Inspired by New York’s Harvey Milk school and Milwaukee’s Alliance high school, Chicago is considering building its own gay-friendly high school, to mixed community reactions. The idea for the school sprang out of the pre-existing Social Justice High School, a progressive Chicago high school, and support for the idea has grown to where city leaders have taken up the cause and are now pushing for a vote on October 22nd. But why the need for a gay-only high school? How about some terrifying statistics:

A 2003 district survey shows that gay and lesbian youths are three times more likely to miss school because they feel unsafe. On Wednesday, the Gay Lesbian and Straight Education Network released a national survey of more than 6,000 middle and high school students that found that nearly 90 percent were harassed at school and about 61 percent felt unsafe.

Aw just give them some helmets and a hug! No wait, not enough.

The proposed campus has the awesome name, Social Justice High School-Pride Campus and would be a college prep school for 600 students, open to all but geared primarily towards students who were failing out of regular high schools due to discrimination. One design staff member noted;

“We as a team saw many … lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning [students] and their allies who were well integrated into the system and doing well academically, but we saw just as many, if not more, who were isolated struggling, who were dropping out.”

However, the head of Chicago Public Schools, Arne Duncan, said that the school would probably end up with a mostly straight student population. The focus would not be on the sexual orientation of the individual student, but rather on creating a community where people of any orientation could come to school without fear of harassment. The education board also assured that the school would run on the same academic guidelines as other high schools- the only noticeable addition was the proposal to include prominent gay and lesbian historical figures in its curriculum.

The Office of New Schools held a public meeting to discuss the proposed campus, and most of the 50 people in attendance were supportive of the idea, but not all.

Some had questions about where it would be located, its curriculum and even how students would decide which restrooms to use. There were opponents — like LaShawn Greer — who praised the design work but had other concerns.

“I try to raise my children righteously via the word of God via the Bible because this is my belief,” Greer said. “I cannot support with my own tax dollars paying for something that I don’t agree with.”

We can’t help commenting that we all support crap we don’t agree with, with our taxes, merely because there’s no way one person can agree with everything done in the governments name. Some money goes to racists, some goes to pinko communists, some goes to saving fluffy monkeys from going bald. Which is not to say that we shouldn’t try to make our voices heard, just that you can’t always expect to be proud of where your tax dollars are going. DIGRESSION OVER.

Others had different reasons for opposing the school. Hantas Farmer, a transgender, cited the ground-breaking Brown v. Board of Education school decision.

“Have any of you considered that this is nothing but de facto segregation? I support you in principle. School should be safe for everyone. But I’m not sure segregation is the way forward,” Farmer said.

Good point. Nobody liked this:

Then again is it really segregation if it’s not compulsory? The school isn’t big enough for all of Chicago’s gay kids to go there, even if they wanted to, so it seems more like a safe haven for kids who might otherwise be driven to depression or suicide.

If approved, the pride campus would open in late 2009 or 2010.

p.s. Don’t tell Hilary Duff

The official proposal:
Social Justice High School–Pride Campus (Proposed Fall 2010)

City leaders to recommend approval of gay high school [Chicago Tribune]

Chicago Proposes Gay-Friendly High School [NPR]