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Gay High School Discriminates and is Unconstitutional, Lawsuit Says
By Jimmy Moore
Talon News
August 18, 2003

NEW YORK (Talon News) -- A lawsuit has been filed in the New York Supreme Court in Manhattan by state Sen. Ruben Diaz, Sr. and a mother of four school-aged children opposing the creation of a public high school for homosexual children on the basis of anti-discrimination school policies and the constitutional rights of heterosexual children.

"When the city of New York takes $4 million out of the funds to create a school with high tech equipment to educate only 100 students, based solely on their sexual preferences, it is taking from the poor and giving to the rich," exclaimed Diaz.

Diaz, a Democrat, contends that the Harvey Milk High School in Greenwich Village is an unlawful use of taxpayer dollars, and he is asking the court to invoke an immediate injunction on funding for the upcoming school year.

The school has been discriminating against heterosexual pupils, especially African-American and Hispanics who are forced to attend under performing public schools, says Diaz.

"To take money away from those poor children in my district and in other black and Hispanic districts to protect a single group of children is wrong," remarked Diaz, who is also an ordained minister.

Supporters of the homosexual-only school claim that gay students are more susceptible to being abused because of their sexual orientation in regular public schools and that an exclusive school for homosexual students is necessary to prevent harm from coming to them. But Diaz counters this argument by stating that all students can and should be protected while they are at school.

"The money should be better used to protect all children -- black, Jewish, Hispanic, Asian, Arabs -- all children," said Diaz. "The ones that we have to segregate really are the bullies. Those are the ones with the problems. The homosexual kids, they are not the ones with the problems."

The reaction from the Harvey Milk High School is that this lawsuit is totally unfounded.

"It's a frivolous lawsuit that attacks a program that has helped children for many years," responded the school's press secretary, Jerry Russo.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has recently supported the school as an excellent choice for parents looking for an alternative program for their children who are gay. But Harvey Milk school officials have been quick to note that any student is encouraged to apply, even if they are not homosexual.

Even still, many legal scholars believe the school will withstand this lawsuit.

"I think this school could defend itself by saying, 'The kids we are helping out here are not in the same situation as other kids,'" argued UCLA law school professor William Rubenstein, who oversees the Charles R. Williams Project on Sexual Orientation Law.

Meanwhile, Diaz is being supported in his lawsuit by a group called Liberty Counsel, located in Orlando, Florida. They are a nonprofit organization focusing on legal ways to protect and preserve religious freedoms. They believe the Harvey Milk school is discriminating against non-homosexual students.

"Under the New York City school system's own policies it is blatantly discriminatory," said Matthew D. Staver, president and general counsel for Liberty Counsel. "What's next if you start this? What does this lead to?"

He added that a school set apart for those participating in sinful activities like homosexuality would be best led by a popular television talk show host.

"This is creating a public school catering solely to deviant sexual behavior, and the only thing that would be worse is if Jerry Springer were the principal," said Staver.

Norman Siegel, the former executive director for the New York Civil Liberties Union, says the decision by the Harvey Milk school to specify a very narrow group of people violates the equal protection rights of heterosexual students as well as basic human rights.

A few years ago, Siegel was instrumental in defeating a push for an male-only, African American school in Brooklyn, but was unable to prevent a girls-only school from forming in Harlem. He said a school like Harvey Milk goes against the idea of a constitutionally mandated integrated public school system.

"Just saying that anyone can apply is probably not adequate because of the context of the statements they had already made," he said. "Whether it's in a restaurant or on a bus or in a classroom, we have decided as a society that people should not be separated on the basis of traits such as race, gender and sexual orientation."

Siegel adds that a gay high school permitting less than 200 students will not help curb the threat of harm to the thousands of other homosexual pupils that will be left to attend regular public schools.

"Why not take on the institutional homophobia?" Siegel asked. However, he continues by saying that attempts to correct these problems in the public school system "are stopped in their tracks because of this program" at Harvey Milk.

Copyright © 2003 Talon News -- All rights reserved.

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