Are Schools For Gay Children Necessary?

MILWAUKEE - Forget about segregation and discrimination based on race, gender, religion or disability. Gay children are coming out to the real heat.
In January, Milwaukee strengthened its reputation as being one of the most segregated cities in the nation when MPS established Alliance, a high school and now middle school for LGBT students or any student who feels uncomfortable in a regular school.
Segregation Leads To Ignorance, Not Vice Versa
One advantage of schools for gay children is that they can provide a safe learning environment where children can be free to be themselves.
“Research consistently shows that LGBT youth face far greater risks of harassment and violence from their peers than non-LGBTQ youth,” according to the Cream City Foundation.
This is true, but there are negative consequences. When these kids are taken out of the real world, it’s a lose-lose situation for all children. We can’t expect gay kids to learn tolerance for a bully’s ignorance, or how to learn how to stick up for themselves like any other kids who are different. We also can’t expect the bullies to learn that being gay is not a disease, nor get young people to stop using the ignorant phrase, “that’s so gay.”
When the gay kids start picking on each other in new school, maybe the answer is to just to establish another school to separate them.
The Gay Agenda
A curriculum focused on gay issues and sex is undoubtedly beneficial to these students, but it’s not necessary. The gay agenda, which basically says gay people are brainwashing straight people, can’t exist in schools if kids are getting fair, accurate information from both sides. It’s good that schools bring in special guests to speak about homosexuality, as long as there are speakers on heterosexuality, too.
Or if a regular public school kindergarten teacher incorporates a story about love between two boys, for example, then gay students will see themselves reflected in what is being taught and no special school is needed.
In addition, MPS has the resources to meet the needs of any child, regardless of who they are. Psychologists, social workers and teachers are all trained to support LBGT students. HIV and AIDS among other topics of interest to gay students are something all kids should learn. If the support is provided and students take advantage of it, there would be no need for separate schools. Separate is not equal. It never has been and never will be.
Too young to be sexual?
One argument against gay children in general says that children aren’t sexual, so they can’t be homosexual.
But others disagree. Many gay and lesbian youth identify their sexual orientation at about age 16, according to Ryan Futterman, author of Lesbian and Gay Youth: Care and Counseling.
This all comes down to perspective. In different countries such as China, sexuality in pre-teens is honorable and normal. And many Americans claim to have had feelings for the same sex at a very young age as well. While it isn’t accurate to assume that a boy will be homosexual because he enjoys playing with his sister’s doll, the lines get blurry when distinguishing at what age children become sexual beings.
That being said, the typical age of middle school kids is 11-13, and that seems a little young to draw conclusions about sexual orientation. But since MPS encourages abstinence, there’s no need to address sexuality at Alliance or at any other MPS school, except to provide information. MPS just needs to include abstinence education for gay teens so that gay children don’t need to transfer schools to learn about it.
The Future Of Gay Schools For some kids such as those into the punk scene, being gay is trendy, deviant, and therefore fun. As if young American Idol star Adam Lambert wasn’t popular enough for his talent, he expanded his fan base at the end of the season after announcing he was gay. (If I was a young gay guy, I’d have fun being him!)
The point is that educators need to consider that since the start of time, kids are drawn into radical ideas. This is not to say that kids can’t be gay, but we must be careful to make sure kids stay kids, whether they are gay or straight. Schools like this one in Boston had a prom for LGBT students that may have gone too far.
In general, kids seem to becoming more tolerant of the gay community though. For example, there was an anti-gay rally led by a church during school hours at Alexander Hamilton High school earlier this year. While most of the kids watched out of curiosity, none joined the rally, and a few even protested against it.
In a national survey of GLBTs, 64 percent said there is more acceptance of gays today, according to Tina Hoff, VP of Public Health Information for the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Kids are inherently good, so let’s give them another chance to learn tolerance of people that are different before we decide that a separate learning facility is the answer.
Until there is a resolution, the idea of gay school is more of a slippery slope than a skiing hill during a Wisconsin winter.
What do you think, Milwaukee? What is the answer for our children?
from Examiner.com

Harvard University Creates Gay Professorship Role

BOSTON - Harvard University is creating an endowed professorship in lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual studies, the first of its kind in the United States and reflecting a rise in sex-related academia nationwide.
The Ivy League school will invite visiting scholars to teach on sexuality and issues related to sexual minorities for one semester each, a Harvard official said on Wednesday.
While other universities have course offerings and degree programs in sexuality studies, Harvard's healthy endowment allows the professorship on the subject to be funded in perpetuity, the first university in the country to do so.
The Harvard Gay & Lesbian Caucus raised $1.5 million to fund the role, to be known as the "F.O. Matthiessen Visiting Professorship of Gender and Sexuality", named after American studies scholar and literary critic, F.O. Matthiessen.
Matthiessen, who died in 1950, chaired an undergraduate program in history and literature at Harvard, where he kept his homosexuality largely secret.
Harvard gave undergraduates the option in 2003 of concentrating on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues as an academic field, according to the university.
Academic programs related to sex, sexuality and sexual orientation are sprouting on American campuses -- from Yale University to the University of California Berkeley and the University of Minnesota.
"It's not so much that we've been able to raise this money, it's that Harvard and the faculty at Harvard have accepted this perpetual endowment for gay and lesbian studies," said Mitchell Adams of the Harvard Board of Overseers, one of two governing boards at the Cambridge, Massachusetts, school.
The position indicates growing acceptance of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, Adams added.
Candace Gingrich, a youth outreach manager at gay-rights advocates the Human Rights Campaign, said the new role gives students in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community something to aspire to.
"Any time a university as renowned as Harvard feels it is important and sees it is important to have an endowed professorship in LGBT studies is recognition that it is an important issue," said Gingrich, sister of former Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives, Newt Gingrich.
from Reuters

Texas Christian University To Provide Gay And Lesbian Housing

FORT WORTH, TEXAS - Texas Christian University offers special housing for students interested in world affairs. The environment. Foreign languages. And, starting this fall, gay and lesbian issues.
TCU is apparently the first campus in the state to reserve housing for gay students and straight students who support them. And that's earning kudos from advocates for gay students.
"It just basically says that TCU wants their campus to be safe for all students and wants everyone to feel welcomed," said Shane Windmeyer, executive director and founder of Campus Pride. The nonprofit group supports gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender college students.
Like many colleges, TCU offers themed housing, called "learning communities," in addition to traditional dorms or apartments. For instance, there's the Green House, for students who care about the environment. The Language and International Living House, for those who want to master another language.
Some students proposed a community with a gay and lesbian theme, and so the "DiversCity Q" community opens this fall in some on-campus apartments. Also opening: themed housing for patriotism, fine arts, marine biology and Christianity.
The idea is that students "are able to live with and near other students who have similar interests," TCU spokeswoman Lisa Albert said.
Windmeyer said TCU appears to be the only campus in Texas that offers housing with a gay and lesbian theme.
Campus Pride rates colleges across the country on their friendliness toward gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender students. Housing, counseling services and campus nondiscrimination policies are among the criteria. Campus participation in the ratings is voluntary; TCU is not included. Rice University in Houston receives the best rating in Texas, and the University of Texas at Austin comes in second.
Sam Wunderl , a TCU junior, said he thinks gay-friendly housing is "a big step forward" for TCU, and he believes most students are fine with the idea.
"I just think it's important for gays to feel included," said Wunderl, who is straight.
The decision, first reported by the TCU student newspaper, has received mixed reaction in the online world. On Twitter, users posted a range of comments.
"Proud of TCU for being progressive, but there's always the danger of entering 'separate but equal' territory," one woman wrote.
"Very progressive!!" one another woman wrote.
"Awful idea," one man wrote.
from The Dallas Morning News

Harassment Of Lesbian And Gay Students Common

Arizona's gay and lesbian students need better protection against harassment, a national study says.
That study, titled "From Teasing to Torment: a Report on School Climate in Arizona," is the cornerstone of a local symposium that begins today on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered youth in Arizona schools.
Scholars, attorneys and community members will gather for the two-day event, said University of Arizona Associate Professor Stephen Russell, with the hope of creating progressive social policy from a foundation of academic research.
"What are the possibilities of thinking about system-level changes in schools and school policy?" Russell asked. "Having said that, there are great examples in Arizona, mostly in Tucson, of inclusive, nondiscriminatory and anti-harassment policies."
In 2004, the Tucson Unified School District adopted a policy that strictly prohibits harassment based on "real or perceived race, color, religion (creed), national origin, marital status, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability or on the basis of association with others identified by these categories."
The report is authored by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, a national education network and nonprofit organization focused on school safety for gay and lesbian students. It is based on interviews with 3,450 students across the country. Released in June, the national study also focused on 12 states, including Arizona.
"Given that only half of Arizona students reported being protected by comprehensive anti-harassment policies in their schools, it is imperative that lawmakers and school officials create state-level safe-school legislation that offers explicit protection to students who are targets of bullying, harassment and assault based on personal characteristics such as sexual orientation and gender identity/expression," the report's summary and recommendation states.
The report also found that "biased language, especially homophobic and sexist remarks, were commonly heard among students and often overlooked by teachers and other school staff. Biased language was even heard from some teachers and school staff."
There were 154 respondents from Arizona. More than half identified themselves as Anglo students and more than a quarter as Latino. A majority were male students at public schools in urban or suburban areas and 9 percent identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, higher than the national average of 6 percent.
The study found fewer than half of the students surveyed reported feeling very safe at school, 44 percent reported bullying, name-calling and harassment and more than 60 percent reported peers being harassed because of their actual or perceived sexual orientation, their looks or body size and gender expression.
Fifty-two percent of the surveyed students said they were protected by a comprehensive anti-harassment policy that specifically mentioned sexual orientation or gender identity. About a third of surveyed students reported hearing school personnel make sexist comments while more than 20 percent reported homophobic comments from school staffers.
Students said teachers or staffers were never or rarely present when racist or homophobic language was used, but nearly half noted that teachers and school staffers rarely or never corrected or criticized homophobic remarks made in their presence.
"Having students feel they belong in their school is an indicator of success," said Joe Kosciw, research director for the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network.
If students don't feel safe, attendance could drop, grades will suffer and aspirations will sink, Kosciw said, explaining the need for policies to establish a comfortable, safe atmosphere.
from The Arizona Daily Star