(PM.) An LGBTQ-centric middle school is set to open in the state of Arizona to offer students an alternative education centered around LGBTQ+ history and curriculum. This comes after the Arizona state legislature passed Bill 2853, otherwise known as “school choice” last year, which grants parents the decision on where to send their child to school through taxpayer-funded scholarship grants, or education vouchers.
Through Arizona’s education vouchers, middle schoolers will be able to enroll at the Queer Blended Learning Center in August located in downtown Phoenix at an LGBTQ+ youth nonprofit called one∙n∙ten, according to AZ Central.
The school’s founder, Nate Rhoton, said that the alternative education was created in response to “anti-LGBTQ” legislation passed through the state legislature earlier this year, claiming that the school will save the lives of LGBTQ+ children.
“We’re seeing nationally that LGBTQ youth are, frankly, under attack legislatively,” Rhoton told the outlet. “It’s deadly to the youth that we serve.”
Rhoton said that due to “this state of cultural war with the LGBTQ community at the epicenter” the Queer Blended Learning Center “is absolutely necessary and, in fact, lifesaving for the young people that we will reach.”
“We just had this population of sixth, seventh and eighth graders that could really benefit from a safe space to be able to really have exceptional education while also having education that pertains to their own identity,” Rhoton explained.
The Queer Blended Learning Center will offer its students daily LGBTQ history lessons with a curriculum highlighting “different significant historical figures in the LGBTQ+ community,” said Darla Baquedano, the director of education for Spark Community Schools. Students will also be offered basic math, science, and English through online courses, according to the outlet.
Clayton Davenport, one∙n∙ten’s director of development and marketing, is ecstatic about the alternative schooling option as said that it will prevent LGBTQ youth who “tend to be shy” from “becoming targets.”
