Obama’s Education Secretary Wanted Gay-Only High School In Chicago

• December 18, 2008

Frankly, I think the grade-level reading rates among the schools he managed is an even more telling indictment of this pick (only 17% of kids being able to read at grade level is atrocious), but the idea of a gay-only high school seems bizarre.

Duncan’s openness to new ideas caused a stir in Chicago just last month when he proposed a high school designed for gay students. Aimed at keeping students from being bullied and ostracized, Duncan pitched the idea of an explicitly gay-friendly school, where half of the students were expected to identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.
The proposal met with misgivings from Chicago Mayor Richard Daley – traditionally an advocate for gay and lesbian issues – as well as ministers, gay activists and social conservatives opposed to segregating gay students.
As the school board’s Nov. 18 vote approached, designers of the Social Justice Solidarity High School tried to broaden its mission, pitching the campus as a refuge for bullied youths in general and removing references to sexual orientation in the proposal. But they withdrew their proposal at the last minute, pledging to return with another version of the plan in time for an opening in the fall of 2010.

Wasn’t school segregation something civil rights leaders fought against decades ago?
I don’t have a problem with gays and lesbians, and I think they should be welcomed into our public schools, but what purpose would segregating homosexuals away from straight students serve?
Aren’t we supposed to learn to live together, not separately?

Tags: Domestic Issues, Education, Politics

http://Array RebTex

And their color co-ordinating abilities would be FABULOUS!
RebTex

DANGLE!
http://www.bikebubba.blogspot.com/ Bike Bubba

The Barnett Frank Villagers!
HG

“Barnett Frank High School”

I’m sure it will be the “Barnett Frank High School of the Arts”.
http://sayanythingblog.com/entry/america_is_back/#c397018 DINO

Ah, yes. I see you’re even opposing keeping kids safe from damaging abuse. Charming.

I would just ask you to remember back to when you were a kid. Maybe you got picked on for something. Can you imagine what the queer kids who couldn’t hide it went through? Luckily, I didn’t even know what I was then and didn’t show any overt signs of being different but saw the boys who were more, um, obvious, get tons of abuse. I’m talking enormous amounts of abuse here.

That said, the idea of segregating gay kids is a bit disturbing to me. But if we didn’t condone the christians and others whipping up so much animosity towards homos, maybe the kids who are gay wouldn’t get abused so much by their impressionable peers?
Eddie_the_Hated

Catholics already have the option to go to “Catholic friendly” schools. Why would it be bad to allow gays the option to go to “gay friendly” schools?

Homosexuality isn’t a religion.

Homosexuality as a whole doesn’t have an institution of education, nor a broad enough interest to warrant one.

The number of Catholics in most communities greatly outnumbers the amount of gays and lesbians.

Because the best excuse we’ve heard from supporters of this is that it would prevent the abuse of gays… sort of like how people were worried about blacks being abused when southern schools began to integrate in the sixties.

It turns our educational system into a special interest group.

Because a “gay” school truly has no appeal to a straight person from a logical perspective, no less straight people in the plural. I don’t get a high-school for my passion for guitar, nor do I get a school that emphasizes my enjoyment of lifting weights. Why should a community that may not even exist in great enough numbers to warrant such, get special treatment?

The “gay” school would be targeted as a collective harder than any individual ever could be.

Take your pick. They’re all valid answers.
http://www.bikebubba.blogspot.com/ Bike Bubba

As if creating a school solely for homosexuals would reduce harassment when that school’s sports teams visited other schools….and as if it wouldn’t be a magnet for the Fred Phelps types.

….and can you imagine the harassment kids would get on the bus when other riders found out they were going to “Barnett Frank High School”?

There are apparently some ideas so dumb that only an Ivy League grad can come up with them….
thetodd

the idea of a gay-only high school seems bizarre.

That’s not what Duncan proposed. Do you read the articles you link to?

Duncan pitched the idea of an explicitly gay-friendly school, where half of the students were expected to identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.
http://insanereindeer.blogspot.com/ Kenny

Ah, yes. I see you’re even opposing keeping kids safe from damaging abuse. Charming.

And I see you are AGAIN demonizing opponents for arguments that they aren’t making. It can’t be that Rob is opposed to segregation…no he hates children. EVen though he’s shown that he agrees with you on homosexual issues, you’e still a prick.

But seeing as how this is probably as close to making an argument as you’re going to get, I’ll field it…to try and encourage further debate and less name calling.

Kids. Are. Cruel.

It’s that simple. Whether they’re making fun of the gay guy, the fat kid, “four eyes”, etc, kids pick on each other. We simply can’t set part every group that gets made fun of, because we’ll just start having classes of one.

What happens when the gay kids start making fun of crossdressers? Or when the bi kids start getting it for being swing hitters? Do we then have only gay, only lesbian, only bisexual, and only transgendered classes?

That said, the idea of segregating gay kids is a bit disturbing to me. But if we didn’t condone the christians and others whipping up so much animosity towards homos, maybe the kids who are gay wouldn’t get abused so much by their impressionable peers?

Having gone to both public and private schools, the private one being Christian, guess where the gay kids got worse treatment? It wasn’t the Christian school, where the only obviously gay dude was one of the most popular kids in the school. No it was at the public school where the gay kids, like the fat kids, like the four eyes, like the red heads, like everyone else, took their lumps. Because the Christian schools took bullying seriously. Because, despite being against gay marriage and homosexuality, the Christian church still teaches that the GBLT, despite being on the wrong path, are our brothers and sisters in Christ and are still to be treated ith dignity and respect as human beings. Public schools are just Darwinist survival machines.
http://aspect.arjis-connect.com/ ARJIS

Kenny’s points hit it right on the head.

The problem of social relations in the schools (how people get alone with each other) is based on the values taught to them, and the environment they have to live in.

Teach people to respect one another, and that is usually what they will do. I am not saying this can’t be done in a public school, only that if they were taught respect and were around that type of influence daily, and at home, they would act differently, and respect others rights.

But, there will always be bullies, not just against gays, but any other kind of kid you can imagine. If a kid likes to draw pictures all the time, he could be picked on for that.

It is the issues with the bully kids. It is the values they decide to run with that they learned from school, or home, which will affect EVERYONE around them, particularly, his or her target for the day.
HG

where half of the students were expected to identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.

Wow, a whole entire school for so few students. Maybe the one-room schoolhouse will become vogue.
Pilgrim

Bubba,

Sure it would. We all know that harassment and bullying are the sole province of the heterosexual community. Couldn’t happen at an all gay school.

Evidently in the eyes of the left, being gay somehow makes you impervious to all those pesky human traits. Nirvana. There won’t be a bully among them.

yeesh.
HG

Of course they will need a mascot…
http://www.bikebubba.blogspot.com/ Bike Bubba

Even if the school were a safe zone, which is doubtful, getting there (an hour each way by bus–Chicago ain’t a little city) wearing your “Barnett Frank High School Synchronized Swimming” letter jacket would be Hell. And then at away games? There ain’t enough cops in Chicago to stop the mockery.

Yeesh. Even a “poofter” like Dina ought to be able to figure that one out.

Plus, the idea of telling a 13 year old who just got over thinking girls have cooties that he ought to go to “Barnett Frank High”? I would hope administrators would hear VERY quickly from parents that they are not about to allow their sons and daughters to be pigeonholed in such a place.

In other words, it’s an idea so idiotic that it could only have come from an Ivy League grad or an inner city political machine. Or, as is the case, both.
HG

I’d just like to say that this all gay high school would likely put on the best drama productions and have one hell of a drill team. Of course the all male pep & cheer is something only dino could appreciate.
http://sayanythingblog.com/entry/america_is_back/#c397018 DINO

Only Dino? I’ll bet there’s a few other poofters trolling this blog. Perhaps even the ones who won’t admit it….
thetodd

Why is segregating gays into “gay friendly” schools a good thing?

How could it possibly be a bad thing?

Catholics already have the option to go to “Catholic friendly” schools. Why would it be bad to allow gays the option to go to “gay friendly” schools?
Mickey

I bet they have a pretty good school lunch program, complete with waiters.
http://sayanythingblog.com robport

Exactly.

All this would do is put a bullseye on the kids’ backs.

Segregation is pretty much wrong whatever the justification. There may be exceptions, but I can’t think of any.
http://sayanythingblog.com robport

Duncan pitched the idea of an explicitly gay-friendly school, where half of the students were expected to identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.

Hmm…I did miss that part, but it seems to be a distinction without a difference.

Why is segregating gays into “gay friendly” schools a good thing?

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Obama’s Education Secretary Wanted Gay-Only High School In Chicago

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