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Plans to create Chicago’s first gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender high school were pulled this week after mounting pressure from Mayor Daley and a group of clergy, who were concerned the school would be a throwback to the days of segregation. Some gay activists, however, believe the segregation charge was a “cover story.” That’s because one of the leading ministers who opposed Pride Campus of Social Justice High School is a supporter of the “sanctity of marriage.”
Earlier this week, the design team behind Pride Campus retooled the plan, which included changing the name, stripping out a curriculum focused on GLBT heroes and broadening the scope of the school to include other students who are bullied. The new proposal was scheduled for a vote this week but was pulled at the last minute by members of the design team, who believed the original goal of the school was lost.
Rev. Wilfredo De Jesus of New Covenant Church in Humbolt Park said he consulted with the design team as they were revising their proposal. De Jesus became a de facto spokesman for a group of 10 clergymen who met with Chicago Public Schools CEO Arne Duncan over concerns that Pride Campus would isolate GLBT students.
What wasn’t mentioned in any of the newspaper accounts was De Jesus’s view on same-sex marriage. In October of this year, De Jesus told Christianity Today that “opposing abortion and homosexuality have been the paramount moral issues for him.” When we reached him at his church for comment, De Jesus told us that he believes in the sanctity of marriage but doesn’t oppose homosexuality. “If a kid wants to be gay, it’s their choice to be gay,” he said. “Don’t call me a bigot or anti-gay. I have family members and friends who are gay.” De Jesus said Pride Campus should be open to all kids who are bullied and not just GLBT students. He supported changing the school’s name and curriculum so that it would be more inclusive to other groups.
“That’s really rich coming from someone who doesn’t support equal rights,” said Andy Thayer, co-founder of the Gay Liberation Network. He said changes to Pride Campus were attempts to “de-gay” the school and that the school always planned on including other students. “The issue of segregation is a cover story for anti-gay opponents,” he said.
Thayer said this is just round one for Pride Campus and is hopeful the measure will garner more support when the design team submits another proposal next year. In the meantime, he said the gay community should take a page from the campaign against California’s Prop. 8. and organize rallies. “We’ve got a battle royale on our hands,” he said.
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Rick Garcia disliked this school idea, too, as did some other gay activists who thought the idea represented too much of a surrender to bullies and ignorant people. Let's remember that when we criticize the Jesus freaks.
I've always wondered how one "opposes homosexuality"?
Does he not suck cock, adamantly?
You oppose it, I guess, if you really think it is a choice for people. Hell if I know. I don't understand the logic of Bible thumpers.
“If a kid wants to be gay, it’s their choice to be gay"
Just another clueless, ignorant view of what it actually means to be gay.
There is no logic.
I believe homosexuality is genetic. I also believe that a certain innate, shall we say distaste, for homosexuality is also hard-wired. Not an overt hatred mind you, more of a "this is not the way to reproduce" sort of thing. Much like fear of heights or other little tics. Instead of realizing how silly this fear is, people make up stories, cling to misinterpretations of religious texts and dogma.
I have a horrible fear of heights, but I take a valium and I'm all good for a plane flight.
I say the bigots have a beer with a queer and realize that yes, we are different, but not incompatible.
Uh. The gay right's movement has gone militant. Maybe not the best way to get something done FOR THE GOOD of the children is to smear a respected clergyman as a "bigot".
The way the gays have structured their movement for equality is piss poor. Maybe it's because they have so much strife within their own community.
The way the gays have structured their movement for equality is piss poor.
That implies there is only one "gay-rights" movement, or that all gays are of the same mind when it comes to fighting for rights.
That's about as accurate as saying all blacks love the ideas and tactics of Jesse Jackson. Or Malcom X. Or King.
I hope you get my point. Human activity is usually far more complicated than you seem to acknowledge.
I think that when comparing movements, black versus gay...black wins. There was far more agreement in the black community about methods and ideas then there seems to be in the gay community. Having a PROTEST to open a school for gays when black CPS kids can't seem to get to school alive seems a little insensitive to me.
It is like going to a starving child and giving them candy. POINTLESS. And harmful.
I think that when comparing movements, black versus gay...black wins.
I don't know what on earth that has to do with the point you raised.
There was far more agreement in the black community about methods and ideas then there seems to be in the gay community.
Uh, really? Do you even know about the debates over violence and non-violent methods of getting civil rights in the 1960s? Or, going back to the turn of the 20th Century, some of the debates among blacks about how to get rights?
In any case, that point above, in italics, pretty much contradicts what you implied about the unity of the gay-rights movement.
My point is I don't think there EXISTS a cohesive gay-rights movement. AT. ALL. In any way.
If only all those gays would just act as one.
Rachel, really, you're talking out of your ass on this one.
Fair enough, Jenny. Your statements above--for instance, "The way the gays have structured their movement for equality is piss poor."--implied otherwise, at least to my tiny mind.
Fair enough. I should have been more clear.
I don't think anyone called the rev a bigot. I dont see how this is a smear against him either. He put himself out there.
Is it weird for me to think that maybe the bullying wouldn't really end just because you opened a school for the "picked on"? Teenagers are assholes, no matter where you go, and kids are going to be kids. There will still be some crazy hierarchy and some people continue to be considered "lower rung".
Seeing an episode or two of "Fat Camp" on MTV has convinced me this school might be pretty pointless.
The cost per pupil is ridiculously high. That would make the kids in this school extememly special.
The school system must provide a safe education to all people, no matter what the cost under the law. It doesn't make them special, but rather able to study without interuption. You obviously have no idea what it's like to be harrassed continually at school, just for being perceived as gay.
A bigot is a person who is intolerant of opinions, lifestyles, or identities differing from his or her own, and bigotry is the corresponding state of mind. Bigot is often used as a pejorative term against a person who is obstinately devoted to prejudices even when these views are challenged or proven to be false or not universally applicable or acceptable.