A City School For Gay Teens

By Paul Wisenthal

When he was a sophomore at a school in Brooklyn, Allen Harris recalls, a gang of kids once threw their lunch trays at him, hitting him in the head and screaming, "Faggot! Faggot! You don't belong here."

Harris' life changed for the better when he transferred to Harvey Milk High School in lower Manhattan, the country's first public high school for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students. The 17-year-old senior says, "I've gained self-confidence and increased my self-respect since I came to Harvey Milk. I now have the strength to talk back to somebody who insults me."

His classmate, Precious Cox, 17, also has bad memories. She attended Martin Luther King High School in Manhattan and remembers a security guard there yelling at her, "You lesbian have to get out of this school. Your kind of people are not allowed here." Since attending Harvey Milk, Cox sleeps better and looks forward to going to school. "I am now happy and very comfortable with myself," she said. "The nightmares are gone and I can now focus on my school work."

School Is Expanding

The experiences of Harris and Cox are shared by many of the 111 students who now attend Harvey Milk. The high school, which opened in 1985, recently received approval from the city's Department of Education to spend over $3.2 million for expansion, hiring more certified teachers and support staff, so it can admit 170 new students next year.

Last summer's announcement of the expansion triggered nationwide media coverage and some protests. State Sen. Ruben Diaz Sr. (D-Bronx) filed suit in State Supreme Court charging that city support of the school was a waste of tax dollars. He contends that the school discriminates against heterosexual students, especially blacks and Hispanics in underperforming schools.

Despite such opposition, school programs for gay students are spreading nationally. School boards in Los Angeles, Seattle, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Madison, Wis., and Cambridge, Mass., provide satellite or store- front schools for gays or train educators to deal with harassment and equality issues based on actual or perceived sexual orientation of students.

Safety an Issue

As many as two million students around the country face harassment based on sexual orientation, according to Michael Bochenek, author of "Hatred in the Hallways," a recent study published by Human Rights Watch, a group that monitors human rights violations around the world. "Gay youths spend an inordinate amount of energy trying to get safely to and from school," he says, "and they try to become invisible in order not to be verbally or physically attacked. Too often, they have little energy left to learn."

The New York school is named after Harvey Milk, San Francisco's first openly gay city supervisor who fought for the civil rights of the gay community and who was murdered in 1978. The school, open from 7:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., provides a full academic program, including such electives as culinary arts, robotics, theater, media technology, martial arts and poetry. Since many students dropped out of other schools, academic enrichment programs are offered after school. With a class ratio of 25 students per teacher, the school graduates 90 percent of its students with 85 percent going on to college, surpassing city and state school averages.

On the same floor as the school is the Hetrick-Martin Institute, a nonprofit organization that provides services for gay youth, including free psychological and career counseling and training.

According to recent studies by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in partnership with Seattle's public schools and the state of Massachusetts, between 4 to 9 percent of students identify themselves as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.

Kevin Jennings, executive director of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, points out that 42 states, including New York, have no laws specifically protecting students from discrimination or harassment based on sexual orientation. According to the Centers for Disease Control, 18 percent of the gay teen population requires medical attention as a result of a suicide attempts. "That is six times the rate of straight kids based on the CDC studies," Jennings said.

She Was Totally Stressed Out

Before coming to Harvey Milk, 11th grader Jezabel Ortiz, 17, spent two years at Manhattan's High School for Environmental Studies, where she was stressed out, skipping school and getting failing grades. "I didn't sleep well at night," she said. "Many at school looked at me weird and made nasty comments because I was gay and dressed more like a guy. I was depressed all the time and hated going to school."

Bill Salzman, Harvey Milk's principal, says many students have fallen way behind because of missing school due to harassment or because they were abandoned by their families and are living in homeless shelters. "The school and Hetrick-Martin offer health and wellness programs ... ," he said. "Twice a week students meet with advisers and counselors to discuss problems and even life in general. Our mission is to establish and promote a community of successful independent learners by creating a safe educational environment."

Arthur Levine, president of Columbia University's Teacher's College, takes issue with those who oppose the school. He says the small class structure and the guidance support at Harvey Milk provide students with what they need to succeed. "This is an education issue, not a political or sexual orientation one."

Paul Wisenthal writes for Street Beat News, a syndicated news column about teens. He was assisted on this piece by Sanjay Nadesan.