First school for gay students draws dollars and critics

Everyone was downright giddy at the Hetrick-Martin Institute when the New York Board of Education voted in June to approve a $3.2 million expansion of its Harvey Milk School, the first accredited public school in the world "devoted to educating lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, and questioning youth."

The approval allows the school, which was founded in 1984, to increase enrollment from 50 to 170 students for the start of the 2003 school year.

While protest of the decision was expected from the Christian right, few expected such a severe backlash from within the gay community. The announcement came, after all, on the heels of one pleasant brush with the press after another.

In February, Hillary Clinton (D) of New York became the first senator to visit. In April, actress Susan Sarandon became a "principal for a day." Even New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg added to the chorus, telling a throng of reporters that the vote was "a good idea" because some gay and lesbian students are "constantly harassed and beaten in other schools."

But after the New York Post covered the expansion last week, the floodgates opened.

"For those of us who have supported gay rights, the announcement of the new high school is baffling," wrote Jonathan Turley, a George Washington University Law School professor, in a Newsday commentary. "The city's ... solution is not to correct those failings but to remove the students, as if they are the source of the problem. The establishment of a gay high school rings of a civil rights breakthrough when it is the scourge of equal rights."

As I think about how to bridge the gap into the culture which surrounds me, to open a path for the Light of Christ to enter in and transform the hearts that don't hurry back into the darkness, I find myself often feeling so inept at the task.

Jesus did it by healing people, partying with people, talking with people, standing up for people, and raising people from the dead. The only culture that he approached with negativity was the religious culture, and yet he knew that his clash with them would be required as he would become the sacrifice.

So here I am, trying to follow NASCAR, given up on hunting, thinking about camping, and even enjoying 70's Southern Rock music, but... in New York? I'm not homophobic. I can love a homosexual and yet not agree with their lifestyle as I would consider it sinful, and yet at the same time realize many have not dealt with their sinfulness, and certainly I can not deal with it fully as the sin runs so deep. It isn't so much obvious sin in my life (though there is some of that), it is attitudes and pride and impatience. It is lack of discipline and judgment and arrogance. It is lack of faith, not fully trusting God in all things.

But this is talking about homosexual high school students, transgender high school students, bisexual high school students. I assume they start as freshmen or transfer in later. That they can even fill a school makes me wonder if I have any idea of the nature of this world.

I don't think it is a good idea for any number of reasons, but the question I would have to ask is "How do we bridge the gap into that culture so that the love of Christ can be made evident?" That certainly is not done by hateful comments. It isn't done by making label references of homosexuals -- queers, fags, etc.

What would Jesus do?