GLBTQ Online High School

I saw a post on Queerty a few days ago about an all online high school for LGBTQ students, and ever since, the concept has been on my mind. The basic idea of the school is a safe, inclusive environment for students who don't have access to a GLBTQ-focused school such as the ones in New York or Los Angeles. Because it's all online, students (as well as staff) can be from anywhere as long as they have an internet connection. Their Web site is here. Their mission statement:

The GLBTQ Online High School will provide a safe and welcoming educational community that provides a high quality, comprehensive college-preparatory online high school experience for students who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender or questioning their sexual orientation or gender using the best technology and techniques of distance education.

The folks a Queerty clearly have some questions about the lack of social interaction inherent in an all-online environment. And I get their point. These students might be separated by thousands of miles and live in different time zones. They won't have opportunities to participate in certain activities like sports teams or clubs that require physical proximity. Dances and pep rallies will be ungainly to organize. And for many people the social aspects of school are what is important. Many people look back on high school as the best years of their lives. And it's not that great paper they wrote for U.S. History class that they're thinking of when they reminisce about their glory days.

But this school isn't for those people.

For many students, too many students in my humble opinion, high school isn't about having a great time at dances or making that awesome play on the ball field or delivering that soliloquy with Oscar-worthy precision. For many students high school is about fear and torture. It's about just trying to get through the day without breaking down into sobs from the damaging remarks hurled at you between classes. It's about praying that you don't get cornered out of sight from any adults and pummeled into a bloody pulp. It's about feeling like there is nothing and no one that relates to you. It's about physical and social isolation, despite the fact that everyone else seems to be having a great time. It's about not living up to your potential because you're so focused on just surviving through the day.

So maybe GLBTQ Online High School isn't for everybody, not even every GLBTQ student. It's for those kids that really need it.

I was talking about the school with the Ex. She was against it from the start. Her argument is that it's just another form of segregation. It's too much like separate but equal. And sure, the idea has its faults. And it certainly isn't the ideal situation. In an ideal world non-heterosexual students would be educated alongside their hetero counterparts in an inclusive, even welcoming environment. But that certainly isn't the case in the U.S. and I imagine it's not the case in most places around the world.

But I don't think GLBTQ Online is a case of separate but equal. For starters, those segregated schools for African-Americans weren't organized or funded by the African-American community. They were more or less "provided" by the white community to fulfill the minimum requirements for educating Black students. They weren't equal because the white establishment didn't really want Black students to succeed.

In this case the organizers don't seem to be trying to segregate students. They're trying to provide education for students whose needs aren't being met by the current system. They're trying to create a safe place where students who have already been failed by the system won't have to fail themselves.