Tomorrow is Day of Silence.
Details about Day of Silence can be found at www.dayofsilence.org.
I am the president of my school's Gay-Straight-Whatever Alliance and have been since my sophomore year.
Our GSWA decided to do our DoS on the 22nd instead of the 25th because of school scheduling issues/complications. We had a good percentage of the kids in the school participate, and even teachers and grads and other staff showed their support.
Though, one thing bothered me. There were some people who bothered some participants, loudly and obnoxiously stating they were conservatives and DoS is lame. Well, number one, anyone can do DoS so long as they believe that harassment is wrong on basis of sexual or gender identity. You don't even have to "support" GLBT people to think it's wrong for them to be harassed for it. Number two, if it's so lame then why are you getting suck a rise out of it?
Well, ignorant person, you served as an example. You yelled and harassed a group of for their showing their views. You kept loudly talking, raising your volume as time went on, about how stupid the entire thing was and how gross gay people are so others could hear you. You drew attention to this spectacle. Our reaction? We just stood there and watched you. We stood there and we were quiet. We stood there, in silence, and took your abuse- only striking back in retrieving some books you took off a desk. People saw us being quiet and you being an negative force.
Ignorant person, you showed the problem. I do not thank you for it, but I can laugh at how in your attempts to bring us down you bolstered our determination.
Photographer/Editor: Cat Knoerr. Model: A. Jackson (me). IA DoS Caompaign, #3, Yellow.
Speaking card text for this year:
Please understand my reasons for not speaking today. I am participating in the Day of Silence (DOS), a national youth movement bringing attention to the silence faced by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people and their allies. My deliberate silence echoes that silence, which is caused by anti-LGBT name-calling, bullying and harassment. This year’s DOS is held in memory of Lawrence King, a 15 year-old student who was killed in school because of his sexual orientation and gender expression. I believe that ending the silence is the first step toward building awareness and making a commitment to address these injustices. Think about the voices you are not hearing today.
What are you going to do to end the silence?
General spanish langauge speaking card:
Favor de entender mis razones para no hablar hoy. Estoy participando en el Día de Silencio, un movimiento nacional de jovenes protestando el silencio enfrentado por lesbianas, gays, bisexuales y gente transgénera y los que les apoyan en las escuelas. Mi silencio que he escogido es un eco de ese silencio, que tiene como sus causas el hostigamiento, el prejuicio y la discriminación. Yo creo que acabar con el silencio es un primer paso en la lucha contra estas unjusticas. Piense en las voces que no está escuchando hoy.
¿Qué va a hacer Ud. para acabar con el silencio?
I would participate this year, but it's Relay for Life tomorrow night, and I have to give an oral presentation tomorrow in class, so it's not exactly conducive for me to participate this year. But I fully support everyone who does.
~C
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