Subscribe to Breaking NewsRuby-Sachs: Supporting “separate but equal” when it comes to gay teens
There was a public hearing last night on whether an LGBT high school should be created in Chicago. As of today, the Chicago Schools CEO, Arne Duncan, is behind the move, but the LGBT community is deeply divided.
As a lawyer, I’ve been trained that separate but equal is a bad idea. As a person who remembers high school at all, how can I deny these kids the chance to escape?
Public schools in Chicago are a monstrosity. They barely make it out of the 35th percentile in national testing and they are de facto segregated in many districts.
As a gay teenager, especially one who fits any kind of visible stereotype, high school can be day after day of harassment, violence and isolation.
It is no wonder that one in three gay teens attempt suicide.
Legally, in American, we don’t allow “heckler’s vetoes”: where the majority of students harass someone for being different so we remove the victim rather than punishing the bullies.
It is a tradition started in the Vietnam war-era and has been essential to the protection of minority rights since. Recently, this legal principle has been used in many states to protect gay-straight alliances.
Undermining it now, will only hurt the LGBT community.
As well, tolerance of difference comes only through experience. If we take homophobic kids and tell them they don’t have to see gay students anymore, don’t have to change with them before gym class or have them in their small group sessions, how will they learn to accept those LGBT people when they grow up?
Similarly, how will gay kids, taken from the diversity of normal life, adjust to adulthood in a world where homophobia is ever present?
Still, there is no question that the public schools are not equipped to shut down the very real torture gay students endure from their classmates.
Because of the schools’ failures, many cities, including Toronto, New York and Milwaukee, have established special gay-friendly high schools.
They are often small, not the first choice for the majority of gay students, but they do have some openly gay teachers and social workers and encourage a separate safe environment for those teens that choose to escape.
As far as I’m concerned, this is one area where law and logic don’t apply.
We failed gay teens. As a country, we don’t protect them, we don’t provide them with adequate support systems in schools and they are often without that support at home.
If setting up a gay school will save even one kid from suicide, then it is the right choice.
It doesn’t let us off the hook. We must still promote diversity and tolerance in the classroom, if not for the gay kids that remain, then for the rest of the class that we, as a society, are responsible for. But taking steps to create safe environments now is necessary.
For all of us who escape disapproving parents, co-workers and friends by heading to the local gay bar, strip or just spending time with people like us , we should step up and offer the same safe space for the most vulnerable members of our community.
I usually don’t leave comments, but I’ve been very impressed with Ms. Ruby-Sachs’ writings lately and wanted to say, “Good job!”
Why should this surprise anyone? It’ Ill. This “Seperate But Equal” garbage is the same thing Obama is trying to push on Gays with his whole “civil unions” crap. Obama doesn’t want to talk about the fact that gay couples in NJ (where civil unions are now law) are finding that the companies who issue benefits (health, insurance, inheritance, etc) are not recognizing civil unions as marriages and are therefor denying benefits to gay couples. SEPERATE BUT EQUAL NEVER WORKED! IT FAILED IN THE PAST AND IT WILL FAIL NOW. And as an African American, Obama should be ashamed of trying to pawn off a horribly failed policy of Seperate but Equal onto gay Americans. It’s downright shameful.
I’m not ready to give up on the idea that we can have LGBT people in every walk of life, in every occupation, in every neighborhood, in every church, and in every school, without being subjected to abuse. If we pull out, we’ll never achieve that.
Schools were integrated in my Southern town when I was in the second grade. I remember it well, along with the argument for segregation that was made in my Baptist church. Nonetheless, it happened, and decades later, all kids in that town are better off growing up knowing people who are not like them.
If the expectations are set by the school administrators, and enforced by the teachers, bullying can be stopped. You don’t change attitudes, but you sure as heck can dictate behavior.
The thing you are fighting most is not the attitudes of kids, but the attitudes of their parents that are reflected in the kids. THEY should also be targeted with anti-hate, anti-bullying expectations. They can take all their hate to the grave, but they can’t bring it to school. I truly believe that a school system that undertakes this challenge with the right attitude can make their schools safe for ALL kids.
You spelled separate wrong.
I am still very concerned about the separate but equal school idea. My fear is this: that school districts will fail to address homophobia in mainstream classes because they have provided an “alternative” school to deal with the problem. what about students whose parents will not let them attend such schools? Will these mainstream schools take the appropriate actions to insure the safety of the rest of the students?
I wrote a paper against GLBT separate schools in college and I stand by that today. While yes, high school is insanely hard for anyone who is different, separating the different students only causes a greater rift.
Most people who are alright with GLBT individuals KNOW someone who identifies with the community. If we start taking the out and proud or just the obvious out of mainstream schools, we encourage that sense of us and them. And what of the kids who are closeted who really need role models in the schools, to know they’re not alone.
And if it’s an GLBT high school to “stop” harassment, a shocking amount of the harassment happens at the middle school level these days. We need to start attacking hatred where it starts, as younger students and make sure Elementary schools discuss hateful language and the many diverse types of families and people there are in the world. There also need to be firmer policies against hate speech and hate crimes in the hallways of all schools.
Separating ourselves doesn’t allow for straight people to confront their own beliefs and stereotypes and learn something new.
Also, these schools require being out to one’s parents and having parental support. A lot of the students who do attempt suicide are not out to their parents or may not be widely supported by their parents. While it works for those who have a support network in place from dropping out or doing something drastic, it continues to fail those who truly need the help.
Since when did our comunity beccome zionist’s? A seperate school is just a bad idea. I grew up and went to public school, got called names and was picked on. Its part of life. I would never want my children, be they straight or gay to be segregated from the rest of society. Its just plain wrong.
What would Sarah do?
I think a gay high school is a great idea. Yes it separates gay kids but it will give them a safe environment where they can study and develop into educated adults. It would be great if this was not needed but it is and that is the truth. Maybe one day gay kids will be accepted everywhere but they should not have to suffer today for the well being of gay kids in the future.Gay teen suicide is very high and our governments are not supportive enough.so until that happens.. i know we will overcome LET THEM HAVE THEIR SCHOOL so they can give back to the community and educate society instead of be homeless and dropout of High school.
“If the expectations are set by the school administrators, and enforced by the teachers, bullying can be stopped. You don’t change attitudes, but you sure as heck can dictate behavior.”
Probably one of the most intelligent things anyone has stated on this issue. More than anything, gay teens who do not socialize with others outside of their community in middle/highschool, will have an even more difficult time when they’re out in the real world. This is a very BAD idea. They need to understand there are all types out there, some good and some bad, but ultimately, you will be working side by side with them at some point in your life. Having a school just for the GLBT teens will ultimately lead to some sort of self entitlement. I didn’t work in the 50s and 60s and it will not work now.
The lack of equality and the treatment our community receives by our government and people in general is shameful if not discriminatory to say the least. Maybe it’s time we start marching in the streets and demand our civil rights, but this is not the answer. As the late great Martin Luther King once said “We shall overcome”. I believe this to be true.
regarding the foregoing tert remarkkk correcting speling, posted at 4:22 pm, — if some persons cann’t find something more relevant to say about the subject at hand other than an irrelivant critic on the mechanics of writing , perhaps the piquiune soul should seek his or her entertainment elsewhere. Frankely my dear, I was taught that the gift is more important than the package in which it is presented.
As for the other comments on this subject, its clear that the concept of equal but seperate for victims of sexual harrassment is not necessaritly a bad thing in the context of our youthful modern but violent prone society.
We do not “escape” society by going to gay bars. We go to gay bars and gay functions to participate with others that are gay. The difference is that most of us work in environments that are either integrated or primarily straight.
This separate and unequal concept that is being floated in Chicago is a complete set back on absolutely every level.
Why am I not surprised Ruby-Sachs is a supporter?
>Because of the schools’ failures, >many cities, including Toronto, New >York and Milwaukee, have established >special gay-friendly high schools.
You are wrong, Emma Ruby-Sachs. It’s not because “of the schools’ failures”, but because of the massive religious lunacy/hypocrisy and the policies of the Republican Party. If many parents teach homophobia every day, many religious organizations and the Rep. Party reinforce it, what can the teacher do? Are you serious?
Ruby-Sachs is right on this one. The schools are to blame, Dan I don’t see how you think they are not.You don’t have to change attitudes, but you sure can dictate behavior. I do not see schools allowing Jewish kids or Black kids to be bullied like Gay kids are. We must step up and offer the same safe space for the most vulnerable members of our community.“Seperate But Equal”
in this case is separate and safe to our most vulnerable members of our community.
Ms. Ruby-Sachs keep up the great work you are doing.