Today I participated in the Day of Silence, as many people have done today. I want to congratulate everyone who successfully made it through the day without speaking. I hope that you participated because you wanted to make a point and not for a silly reason.
I want to know what this day meant to you.
To me, the Day of Silence represented the fact that many of my friends and classmates are oppressed by their peers and teachers with their speech and how many people are trapped in silence because they just cannot escape the prejudice.
But to many of my classmates the Day was just a day; a day that could be used to not participate in class.
Some of my friends made a game of trying to get the silent people to talk. Or if you did slip accidentally and say something, they would make a big deal of it. A few of my friends claimed that they could not be silent for the day because they had already spoken. As I sat in many of my classes just kept getting angrier and angrier. Because I think I may have found maybe a handful of people who were silent because they wanted to show that they supported GLBT people.
I think that it is GREAT that so many people in my school wanted to support and be silent, but I think that it is also a little un-sincere since many people only did it to get out of talking for the day.
A tidbit of information (I do not know if this is going to happen or not) I heard was that there is going to be a response on Monday (at my school) for people who do not support the Day of Silence. I have not heard anything else about it, but I think it is a little messed up. At first I was supportive of the response because people are supporting their own view, but then I remembered that the Day is not to support GLBT (it partly is, but it is not the main focus), it is to support the condemnation of abuse to GLBT and anyone suffering in silence.
What I really wanted to say was that I wish people supported things because they wanted to support things, not because of the perks they get or because their friends are doing it, but because they really want to make a difference. And I also wish that people understood what they are supporting. After all, if you cannot explain why and what you are supporting, what is the point of supporting it at all? Obviously one does not need every single detail regarding what they support something, but they should understand the cause.
What do I support?
I support GLBT and their right to be treated like the people that they are and not as the 'freaks' that some parts of society deem them to be. I support the Day of Silence, which represents the movement to end abuse of the GLBT community.
Why do I support it?
I support the Day of Silence because I understand their silence and I feel that the abuse needs to end and society needs to accept GLBT as GLBT and understand that their sexual preference does not make them a freak in any way, shape, or form.
Do you know what you support?
Ok so what i'm getting is that GLBT satnds for Gay, Lesbians, Bisexual, Transvestites??? How exactly were your teachers descriminating? We had gays and lesbains in our school and the teachers did not descriminate! And it is high school, from what i'm guessing, do you really think that kids aren't going to act like kids?