They’re “gay” are they? What does “gay” mean? Or are they just gay? 
And learn how to use vB coding. Really. If you’re going to spout off irrational points of view, at least have the good presence to be readable.
:rolleyes:
Esprix
Because sexual orientation is not on their list of requirements for program eligibility. I said that already. You even quoted it. You’d have done well to actually read it before responding.
They ask about gender too, but this isn’t a single sex school. Heck, they ask whether or not the kid has health insurance, but I don’t think they’re going to refuse admission to kids without coverage.
Why on earth would you think they would be?
Yes I did; I was just thinking of Calvin (of Calvin & Hobbes) warning his Dad that his ratings were slumping.
BTW, tilly, you are cordially invited to contribute to this thread.
Lamia,
Oh, I see - the Harvey Milk school ISN’T a school specifically for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and questioning youth.
I guess it was all a huge coincidence that all the students enrolled there were gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and questioning youth. Gosh I hope next years enrollment doesn’t have this bizarre skew to it. Or someone might think that something is up with the Agency that is part of the admissions. You know that first line under requirements that says “Admissions: Admitted through Agency.” I sure hope that agency isn’t discriminating by only taking gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and questioning youth.
Well all is good then. Now we don’t need to spend 3.2 million tax dollars to renovate it. What a relief to the poor taxpayer. But someone better let the press know that the school takes all comers, not just gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and questioning youth. The school itself should probably update their own info as well which states they are “designed to meet the needs of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and questioning youth.”
Apology accepted. I’m glad it was a mis-read and not an intentional skewing.
When I was in high school (in 1995), I also didn’t have any gay people in my life. No family members, friends, friends’ parents, or neighbors were gay, at least not to my knowledge. Heck, the first gay person I met was Esprix, in 2001. Still, gay people weren’t invisible to me. I knew they existed, and aside from their sexual preference, they weren’t very different from me. I certainly didn’t think of them as “faggots”, either. I knew the stereotypes were stereotypes.
As for the straight people who need to be enlightened, I agree that they should be, but like I said, I disagree that it’s a gay person’s responsibility to do that teaching. I also don’t think it’s right to think of this as doing a “disservice” to straight people. It makes it sound as though gay people owe that to straight people, and that they’re doing something wrong if they’re not actively eradicating ignorance about homosexuality. That isn’t the case. Just as it’s not my responsibility to educate white people about Japanese-American culture, it’s not a gay person’s responsibility to educate straights. They can, of course, if they want to, but it’s not an obligation.
So every minority has the obligation to educate the majority? A gay person can never simply live privately and anonymously, but must always preach and educate and fight? This is wrong to me.
Honestly, I can see what you’re saying about it being their fight, whether they want it or not. They’ll always be gay, and as long as there’s bigotry against gays, they’ll be fighting a battle against that ignorance. But to expect evey gay person to be on the front line and to give up that privacy-- don’t you think that’s asking too much?
Why isn’t it a responsiblity of enlightened straight people to correct their fellow heterosexual but homophobic brethren? Wouldn’t fellow straights be a better messenger?
I apologize if I’m stepping on the toes of the gay members here. But as a minority myself, I would resent any insinuation that I’m slacking on my duties to my ethnicity by not preaching to the masses about my personal life’s details. It’s not anyone’s business unless I choose to make it so.
If you reduce the principle behind the school to “to get the different kids away from everyone else”, then yes, it’s quite comparable.
But there are significant differences. The heterosexual contigency didn’t start this school to get gays out of their schools. Attendance by gay students isn’t mandatory. Gay adults didn’t start this school in response to exclusion from schools by straight adults. And this isn’t a system-wide separation.
And thank you for reminding us of the kind of attitudes that sadly make such a school necessary.
To everyone else:
Enough people out there characterize homosexuality as a disorder that a student who’s the victim of anti-gay violence probably isn’t going to get the same support in the mainstream school system that, say, a victim of racism or religious bigotry would.
If a student is attacked or threatened with death, and the principal believes as our friend sleeping, here, then that kid will likely be blamed for his problems and remain at risk.
So you can quote crackpot, fringe pseudo-scientists. If you like, I’m sure I could find the Flat-Earth Society’s homepage for you. For those of us who are not conservative evangelical Christians, psychology based on conservative, evangelical, Christian thought is not science.
It’s also peripheral to the issue of protecting queer youth from violence. A red herring.
Sad and tragic, if it’s an accurate reflection of the public mood 
EVERYONE LISTEN UP:
THE PREVIOUS POST UNDER THE SCREEN NAME ** SLEEPING ** WAS NOT WRITTEN BY ME. I WAS AWAY FOR THE PAST FEW HOURS AND SOMEONE MUST HAVE HACKED MY PASSWORD OR SOMETHING. IN CASE YOU HAVEN’T NOTICED I AM FULLY IN FAVOR OF THE SCHOOL AND OF GAY RIGHTS.
MY PREVIOUS POST: http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=200783&perpage=10&pagenumber=3
I ENCOURAGE YOU TO SEARCH MY NAME FOR ALL PREVIOUS POSTS TO SEE MY OPINIONS ON THIS AND OTHER ISSUES.
This is really weird because that 9:07 PM (eastern time) post is under my name but I am 100% certain that I did not write. It does not match my writing style and is completely contradictory to my beliefs. I would like it erased and–if anyone can find out–the contact info of the perpetrator. I am quite certain that this is illegal and plan to press charges, especially seeing as how this could not have been an accident.
[Moderator Note: Hamish is replying to a deleted post. Sorry, it’s a bit confusing.]
Are they? Do you know that for sure? Because you don’t seem to know much about the school at all, and I would be greatly surprised if you had the inside track on the sexual orientation of all the students there.
They don’t need the money because their students are gay, they need the money because the school is trying to expand.
Why should they update their perfectly accurate statement? It isn’t their fault that you cannot tell the difference between the quoted phrase and “No straights allowed! If a straight kid ever happens to make it through our doors, we’ll throw him out so fast his head will spin!”
I am sure that Milk would love to accept the straight children of gay parents, straight kids who are bullied because they are perceived as gay, or just gay-friendly kids who’d like to go to school in a supportive and tolerant environment. I’m sure they’d also love it if they had room for every gay kid who wanted to attend, but they don’t. The expanded school will only have room for 100 students, and those spaces are going to go to the kids who are in the most need and who will benefit the most from the program.
Guess what? Most of those kids aren’t going to be heteros. Most of those kids aren’t even going to be well-adjusted GLBTQ youth from nice homes. They are going to be kids who ran away from, were thrown out of, or were removed from their homes for reasons relating to their sexual orientation. But Milk does not require that its students not be heterosexual, it does not ban heterosexual students from its halls, and it does not have a policy of expelling “questioning” students who find that the answer to their question is indeed heterosexuality. I feel confident in asserting this based on news reports about the school, their own website, and people I have spoken with who have been involved with Milk. Unless you can come up with some evidence to the contrary – and your personal fevered speculations and/or delusions don’t count as evidence – then you are just going to have to accept that you are wrong on this point.
Well honey if my views are soooo irrational, why do you bother to read and comment on them in anyway…
Maybe your time would be better served by gracing us all with
“Ask the Gay Guy” VI. I am sure if you tax your brain you might think of some detail or subject matter of your lifestyle choice that is not covered in the other 4 or 5 threads.
Your attempt at being a smart ass fell short I am afraid… 
Sorry to trail off-topic here, but I really feel that I need to explain a recent post, that was quoted and responded to by Hamish, and has just now been deleted by Gaudere due to my request.
I was gone at that time and my mom–who I thought did not even know about the web sites I visit, and who was supposedly just checking her e-mail on my computer–decided to voice her opinion on the matter at hand. I’ve always had auto-login for the SDMB (after all, it is my computer) but apparently have not been aware of my mother’s prying. That post was one expressing her opinion on the issue and is (clearly) conflictive with mine. Seeing as how this was an invasion of my privacy, to say the least, a massive argument ensued and some profanity was exchanged. (Well, not really exchanged. It all came from me.) Suffice to say that I won’t be speaking to her for at least a week, maybe more.
I apologize for not taking the precautions necessary to maintain my privacy, although I was quite shocked that this happened. I was certain that someone had hacked my password and did not even think of questioning my mom until I discovered that the IP of the post was the same as my computer’s.
Again, for my real opinion on this topic, please click on this link.
BTW, many thanks to Gaudere for her quick response to my problem.
Lamia,
Hmmm, it says “The school offers LGBTQ youth an opportunity to obtain a secondary education in a safe and supportive environment.” Not SLGBTQ youth - just LGBTQ youth.
So based on their own info it doesn’t look like straight kids (even those complete with their own sob-stories) are included in this expensive little program. However, if you have a breakdown of the current enrollment by all means share it. Until then it remains soley your claim that they provide education for heterosexual youth as well as LGBTQ youth.
That does include queer and questioning.
There are straight people who identify themselves as queer from the perspective that they do not fit, nor do they want to conform to the repressive norms expected by society.
I find it very interesting that you and a few others are hellbent on “proving” this to be a bad idea.
The bias is showing,
AudreyK,I know it sounds harsh, but I do think minorities have a duty to educate. But when I say educate, please understand what I mean. I don’t mean standing up at a podium, holding “ASk the Gay Guy” lectures. Nor do I mean they have to act like good representatives of their group.
By educate, I mean that “outsiders” have to simply be out there, accessible, so that they are no longer “outsiders”. I am open about myself at work. If people want to talk to me about “black” issues, I don’t close myself off. What they say may upset me or just annoy me, but I’d rather people feel comfortable about talking about race around me rather than uncomfortable. If I make race taboo, then I don’t get to challenge stereotypes or skewed views. And then nothing changes.
To me, you can’t complain about ignorance if you don’t do your part to fight it. Being a minority is hard enough without being a “teacher”, but the majority isn’t going to change if people aren’t willing to interact with it.
Just because many others and I commenting in this thread are against this school has nothing to do with being bias in any way, shape or form.
It has everything to do with considering the needs of the school system overall, budget being effectively used, the other 750,000 odd students and the taxpayers of NYC.
I think it would be great if every public school only had 150 students and the budget was close to $20,000 per student. I would be all for it! But that sadly is not realistic, even thought I think it could be if some house cleaning were put into motion from the ground up…
You want to privately fund it; I have no problem with that. Nock yourself out! But to want the taxpayers to foot the bill for this is so out of order I can smell it all the way from the Gulf of Mexico…
I tell you what is bias…
Anyone of those kids presently enrolled at the MILK school could go back to their regular school district if they so choose. Not every student in the school district could go to the Milk school because it is excluding students not on academic merit but on background and sexual orientation.
Again you cannot apply the rules of equality only when it suits you.
Take a long look at the Webster’s definition of the word Bias because it describes this school you herald down to the last student…
Main Entry: 1bi·as
Pronunciation: 'bI-&s
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle French biais
Date: 1530
3 a : BENT, TENDENCY b : an inclination of temperament or outlook; especially : a personal and sometimes unreasoned judgment : PREJUDICE c : an instance of such prejudice d (1) : deviation of the expected value of a statistical estimate from the quantity it estimates (2) : systematic error introduced into sampling or testing by selecting or encouraging one outcome or answer over others
Sorry but you misuse BIAS in this instance the way Al Sharpton usually misuses racism.
I fully agree, and I’m very comfortable with being an “ambassador.” I have ever since I was in cegep, and I volunteer to do high-school visitations for queer sensitivity training.
However, it’s rather cruel to expect a highly vulnerable queer teenager in highly difficult circumstances (which is the sort of person this program is targetting) to do the same, when s/he is really just trying to focus on getting an education.
Openly gay, dear - I’m sure you met lots of gay folk before me, but they just didn’t tell you they were.
As my friend Steven once said, when put in this very same position against his will, “I don’t have time to be your personal educational experience.”
Esprix
Because I was (and still am) wondering why you said your friends were “gay” instead of just gay. Why the quotes? I’m still confused.
Which only shows you’ve never read them. How sad for you, as you might actually learn something.
I don’t believe I was trying to be one.
Esprix
No, it just includes questioning youth. The “Q” in “LGBTQ” stands for questioning not queer - (as in Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender and Questioning youth).
Regardless of wether it’s a good idea or a bad idea, it’s charity. Therefore, It should be treated just like all other charities. If YOU think it is a good cause then YOU spend YOUR money on it. And let ME spend MY money on what I think is a good cause. In the meantime quit demanding that I have to reach into MY pocket to fund YOUR special projects.
I have stated that I believe sheltering people from the cold harsh reality that is to be found in the real world is a foolish idea. But I have also stated that if it were a private/charitable institution than I would have no problem with it.
Most charitable causes are good causes, but let each individual decide which ones they want to support. I have even gone on to say that it would be a great candidate for school vouchers (should school vouchers ever become the law).