Chicago Steps Closer to Opening GLBT School

As reported earlier on GayAgenda.com, Chicago has been seeking safer alternatives for it’s GLBT student body. Pointing to studies showing that gay high school students are at greater risk of dropping out because of stigma and fear of violence, Chicago Public Schools leaders said they will be making the recommendation to open a campus for GLBT students.

Final approval of the School for Social Justice Pride Campus, which would be the city’s first school for GLBT students, is expected to become reality on October 22, when the city’s Board of Education votes.

Arne Duncan, the schools chief said he will ask the board to approve the school. Upon approval it will be expected to open in the fall of 2009. “We want to create great new options for communities that have been traditionally underserved,” Duncan stated. “If you look at national studies, you see gay and lesbian students with high dropout rates. . . . I think there is a niche there we need to fill.”

Hopefully with this type of forward thinking, unfortunate events, such as the murder of Larry King, will diminish.

Transgender Teen Faces Hate and Abuse Daily

Michael Arone has been called every pejorative someone could direct at a transgender teen.

But, while most harassment the 16-year-old West Haverstraw resident faced has been short-lived, Arone reached a breaking point at a summer school program in Clarkstown South High School.

Arone, a North Rockland school district 10th-grader, is a male transgender teen who publicly goes by Melissa Andrews and prefers to be referred to as a female.

Arone said classmates have routinely called her “faggot,” “she-male,” “it” and “queer” in response to her wearing eye shadow and lipstick, straightening her shoulder-length brown hair and carrying a purse to school.

“He’s dealing with a hate crime,” said her mother, Patricia Arone, 37, who often refers to Arone as Michael. “That’s the only way to say it, it’s hate.”

In one instance at Clarkstown South, a female student tried to punch Arone and said, “Come fight me, you faggot,” according to a Clarkstown police report.

Arone said she had a dating relationship with this girl, but the girl began instigating much of the harassment against Arone after they broke up, Arone said.

Read the rest at lohud.com.