A symposium will be held in mid-October seeking community input for a renewed effort for an education program sensitive to the needs of LGBT students.
Bishop James E. Dukes of Pentecostal Liberation Christian Center, 6810 S. Ashland Ave., is organizing the gathering, to be held Tuesday, Oct. 18, at McCormick Theological Seminary, 5460 S. University Ave., 10 a.m.-noon.
In 2014, Dukes unsuccessfully spearheaded an effort to open a similar program. He said that, after convening with the original stakeholders, he now had support from CPS as well and the city and state, adding, "It's an exciting time."
If successful, the school would launch in fall 2017, and Dukes is looking at a location at 7400 S. Michigan Ave. initially; he would like the school to eventually grow large enough to serve about 350 students. Organizers will be meeting with the family of the late activist Renae Ogletree to consider the possibility of naming the school after her.
In early 2013, Dukes and some of his congregants occupied a home whose owners had left after they had been intimidated by local gangs. He held a number of neighborhood meetings in the home, and local residents said that the limited resources for LGBT youth needed to be a primary concern.
"They pointed to a both a limited amount of resources and a limited amount of acceptance in the community," Dukes said in 2014. "This is a population that we need to tap into. This is not a faith-based issue; it's a human rights issue."
This will be the third attempt at an LGBT-focused school in Chicago in the past decade. Prior to Dukes' previous attempt, Social Justice High School-Pride Campus was proposed in 2008; however, those plans were shelved late that year.