Did you hear about the Harvey Milk High School?
on July 29th, 2003 at 7:19 amA look at Google News shows the worldwide spread of the announcement and I was initially going to leave it at that. But then I saw conservative columnist Joseph Farah bitching and moaning about the school and it got my hackles up. So let me answer a few of his arguments/guestions/comments.
Sure, let’s start the rhetoric off right and toe the waters of “she-male” language. Like I said last week, only pornographers and social conservatives use the language of she-male. But let me also point out that among GLBT folk, transgendered people most often die over who they are. Yes, this two-part article is written by Pat Califia, the exact polar opposite of Farah, and I’m doing that deliberately because we all too often “go soft” in these arguments. Pat doesn’t and he routinely hits us upside the head in the process.
Oh, come on. That’s obvious: Because all of American society breeds hatred towards queers. You can see it when compared to worldwide progress in gay marriage. You can see it in the opening paragraphs of this profile of Judy Shepard, Matthew Shepard’s mother. Hatred is one thing, but basic dislike towards GLBT is even more common and often enough to perpetuate the atmosphere of prejudice. Farah, let me ask you: How would you react to the news that a trannie was moving into your neighborhood?
Because they don’t have to. The law doesn’t require a separation of gay and state, so your implied parallel between dissatisfied parents of GLBT students and dissatisfied religious fundie parents is specious. Secondly, the school already existed as a public program. It was a small alt-ed school, just like those for other types of challenged kids.
Now I don’t want to lump GLBT students in with the disabled student population — because they’re not damaged, deviant people as social conservatives would prefer us to believe — but public education already pays for the equal but often separate education for other student populations. I know. My son is one of those handicapped individuals who’s so severely affected that he can’t mainstream, but he’s still entitled by law — by legal mandate — to a safe environment and the best education possible for him.
A better and more appropriate parallel might be magnet schools. Hey, math geeks fleeing to science and math magnet schools isn’t all that different from GLBT students fleeing standard high schools, if you ask me. Ask any serious geek what they face in a standard high school.
Gee, upping the rhetoric again? Why not just come right out and call them Communist schools?
Incidentally, “indoctrinating” kids to be gay-friendly isn’t any different from authority figures hushing all mention of “gay” or ignoring it outright. Each send a certain message, but only one tacitly implies it’s OK to hate because “it” isn’t of value. It isn’t something “we accept.”
(Psst! And the drag queens started it all!) More rhetoric. But, of course, I look forward to the day Stonewall’s taught as part of American History.
Farah, you need to do your homework. Another GLBT high school already exists and it’s in the proudly conservative state of Texas. That should tell you something, you know.
Although Farah’s “they” are wealthy gays, let me point out that there’s another “they” out there — the parents of GLBT students. They’re taxpayers, too, and maybe they want their money doing its job for their kids. Frankly, if one of my kids came out to me and revealed he was being harassed at school, you damn well better believe I’d consider the option of moving my kid to a GLBT school. Just like I’d consider sending a torment math geek to a science magnet school. Or just like I have to send my disabled son to a clinical school in real life. My taxpayer dollars at work, Farah.
- A straight parent with a heart, answering one critic at a time.
