my eighth graders were already parents themselves, some were on drugs, saw murders, had police records, etc. They had tough lives. Making fun of gays was not on their short lists.

I respect anyone's opinions, and this is only mine, but I still say that I thought the whole idea of educating the public about homosexuality was to underline that there is no difference. I'm not so sure that segregating groups of people is a good thing.

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 8/1/03 at 1:29am

It's not just the stuidents that harass either.
There was a recent case of a boy in Arkansa wher a boy was punished for saying that he was gay. They outed him to his parents, a teacher told him that he was an abobinashon to God, they made him read scripture that says how bad he is, etc.]
In Texas and many other areas where students have tried to begin gay-straight alliances, schools either try to deny just that group the right to meet or they suspend all clubs in order to prevent gay-straight alliances being formed.

In my own experience, I have horrible, leud things written about me and my sexuality on a wall at school and the administration said that they couldn't/wouldn't do anything about it and that was my own fault and that I brought it on myself.

It is just as much top protect these kids from some school officials as it is to protect them from some students.

People say how this isn't a solution to the problem. I do agree. Things need to be changed so that these schools aren't needed, but if they keep these kids safe NOW while they work on fixing things for tomorrow, I am all for it.

[jrb_actor]

Posted: 8/1/03 at 1:30am

It isn't segregation. It's for kids who are tired of being shoved into toilets and lockers for being gay. It's support for kids who are a large portion of the teen suicide rate. It's for kids who can't get a principal or teacher to protect them--whereas the obese kids and nerds aren't facing the condemnation of the religious/conservative right and can usually get help. It's just an alternative. The media has blown it way out of proportion--and are insane for thinking that it is a new school when it has been around for years. And anyone who thinks that those kids are getting a "gay education" are ridiculous.

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 8/1/03 at 1:32am

This school has been around from 1984. It is being hailed as a new school when all that is happening is that it is recieving more funding from tax payer dollars to expand to aid more students.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 8/1/03 at 8:46am

You did the hailing in the first post on this thread, no?

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 8/1/03 at 8:58am

Technically no. I stated what was stated on Live with Regis and Kelly concerning the school. They read the headlines on the air, and the headline said that it was a new school so that is what I included when discussing the conversation on the show.
I knew of the Harvey Milk School before this

[luluhed]

Posted: 8/1/03 at 9:02am

I think you are referring to the Harvey Milk school here in the Village as the one that's been around for so long. I was under the impression we were talking about an additional school.

Segregate means to set apart from the general population so I guess it is segregation.

Regardless of the religious right, or any other group you want to mention, obese and otherwise 'different' children are made to feel just as miserable as you say some gays are by people in general. It doesn't matter who is making them miserable, they're still getting the abuse. In fact, obese people of all ages are still discriminated against. It's the last group of people whom it seems 'safe' to ridicule. There are no laws against it. Anyway, my stand is that lots of students are teased and made miserable in school for a variety of reasons. No one's creating safe havens for them-they just have to deal.

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 8/1/03 at 9:10am

It is the Harvey Milk School. A lot of the press has been calling it a 'new' school. The only thing happening is that it is being expanded to include 100 students this year and 170 next.

I just read that there is a group religios twits who are sueing the school becasue it is recieving public funding saying how it is not deserving of public funding and stuff becasue of the school's 'agenda' and how not everyone agrees with the 'agenda' and how they are 'corrupting' our children. Mind you, these are the same people/groups who tax payer dollars for their 'Christian' schools that promote their 'agenda'. religious hypocrites. Organized religion, most of them, really scare me.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 8/1/03 at 9:37am

Really, broadwayguy, your almost-rabbinical "technically no" is enough to make a person LOL, as the young people claim to do on the web with alarming regularity, LOL. You started the thread, you hailed The Harvey Milk School as new, but you're acting like you are a web-based news portal that just collects the reportage of other people or organizations. In a sense, I guess, you are, since your posts are just paraphrased bits and pieces of info that you get from a wide variety of sources, reputable, irreputable, accurate and not. Why not start your own service like Excite?

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 8/1/03 at 9:43am

Like I said, my original post was about what was discussed/mentioned on the television show.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 8/1/03 at 9:45am

And like I said, if you are just going to rehash what other sources publish or air without doing any digging to check up on their claims, why not start your own internet portal?

[lass]

Posted: 8/1/03 at 12:00pm

My son completed his first year of sex ed class last year as a fifth grader at a private Catholic school in the midwest. Homosexuality was explained in the text and in the lecture attended by parents as another aspect of sexuality. Being somewhat sensitive to the issue, I was waiting for some protestation from another parent or a hint of disapproval from the teaching staff. I didn't pick up on that at all, much to my relief.

However, my son attended and did well in ballet classes until he was ten. He then asked to quit classes because he was teased about it at school. So now he doesn't take ballet anymore and says he misses it. I hope he picks it up again in high school when he gains more self-confidence.

Kids can be mean and insensitive. If a gay school is going to nurture learning and promote self-respect, it will achieve its purpose.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 8/1/03 at 12:36pm

When Joyce Hunter (an aquaintance and personal hero of mine) and the Hetrick-Martin Institute established the Harvey Milk School in the mid-'80s, it was a sanctuary for young people who had already or were seriously at-risk of dropping out because of the torment they endured from other students and teachers all because of who they were.

In general, these were not young people who could "pass" or blend in with the majority culture of the schools, as many of us were able to do when we were in school. These were very often runaways (or throwaways kicked out of their homes because they were gay or lesbian) who were seriously at risk of a number of social ills all because of the reactions of the dominant culture to who they were. These risks included and were not limited to: suicide, rape, drug addiction, violence, prostitution.

If you have an idea that young people chose the Harvey Milk School because they wanted to be in a homogenous culture, you are wrong. In most instances, the Harvey Milk School was their only hope for completing school and become productive adults.

[luluhed]

Posted: 8/1/03 at 2:38pm

Interesting.

[ErikJ972]

Posted: 8/1/03 at 3:12pm

Namo's right. The Harvey Milk School is basically a "last chance" place for these kids.
And Lulu...there is a difference between what happens with gay kids getting picked on compated to the obese kids etc. When's the last time an overweight kid got rejected by his own family and kicked out of his house because he was overweight. Many of these kids don't only have their life made into a living hell at school, but there family has also completely rejected them. I went on a job interview at Harvey Milk once and was told that a large number of students there were homeless or no longer living with their family. They were kicked out for being gay...

Posted: 8/1/03 at 3:19pm

Are you saying have a highschool for students who are gay?

Bad idea.

If you single the students out even more by giving them their own school it would make them an even bigger target to the outside students and homophobes.

People who love to hate and create violence hate when people segregate themselves and have small communites: ala the Jewish Community and Temple, Gays and Lesbian Centers, etc. Those are prime targets for violence. I'm not saying there is anything bad by having any community or center but if someone creates a school for gay students that might be a catastrophe in the making.

[ErikJ972]

Posted: 8/1/03 at 3:23pm

Rob...the school in NYC that people are talking about is not just a "school for gay people" it's a litte more complicated then that. Read the previos posts to get more of an idea. It's not like any kid that's gay can say I wanna go to the "gay school". It's more of a place where if the kids don't go here they're not going to go anywhere because they have been unable to make it in a "traditional" school.

Posted: 8/1/03 at 3:27pm

ok, i get ya, but still it is a secretly secluded school for gay students to take refuge. A bigger target than if they were just among a typical high school. But you know it ALL DEPENDS on the geographics of the school.

on the campus of Cal State Los Angeles there is a Fame type performing Arts High School and many of the students, both male and female, are gay. And few students within the school critisize them for being gay and all is well, and those students are free to express themselves, and are basically safer than in a typical school out here in LA. But it NYC everything does seem to be so condensed and concentrated into small areas where students cross paths of other students from rival schools.

I dunno maybe i'm getting overboard, and i know the topic has changed but a school for students to take refuge sounds wonderful, but also sounds wonderful for people to target their victims. Saldy.