Equal Protection Theory and the Harvey Milk High School: Why Anti-Subordination Alone Is Not Enough

Abstract

In recent years, advocates for youth have begun to support voluntary school segregation as a solution to the problem of inequality in public schools. These advocates are less concerned with different treatment on the basis of classifications like race or sex than with the disadvantages resulting from such classifications. They believe that this approach to inequality, called anti-subordination, provides a better way to achieve equality than does formal equality; the method of treating everyone alike. The introduction of the Harvey Milk High School in New York City, the nation's first, public school established to meet the needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning students and others in crisis, provides a fresh opportunity to examine this equal protection debate. This Note will argue that anti-subordination must be reunited with formal equality through comprehensive programs in integrated schools in order to provide true equal protection for all students.