All gay high school set to open in NYC

[Guest Slapnuts00]

No one is being forced to do anything. It's their choice. Im not saying I agree with it or anything.

Oh and you dont have to worry about others because no one in their right mind would want to attend the "gay" school if they aren't gay.

[Guest Lil Naitch]

My best friend is Bi (she's been in a stable, long relationship with a guy for almost 2 years now) and personally I think she'd HATE having to go to an all gay/bi school. I think the IDEA of a place were gay kids can go and not worry about being beaten up is good, but the EXECUTION is just terrible. Add on to that what Dames said, and you got on ATTROCIOUS idea, period.

 

OT- Dames, bring back the Tony pic. The board just isn't the same w/out Tony watching over it!

[Guest Slapnuts00]

Again you used the word "FORCED" no one is forced to do anything. Its a completely free choice. Its just an option. Anyone who wants to attend should be able to and anyone who doesn't want to can stay where they are.

[Guest Vern Gagne]

I don't think anyone's suggesting kids shouldn't get to decide if they attend this alternative school. People don't think a school like this should exist in the first place.

[Guest spiny norman]

I think what they are trying to do is quite admirable and they want to make a positive change to society, but it's not the best means to do it. There are some positive factors to this school, but I think it is outweighed by the negatives.

[Guest TheMikeSC]

I think what they are trying to do is quite admirable and they want to make a positive change to society, but it's not the best means to do it. There are some positive factors to this school, but I think it is outweighed by the negatives.

I imagine their school plays will be FANTASTIC!

-=Mike --- who can't even imagine what the uniforms would look like

[Guest JMA]

I think this separate school thing isn't needed. Homophobia is gradually being weeded out of our society. Soon it will be viewed the way racism is viewed by most people. And all the fundies in the world can't change it. They can try, but they will fail.

[Guest Vern Gagne]

I don't see that happening anytime soon. This country still has a large amount of people with a traditional sense of family values.

[Guest MissMattitude]

Just to add another argument against it, a lot of teenagers don't know what they are anyway. A hell of a lot will go through a phase where they think they might be gay or bi.

[ant_7000 0]

Im trying to petition to get a all Hip Hop school. . As for the gay school the harassment is going to be there regardless from fellow gay classmates anyway. Plus, it could set up discrimination when comes to when trying to get in certain colleges or jobs.

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

I think this separate school thing isn't needed. Homophobia is gradually being weeded out of our society. Soon it will be viewed the way racism is viewed by most people. And all the fundies in the world can't change it. They can try, but they will fail.

Are you fucking kidding me? Maybe it's just the jerkwater town I live in, but "gay" is automatically a synonym for anything negative.

 

Stubbing one's toe is gay.

Washing your wallet is gay.

That kid's gay.

Traffic is gay.

etc, etc..

[Firestarter 0]

Gay Crime Syndicate?

 

A disturbing but excellent column by Joel Mowbray.

 

"[E]ight arrests out of 100 students in less than three months of existence are not numbers to be ignored.

Maybe there's no connection between the gay school and the violent Starbucks attack and the serial robberies. But maybe there is.

There's obviously nothing inherent to homosexuality that causes or leads to violent crime, but maybe there is something about a homosexual high school that does...

Protecting kids who are getting picked on - or worse - is actually a noble goal. But why resort to the bigot's tool of segregation? Why not just teach gay teens how to beat the snot out of bullies? Wouldn't that be better preparation for life in general? What's a gay man or woman to do, for example, if a thug attacks? Run to a segregated area? Of course not. But self-defense training would seem essential in such a situation.

When news broke this summer that Harvey Milk would become the first public school of its kind, Principal William Salzman said, 'This school will be a model for the country and possibly the world.' If the early results are any indication, let's hope not."

[Jobber of the Week 0]

Normally I'd just say that I've never seen anything but right-wing flap from townhall.com, but any article that starts with "The left's latest attempt at segregation" gets my goat.

 

First, the school's been open for a while now. The reason it got headlines this year was because it was being remodeled and worked on with taxpayer funds.

 

Last week, police arrested five cross-dressing Harvey Milk students who posed as female hookers and robbed men who approached them for sex.

 

This isn't a good thing. But are we to assume that this happened merely by the school's existance?

 

Last month, three Harvey Milk students were charged with gang assault after a group of teens stabbed a man in the back with a screwdriver in the parking lot of a Starbucks coffee shop across the street from the school.

 

This is hideous, but again I don't get how this wouldn't happen if the same students were enrolled in another school?

 

Taking scared, confused youths—many of whom may incorrectly believe they are gay or bisexual

 

Yeah, I'm sure a kid who doesn't know if he's gay or not is going to voluntarily take the social stigma of going to "the gay school" despite just as possibly being straight as gay. Sure.

 

I don't think the school is a great idea myself, I sort of think it's received more than it's 15 minutes, but I sure as hell doubt that it's somehow breeding criminals that wouldn't be criminals in any other New York public school.

 

So, with this plus the Coulter reference, I have to wonder if something has happened to Marney. I mean, I know I don't link to far-left columnists like this idiot because I like to keep this place clean.

 

If she starts wearing "Factor Gear" then I'll know something's really wrong.

[Guest Boo_Bradley]

I wouldn't want to use the bathroom there...

 

OMG Sterotypes

 

HOMOPHOBE

[Firestarter 0]

any article that starts with "The left's latest attempt at segregation" gets my goat

Oh, good.

 

Just out of curiosity, what would you call separate but equal facilities for groups of people differentiated by gender, race, sexuality, or religion?

 

Yeah, I'm sure a kid who doesn't know if he's gay or not is going to voluntarily take the social stigma of going to "the gay school" despite just as possibly being straight as gay. Sure.

Nice job of cropping and muddling a perfectly clear sentence and then taking offense at your intentional misinterpretation. Sure you're not Maureen Dowd? Mowbray clearly isn't a homophobe, despite your attempts to paint him with that brush. Let's take a look at the full sentence:

"Taking scared, confused youths - many of whom may incorrectly believe they are gay or bisexual, just as many teens who later turn out to be gay or bisexual believe in high school that they are straight - and putting them into a segregated environment could be the equivalent of putting a lit match in a tinder box."

You quoted only the part in italics, but the part in boldface puts your implicit accusation of homophobia to rest. Cut the demagoguery and argue on substance. If you can.

 

I sure as hell doubt that it's somehow breeding criminals that wouldn't be criminals in any other New York public school

Really? Don't you see how segregating people as a group can reinforce a reactive, bitter, us-against-them mentality? This "school" is a terrible idea. Gay people are as much a part of society as women, or blacks, or Jews. They neither need nor deserve special treatment of any kind. Giving them their own school isn't a triumph for "diversity" or "sensitivity" or "multiculturalism." It is a triumph for bigotry and defensiveness and apologetics.

 

So, with this plus the Coulter reference, I have to wonder if something has happened to Marney...

If she starts wearing "Factor Gear" then I'll know something's really wrong.

Nothing's happened to me, thanks. I still dislike O'Reilly immensely and a number of Coulter's claims just make me laugh (see McCarthy, Joe, and Hoover, J Edgar). That doesn't mean I'm so ideologically or emotionally blind that I'll refuse to see it when they make good points.

[Styles 0]

Really? Don't you see how segregating people as a group can reinforce a reactive, bitter, us-against-them mentality? This "school" is a terrible idea. Gay people are as much a part of society as women, or blacks, or Jews. They neither need nor deserve special treatment of any kind. Giving them their own school isn't a triumph for "diversity" or "sensitivity" or "multiculturalism." It is a triumph for bigotry and defensiveness and apologetics.

Marney, I still don't understand your argument of how this is segragation. No one's being forced to go to this school unless they make the free choice to do so. You use the examples of women, Jews and blacks. Well, there are plenty of all girl schools, private Jewish institutions and historically black colleges. Would you consider these segragation too? If a gay kid wants to go to this school, that's his business, and I don't see how it is any different than a girl attending an all girls school or a Christian attending a Catholic school...

[Firestarter 0]

You're assuming that I wouldn't have a problem with taxpayers funding those. And I would.

 

If a group wants to segregate itself and pay for its voluntary segregation privately, that's one thing. I think it's narrowminded, defensive, and silly, but freedom of association is protected by the First Amendment. Differentiating among people on the basis of sexuality, however, is as repugnant as any other form of segregation in our past. I don't understand why you can't see that.

Edited November 14, 2003 by Cancer Marney

[Styles 0]

You're assuming that I wouldn't have a problem with taxpayers funding those. And I would.

 

If a group wants to segregate itself and pay for its voluntary segregation privately, that's one thing. I think it's narrowminded, defensive, and silly, but freedom of association is protected by the First Amendment. Differentiating among people on the basis of sexuality, however, is as repugnant as any other form of segregation in our past. I don't understand why you can't see that.

You know, I didn't realize/remember that it was a public and not a private school. I guess that changes things. I might have even already come to that conclusion previously. What is it with you and bumping old threads anyway? Discussion of rappers eating their girlfriends' livers and condoms being found in soup not intelletually stimulating enough for you?

[Firestarter 0]

Nah, I just bump them when I see new developments in the story.

[Jobber of the Week 0]

Just out of curiosity, what would you call separate but equal facilities for groups of people differentiated by gender, race, sexuality, or religion?

Voluntary discrimination, in this case.

 

You quoted only the part in italics, but the part in boldface puts your implicit accusation of homophobia to rest. Cut the demagoguery and argue on substance. If you can.

 

Okay, there's a difference between thinking you might be gay and deciding that you want to go to the school that is suposed to shelter gays from harassment and thus has a social stigma associated with it. Even telling people you went to that school means they're going to make assumptions about you.

 

Thus, only the people who are very openly gay and are so harassed for it that they decide they need to go to a school that will more or less automatically paint a picture of their private life to anyone who knows they go there.

 

I don't tell my friends about my orientation. I'm a desperate virgin who can't get a romantic interest, so until I do and my friends start seeing me with said romantic interest, they have no reason to know. But if I went to the all-gay school and passingly told a friend I went there, they would automatically know I like the dick and the buttsex.

 

I think you have to be pushed pretty damn far to get to the point where you voluntarily choose to go to a school like that.

 

Again, I wouldn't go to the school. I don't think it's a good idea. Nobody I talked to thought it was a good idea. But I don't think it's making criminals out of people who wouldn't become criminals in any other public school in the major metropolitan NY area. You need to be of a certain mindset to be able to do that sort of thing, no matter what school you're in. That's why you'll never see timid ol' me robbing convenience stores.

[Bruiser Chong 0]

I don't venture into this folder often, but I've just gotta say that for once, I agree with Marney. When this story was still somewhat new, I had to write a paper on it for a class and I felt that while it was a good idea in theory to provide gay people with an environment where they could recieve a good education without being harrassed or tortured because of who they are, it only seperated them apart from everyone else when the "goal" is to just be equal. Setting them in a school just for gays only draws more attention to their sexual orientation and ultimately, adds fuel to the fire, so to speak, in the extreme controversy that homosexuality sadly brings.

[Prime Time Andrew Doyle 0]

Last month, three Harvey Milk students were charged with gang assault after a group of teens stabbed a man in the back with a screwdriver in the parking lot of a Starbucks coffee shop across the street from the school.

 

This is hideous, but again I don't get how this wouldn't happen if the same students were enrolled in another school?

Actually, It most likely would. Whenever there has been a incident involivng students, the kids school has been brought up or they have been metioned as "three students from -Inset Schools Name-". Infact, even after they leave the school, they are normally refered as ex-students. When 2 ex-students from my school died, they were refered to as being "Ex-St. Kevins students"

[Internet Warfare 0]

I could see why they would open it, maybe the kid is being harassed at school and wants to go to a school where he will be accepted, seems more like their trying to keep the kids safe to me.