New York's LGBT High School

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 15 June 2022

⏱️ 9 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In 1985, a unique High School opened in New York to provide a safe environment for LGBT students needing specialised education. The publicly-funded Harvey Milk High School was founded by former social worker, Steve Askinazy. Initially, it faced some opposition from the media and Christian groups, but the school eventually expanded and currently takes about 60 students a year. Alex Collins talks to Steve Askinazy. PHOTO: A protest outside the Harvey Milk High School in 1985 (Getty Images)

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hello and thank you for downloading the podcast of Witness History from me, Alex Collins.
0:11.0	To mark Pride Month in the US, I'm going to take you back to New York City in 1985 and
0:16.7	the opening of a unique high school.
0:19.2	I've been speaking to its founder Steve Ashkenazi.
0:26.4	We were given space by this church where we had allies of the Washington Square Methodist
0:35.3	Church.
0:36.8	They gave us a room to use and that's where the school met for the first three months.
0:48.2	Steve Ashkenazi had created the high school to support LGBT youth who had been marginalised
0:53.7	from the education system in New York and from life.
0:57.8	They'd be going to the first school of its kind in America and possibly the world.
1:02.5	It was a very cathartic day because kids got to talk about themselves, they got to meet
1:07.2	the teacher.
1:08.2	They got to be in an environment with adults who were not looking to exploit them sexually.
1:13.6	They got to be in an environment where they were being told that they had potential.
1:21.6	The Steve setting up the school hadn't been easy.
1:25.1	In the early 80s he was a social worker at an advocacy group supporting the needs of young
1:30.2	LGBT people.
1:32.3	Steve heard many stories about how teenagers would skip school because they were bullied
1:36.5	about their sexuality.
1:38.5	Initially he worked with the Board of Education in New York to see if things could be improved
1:43.0	within the mainstream system but he quickly concluded that some LGBT students needed specialised
1:49.7	support at a school of their own.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.