Subscribe to Breaking NewsRuby-Sachs: Lamenting the end of Chicago’s LGBT school proposal
A few weeks ago, I wrote a piece supporting the establishment of the Pride Campus in Chicago. I’ve been following its development with interest and over the past few days it has become clear that the Pride Campus – retooled to have an anti-bullying focus and then renamed – will not be opening its doors anytime soon.
The decision to re-examine the school’s proposal has garnered some cheers from the gay community. But perhaps we should be lamenting its demise instead.
Solving problems in the education system is not like solving problems anywhere else. The causes of education related problems are numerous: too little funding, too many kids, too few teachers, the individual behavior of the students, the influence of the parents, the list goes on.
The solutions must also be numerous. Simply implementing tolerance programs aimed at bullying in general in existing schools cannot, alone, make the education environment hospitable for LGBT students. It is like fixing the economy by throwing money at a few banks (and we all know how well that works).
Improving tolerance in schools and education about sexuality issues are important, but they are not sufficient. A safe haven is needed for those children who are in intolerable, life threatening situations. They need a place to go in September where they won’t be beaten on their way to school, where they won’t be teased mercilessly once they get to school. The 33% of gay or perceived gay children who are likely to commit suicide can’t wait for slow institutional change. They need a different solution.
The gay school is not the be all and end all of the tolerance program in Chicago schools. It is one of many solutions that target the weakest and most at risk among us.
The Pride Campus could have saved lives. We should all support its continued struggle for approval.
Remember what we say about marriage: Seperate but equal is never equal. This was a terrible idea and its good that its shelved.
How are pre-op (surgery planned) transsexual students who are heterosexually oriented and see hetrosexually oriented cissexual people as their sociosexual peers supposed to learn and grow (especially socially) in an all queer environment?
This school would have siphoned off what few social allies they have away from the mainstream schools that they NEED to attend in order to develop as mature adults.
I like (sarcastically speaking) how LGB and (supposedly T but perhaps only for a few types of them) organizations are always eager to sacrifice the well being of transsexuals (seperate from transgenderists)for their blind political ambition.
This brings back memories of Barney Frank and ENDA.
I am curious to know if the sponsors of this seperate but equal school truely believe that civil unions are seperate but equal?
I could never understand how compromises can be made by compromised people?
Something better than nothing. Too much of anything isn’t a good thing.Something small can grow into a great thing.
Melissa…You should also maybe take out the B. Because in certain ways of life Bisexuals are totally ignored, and or that they don’t exist.And sad how some ower community treats them.Oh A bisexual man is really gay and a bisexual woman is really A lesbian.
to all who say this would be a bad idea please re consider. I am still young yes. I graduated in 2004. I believe a lgbt school would be a good idea. when I was a junior a boy tried to stab a friend of mine in school with a plastic knife because he was openly gay. and this happened in the lunch room. and just last feb Lawrence King from cali was killed at his middle school by a boy younger than him for askin him to be his valentine. both instances could of ben prevented if there was a school of this kind for glbt students. I would of loved goin to a school of this kind simply so I wasnt harassed every day and even once had a marble thrown at my head. for some kids who are glbt this could be a great deal with how some schools are.
wow i am amazed and confused so often at the “gay community”. i don’t think anyone knows what they want. yes equal rights but where is the line? i have to agree that this is just one more way that we segregate ourselves that we bloke out the straight world. discrimination is everywhere in all kinds of forms and to assume that all straight high school students are bullies, harassers and will assault you is ignorant to me. i am also a graduate of 2004 and i have plenty of friends most of which are straight and i’ve never had a problem with them caring one bit about my sex life. however, i have seen plenty of prejudice WITHIN the community it is very competitive to me most homosexual people i know can def throw a punch and talk some shit much like Melissa and Will were saying…we aren’t even a united front to fight for what we want to begin with! i mean fuck its all a pity party almost gay men and lesbians mad at bi people because they don’t get as much harassment but they get it within the community then the wonderful and powerful T like because these people went all the way so to speak they are some how a higher level of gay!? its all very ridiculous. i think its WONDERFUL that this school DID NOT get started. as a lesbian i would never change my high school experience (except for a couple problems that were only my fault). how are we all going to get alone in the future if your trying to raise new generations separate from each other. i suggest putting that money into gay straight alliances that is the best thing for public high schools. kids are going to get teased and bullied for being fat, a stupid name, big nose, red hair, freckles, handicapped, poverty, the list is endless.
i hope sometime soon the fight does finally get somewhere but i cant see if happening anytime soon if were not fighting together and for the same things.
I agree with Hank. Sadly there will be those children that will suffer, however, in order to acclimate people with us they must see us and realize we are just like them but unique in our own way as well. In addition, our younger peers must learn how to live in a world where straight is also there and how they themselves will prepare for the real world – tolerant or intolerant.
Since this started here I will address this here. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer… LGBTQ. During the recent JoinTheImpact protests last week I was on the distribution list where a woman complained that the acronym LGBT did not represent her and requested Q be added. When ENDA came to a head, the trangsgender community rose up in arms because the L and G saw an opportunity to finally pass rights for them and attempted to at least get something that was waiting almost 15 years in limbo on the legal books. A very public fight ensued and bridges were burned. And here in this thread we have people complaining about how B and T and Q are ignored. That L and G are the intolerant. And sometimes the G and the L get into it. Sometimes its LGBT, other times its GLBT depending on who you’re talking too. Frankly I am tired of this over labeling.
We don’t like the term homosexual because it is too old and it sounds like a slur sometimes. We must have labels that make an acronym that is to hard to say yet people moan about not being included unless the alphabet is added on. Is it intolerant to ask why we must over label ourselves? It is intolerant to want to actually get rights passed not at the expense of others but because it is right to incrimentally build precedents as we go? Are our political gains less important than our own egos?
For me, a gay man, I believe as a community we need to move past these labels and get stuff done. Things passed for gays and lesbians also benefit bisexuals in many ways. Transgender issues have come a long way and frankly with the election of the first transgender mayor and the Montgomery County, MD statute being reaffirmed in court as well as other small victories, it seems to me that transgender issues had more high profile wins then losses politically then gay and lesbians did. And may I remind you, if the state recognizes the sex change in transgenders, they can legally marry someone of the opposite sex from their changed status without issue. And frankly I don’t understand the Queer label myself and can’t really speak to it.
I believe we have to work together, but by over-labelling and forcing what we perceive as our label to the forefront simply so we can say we are here is pointless if nothing is accomplished on a national, state, or local scale. We beat each other up so much! When are we going to get on the ball and realize that every small victory is a victory for all of us and blazes the trail for future victories?
Although I agree with much of what is said in this article, (i.e. kids in dangerous situations needing a place to go), I don’t think cutting LGBTQ students off from the rest of the world will prepare them for the real world. I also think that it would deprive them of some very important friendships. I am a lesbian teenager, and most of my close friends are straight. Now granted, I live in one of the most pro gay rights states in the country (one where I could still legally get married), I go to a very open minded school, and all my friends accept me for who I am. So while I really can’t say that I can relate to gay kids in hostile environments, I don’t believe that closing ourselves off from the world will ever gain us more tolerance. But again, kids who are at risk for suicide and/or abuse should have somewhere that they can go to be safe and be able to learn. This is indeed a difficult question.