NYC to Open Gay High School...

[FeeFee]

*bump*

Sweet 'n' sour
on Harvey Milk



By JOE WILLIAMS
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Protesters waving signs of hate were far outnumbered by cheering throngs greeting students yesterday as classes began at the newly expanded Harvey Milk High School for gay and lesbian teens.
Police escorted students into the East Village school as 250 supporters lined Astor Place - largely shielding the teens from a dozen protesters brandishing banners reading "God Hates F---" and "Repent."

"For those of you who say this school is unnecessary, I would refer you to some of the signs and comments from over there," said City Council Speaker Gifford Miller (D-Manhattan), pointing to the demonstrators.

The school was founded in 1985 as a small nonprofit program run by the Hetrick-Martin Institute.

Over the summer, education officials announced that Harvey Milk would become a full-fledged city high school, eventually housing 170 students.

The plan sparked a national controversy and a lawsuit contending that the school would illegally segregate gay and lesbian teens.

Protester Rueben Israel branded the supporters of the school as hypocrites.

"These people say, 'Accept us for who we are but don't accept anybody else,'" he said.

But Dino Portalatin, 19, of Brooklyn, a recent graduate of Harvey Milk, said he was picked on so much in a traditional high school that he began playing hooky.

"I felt I would be better off dead than to deal with what came with going to school," Portalatin said.

Chancellor Joel Klein said he was disappointed that the school's $3.2 million expansion generated so much negative publicity.

"I'm saddened, because it is a school that works," he said.