Walt Whitman Community School, nation's first private school for gays, opens in Dallas

Jet, Sept 22, 1997

In what some are viewing as a breakthrough for young gays, the nation's first private school for gays recently opened in Dallas.

The school, the Walt Whitman Community School, has seven students and three teachers. It is the dream of veteran educators, Becky Thompson, who is a lesbian, and Pamela Stone, who is not.

The two educators said they had observed students harassing others at another school in a north Dallas suburb, where they both worked. They have both since left that school.

Thompson and Stone also said they started the gay school because they were troubled by studies concluding that homosexual youths are at a higher risk for destructive behaviors.

The more we talked about it, we just became committed to doing it," said Thompson. "It was a simple, Here's a problem,' and we had the solution."

Tuition at Whitman is $7,000 annually. Thompson said all seven students are receiving financial assistance from people who want the school to succeed. The school also is seeking grants from private foundations. They hope to eventually have up to 30 students.

Only two of the students are seniors in high school. That shows the earlier age at which some people are becoming aware of their sexuality these days, Thompson noted. In earlier years, people didn't consider their sexuality until they were in their late teens or early 20s, she explained.

"I think if you lived in a small town anywhere in the U.S., you might not even know what gay meant," Thompson noted. "You might think that you were having particular feelings, but you might not know how they turned into being gay. Now it's on television. It's a very different culture now."

David Buckel, an attorney with Lamda Legal Defense and Education Fund in New York, said Whitman is the first school of its kind in the U.S.

"I'm sure you're aware of the sadness that attaches to the formation of a school like this," Buckel said. Me public schools haven't really caught up with the desperate need that lesbian and gay youth have with struggling with bigotry in the public schools every day."