Learn about Kids: When school is out: gay-friendly education in the US

About half of the students in high school in Wisconsin are pioneers gay, many of them deserters from general education. But this is just a new form of sexual segregation?

In the first class of the Alliance High School in Milwaukee, the best student - the most outstanding student of the year - scored a D + "They were smart," recalls Tina Owen, founder of the school management and teachers. "But many of them did not go to school because they have been bullied, and many of them had problems at home. This year we had 15 children. Five of them had lived with me at some point during the year, for one reason or another. "

Alliance is not an ordinary school. It aims to serve a community that is, at best, and in the worst case, we have vigorously denied their existence - young gays and lesbians. Call it a gay school and will be corrected immediately. No admission criteria on the basis of sexual orientation or anything else. The school building, a modest brick building set back from the main road, no rainbow flags fly or adorn their walls with posters of pink triangles. Owen conjectures about half of the students LGBT (lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender). "If you're gay, not much," she said. "Otherwise, not much."

But the school, which is funded by the State of Wisconsin, is self-openly gay-friendly. "Here we can speak of a relationship or a break without having to worry about how it will be received," says Owen. The Prom prom king and queen posts are open to anyone to ask, regardless of gender. A mural at the entrance bears the words "knowledge, respect, peace," and a sign that says Stonewall Inn. It is a small school - only 165 students - where everybody knows your name. Accommodate more riders than the regular rate of children with medium length hair or nail polish. Total rises to a critical mass of children who say they felt they did not fit elsewhere - if goths, punks and nerds - this being a non-conformist in the Alliance standard. Professor of art school to school affectionately Time magazine described as "the island of misfit toys."

At a time when sexual diversity has never been accepted in the United States, the emergence of these schools - there are around the country - seems paradoxical. "What does it say about our country that we have schools like that?" request Ritch Savin-Williams, professor of developmental psychology at Cornell University and author of The New Gay Teenager. They have been criticized by social conservatives, religious groups and other members of the gay community.

Owen admits that he is not to everyone's taste. A boy called home after his first day and I said, "Dad, get me out of here, these children are monsters."

But for others it is literally a lifesaver. Long hair Huegerich Dylan and the occasional use of makeup made him the frequent subject of ridicule at school in the small town of Saukville where he grew up. "It hurts so much," he said. "I hated my life. Hated it. When his mother complained to school were told to cut their hair and try to act" more human. " Every morning she told Time, "I knew I was coming back to this place, where he was wounded. Oh, you've come? Here go again. My heart broke every time you are out. "

She decided not to enroll in the eighth grade. "I felt as if I had turned in these forms, I gave a sort of judgment." So I went to the Alliance, 90 minutes by car.

The school, founded in 2005, was modeled on the Manhattan High School Harvey Milk, who was named in honor of the San Francisco gay activist whose end was the story basis for the award-winning film Milk, and became fully accredited in 2002. It began as a high school (ages 14-18), extended to middle school children (11-14) too, and it is now on the verge of become just a new school.

Freytes Michael, 17, who is straight, like Alliance because they feel judged. "When I was in college I was bullied a lot. I tried to fit in, but I could not. But if there is a problem such as the Alliance of the other students can not tolerate and teachers take care of it. " Students solve conflicts through what they call "restorative justice", but a "circle of justice", governed by students, who Freytes said "try to understand the problem and fix it without things getting out of Control. "

The main justification for the existence of schools such as the Alliance's security -. An institutional response to the widespread intimidation experienced by LGBT youth and other current

The problem is serious. A survey conducted in 2009 by the Education Network Gay, Lesbian and Straight (GLSEN) found that 9 out of 10 LGBT students said they had been victims of harassment or intimidation. Nearly two-thirds said they felt unsafe at school, while one in five said they had been physically assaulted. A 2007 study found that 39% reported physical abuse, and those who told teachers or administrators of bullying, only 29% said it led to an effective response. The 2009 survey also revealed that the frequency with which LGBT students experienced the most severe forms of bullying and harassment have remained stable over the past decade.

last winter, 14 years, Kenneth Weishuhn committed suicide after leaving school Iowa. Anonymous threats on his voice box was followed by shouts and physical harassment was so bad teachers had to stand guard in the hallway. Kenneth finally hanged himself in the garage of his parents.

Even when parents are not willing to accept that their children are gay, says Owen, who understand the need to put their children in a warm atmosphere. "They want their children to be safe. They want to know that your child will not spit up or just to be who they are."

attitudes towards homosexuality changed dramatically in the United States, even in Midwestern states like Wisconsin, and even if gay marriage was never put to the vote at the state level, a failure. President Obama recently came out in favor of gay marriage, which is legal in six states and Washington, DC, covering 12% of the country. According to Gallup, now nearly two-thirds of the population in the United States believe that gays and lesbians relationships should be legal, against less than half in 1977.

Today, more than half (54%) believe that homosexuality is morally acceptable, compared to 40% in 1977. And those most likely to be comfortable with homosexuality as a fact of life that should enjoy the same rights and protection of young people.

Not surprisingly, the Conservatives are not in love with this trend or an educational response. The President of the Conservative Party of New York, Michael Long, said the creation of the Harvey Milk School was social engineering. "Is there another way to teach homosexuals? There gay math? ... This is wrong no reason that children should be treated separately."

however, are often treated differently, and Chad Weiden, who led the efforts to establish a gay-friendly school in Chicago, said that part of the responsibility for education is sometimes cause Summary of problems accessible to students. "It is all about what is relevant for children. If you do mathematical probability, could illustrate GLBT suicide watch or stop-and-palpation or unemployment. A good program will also cover the policy issues of sex, like evolution, biodiversity, anthropology, history and literature. This should be true for the whole school, not just one that is considered gay-friendly ".

But conservatives behind these attacks are two general motivations. The first, based on the idea that homosexuality is wrong is that any mention of homosexuality "normalize" gay identity, and could encourage impressionable youth to be gay, which otherwise would not .

The law requires efforts to recognize sexual diversity "push gay agenda." Weiden when trying to establish his school, the Conservatives tried to provoke them by saying that the promotion of homosexual lifestyles. "We are running bullfighting.." Say it, say it, you will teach homosexual lifestyles "reportedly said:" I'm gay, gay children will be, it will be the largest school in the City of fire "But we were not going to say .."

The second motivation, however, is rooted in a belief that adolescents most common gays and pre-teens are simply unable to understand and label their sexual orientation, it's like being a gothic punk or nerd, it may be a phase through which they passed. In part, this is in most parents have anxiety about sexuality from adolescence to expand.

But there is also a function of consciousness associate being gay with an active sex life, and the celebration of the homosexual identity to a different level for heterosexuals. At 12 years old, who express an interest in girls or vice versa stealth cause little concern. Indeed, the question of their righteousness even approached. At 12 years old, who is attracted to other boys, however, do not have that luxury. Because gender identity liquid course there the possibility that preferences may change. But it is no less true for the gay guy straight. And, most likely, whatever sex you are attracted to, so it may still be waiting for her first kiss.

"Nobody says [a preteen teenager directly or]: 'Are you sure you're too young to know if you like girls probably just a phase?". Eileen Ross, Director of the exit program, a support service for young homosexuals in California told the New York Times. "But this is what is said too often young gays. Deprived us of their feelings and truth in a way that never would a heterosexual young."
In previous generations, young people have to wait to leave the university. Now the courage to go to the middle or high school - at a time and in a place characterized by teasing, bullying, sexual exploration and hormonal turbulence. "Children are certainly before, and the college is undoubtedly the worst time to intimidate, if you're straight or gay," says Savin-Williams. There are several summer camps across the country, serving transgender children from the age of eight years.