I'm sure many of you know about, heard of, or participated in the Day of Silence today. This year was my first year participating and I found it very moving and enlightening.
If you do not know about the Day of Silence, I will tell you what it's all about. It's a day dedicated to being silent to show your support for others who are silenced by harassment for their sexual orientation. At my school, participating students are given a piece of paper explaining to others why they are not speaking. Lets just say my piece of paper was passed around quite a few times.
I had a short battle this morning, with myself of course, whether or not I was going to participate. The biggest reason was I didn't want to do this thing halff-assed. I didn't want to find myself having a conversation in the middle of the day and completely missing the point of the activity. I also realized that this decision shouldn't be as hard as I am making it. If I truely support those who are GLBT then I should do it in a powerful way. And what's more powerful than cognitively taking away your ability to speak?
I got many different reactions. The most frequent reaction was "I don't know how you can do this, I love talking." or "I support gay people but I don't feel like I should be silent for a day," or "I just don't get it." I don't think people understand the metaphorical meaning behind today. They don't understand what it feels like to not be able to express yourself. To not tell people how you feel. To not be yourself because you are silenced. I found it particularly hard when I wanted to react to a situation and just scream how I felt, and I couldn't. As the day progressed I become more aware of what I was supposed to feel. I was supposed to feel uncomfortable, oppressed, and obviously silenced. I felt more in touch with those who feel this way everyday upon hearing the words "that's so gay" or "you're such a fag."
If this is your first time hearing about the Day of Silence or if you've never participated I encourage you to. Silence is a powerful and very rare thing that can express more than words.
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Yay DoS!
I did it. Did you go to a breaking the silence party?
Unfortunately, no. I don't think there is enough participation or awareness at our school for one to be organized but I think it would be an amazing thing to participate in. Would you mind telling me what it's like/what it's all about? Do you talk about your day/what you experienced or felt about DOS?
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"Most intellects do not believe in God, but they fear us just the same." - Erykah Badu
Well done. I commend your sense of understanding.
At my school, the DOS has been made into what I think is comparable to a fad. People do it to avoid class participation and for a variety of other reasons. I know in my heart that I support the struggles of more unique people than myself. That's what counts.
"I understand that this car is pretty expensive but it has more to it than any Ferrari can give to our earth and people." -- crystalcraze13, a ProU blogger
At my school DOS doesn't even have that much popularity to even be considered a way to get out of class participation. Even the teachers have no idea what it is, which is extremely sad. HERO put posters up and even made a display in the commons about it and people still didn't even know what it was.
I know in my heart that I support the struggles of more unique people than myself.
I felt that way too. There was a part of me that felt that I show my support by not following the ever so popular trend of calling everything gay or everybody a fag. I also thought that I wanted to show my support in a more outward, noticable way, so this was perfect!
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"Most intellects do not believe in God, but they fear us just the same." - Erykah Badu
Right on, soul brother.
The Once-ler: Well, what do you want? I should shut down my factory, fire a hundred-thousand workers? Is that good economics, is that sound for the country?
I did Day of Silence for the first time yesterday, too. I go to an arts school, and we have a fair amount of LGBT students, so I was shocked at how few students participated, and how many of the participants got bored within an hour or two and stopped. Most people, including teachers, were respectful, but one of my teachers was incredibly rude, and several students at lunch complained that DOS was making our school ever more of a "f** den" than it "already is."
The level of ignorance that still exists in our so-called tolerant world is appalling. Even if a person doesn't care to promote homosexuality as a lifestyle, I don't see how you can argue against protesting hate crimes.
+ Ave[ry] +
"Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little."
Edmund Burke
One of my really good friends at school is an active memeber in HERO. He said many parents have called in to say how they think DOS is wrong and that it should not be allowed in our school. He also said some students take that day off because their parents feel so strongly that they won't allow their child to go to school.
It's completely ridiculous how people can't look past homosexuality and see that these people are going through an entirely different struggle that we can't fully understand.
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"Most intellects do not believe in God, but they fear us just the same." - Erykah Badu
My school's day of silence is in May 1
We are given a piece of rainbow ribbon to show our participation.
I did it last year. it's kind of hard, because I really love to talk.
But I managed to shut up until to break silence party
I am really proud of myself
the bigger the heart
the bigger the stage
I participated in this as well. One of my best friends is homosexual so we did it to show our support for him (and others as well). It was an amazing experience and I hope to do it for many years to come.
I really hate to play devil's advocate here... but Day of Silence is being quiet all day for those that cannot speak out about what is silencing them right? Those abused or held down by fear?
And I do not mean this disrepectfully, because I think what you did was honorable... but then you came home and wrote a big blog about it, speaking your mind about a bunch of things... isn't that sort of a contradiction?
Jeanna Marie
Actually, no...not at all.
How is it possible to spread the word about DOS if there is no communication whatsoever? I'm not running through the halls screaming PARTICIPATE IN DOS!!! I'm not even forcing people to do it through my blog. The blog was a way for me to reflect how I feel.
A contradiction would be to say you're going to participate and then go through the day randomly speaking to people because you feel like it. This blog was a way to spread awareness and to show people my positive thoughts on the subject.
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"Most intellects do not believe in God, but they fear us just the same." - Erykah Badu