Response to USC artictle

This is a response I sent to the Daily Trojan Online, the student newspaper of the University of Southern California. The article was entitled Gay high school will only hurt acceptance of gays. Below was my response.

I'd like to point out a few issues I had with your article on the Harvey Milk School.

From the article:
At a school like USC, you cannot take a class on diversity or civil rights without hearing how evil corporations or government establishments "discriminate based on race, gender or sexual orientation."

Actually, government has passed laws that make it illegal to discriminate against people based on race and gender (so you have legal recourse should discrimination be proven). The same cannot be said for sexual orientation. There are no federal laws what so ever that state that corporations or the federal government can not discriminate against you based on sexual orientation. It is still fully legal in 37 states in this nation to fire someone solely because they are homosexual, without further reason.

In regards to the Harvey Milk School, you state:
"It is undeniably true that gay students are likely to be teased and harassed by their peers. But so are tall students, short students, skinny students and overweight students — all of which may be either straight or gay. Perhaps a school for the overweight would aid in the education of those types of students. If we can create a segregated school, where can the line be drawn?"

I find this to be highly offensive. Anyone who has been perceived to be gay in high school will tell you that you can't even begin to compare the kind of teasing that other students (short, skinny, overweight) receive.

Do they get the windshield and headlights on their car busted out?

Do they get chased home after school every damn night fearful that if they get caught they will be killed?

Do they get kidnapped after school, taken to a remote area out of town, beaten over the course of an hour until unconscious, then urinated on by five boys from the football team for being a "faggot", only to be told later when that gay student tried to press charges that charges would not be pressed, because they are "from good families", and that "boys will be boys"?

After trying to file the complaint, that gay student was shot with a shotgun while in his back yard. The pellets entered the down coat he was wearing, and feathers flew in the air. There was intense stinging and pain, followed by blood dripping down his back. The police never charged anyone for that, but did find the empty casings from the gun.

I was that gay student. I doubt that is the same as being bullied for being overweight. If I had somewhere I could go to finish my high school education without that harassment and intimidation, I would have taken it in a second.

Your comparisons are not the same. I'm against segregation, but I have to vote for the lesser of two evils. If the Harvey Milk School saves one student from going through the hell I had to endure, it will be well worth it!