I suppose I inadvertently participated, since I didn’t interact with anyone today nor can I actually talk. Regardless, I wouldn’t have participated anyway. I hate to be one of those people that tries to shoot down good intentions, but I think I speak for a lot of QUILTBAG folk when I say that I was silent for far too long, and I wish someone had spoken to me or had spoken with me. The Day of Silence, to me, is a means for people who aren’t quite comfortable with lashing out against the bull shit of society to take a passive, and evasive approach at solidarity. (To be quite honest, this is more apparent in the “hetero community” than in the “gay community.”)
Maybe it would be more effective if we called it the Day of Loudness or maybe just Gay-Straight Alliance day…something that speaks for the joining of forces to combat silence and bullying. Take the It Gets Better Campaign for example, or when we all wore purple in October; I think those heavily broadcast and displayed efforts were far more effective than everyone playing Mum’s-the-Word.
We need to find our voices and speak for human rights, protect the oppressed, and to sing songs of celebration and victory.
I think you’re kind of missing the point of the Day of Silence. The silence is symbolic, not saying that people shouldn’t speak out for their rights. I firmly believe that Silence can speak louder than words. Last year, when Brandon participated a teacher told him to “take your gay crusade somewhere else,” while other teachers commended him and took time to discuss it in class. To call this “passive” or “evasive” is just plain untrue, because being the kid that won’t say a word in class draws a lot of attention to you. Do you not remember high school? Any kid that participated would inevitably get put on the spot. And in my experience, most kids were prepared and educated about the cause they were fighting for.
Even though it’s the Day of Silence, I’ve never seen it fail to start a dialogue. Last week, Tommy had his own Day of Silence for the cause (I’m not sure why he did it last week, maybe cause he wouldn’t be in school this week), and we spent twenty minutes in my Tai Chi class discussing gay bullying and hate crimes, which is remarkable since the issue of gay rights has never been brought up in that class before. And I’ve got some truly ign’ant people in my Tai Chi class that participated in the conversation. It gets people thinking.
I spend practically every day speaking out for my rights and for the rights of the LGBT community. Nevertheless, in my experience, this one day of Silence has acted as a powerful metaphor to get other people talking about it too. As a lesbian in high school, I was thrilled when I saw kids participating in it. It let me know that there were people around me who wouldn’t bully and persecute me because of who I am, people who would speak up on my behalf if I was ever the victim of hate. If they had the courage to abstain from speaking for an entire day, then they would have the courage to lend their voice when it’s most needed.
I understand where you’re coming from, but I disagree that the Day of Silence isn’t effective, or that its counterproductive for the LGBT movement. As a kid, the Day of Silence made me feel less alone and a little safer.
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funnyandfree reblogged this from cumbiadelosmuertos and added:
I find myself so lucky on most days to go to a school that lets everyone be who they want to be. It’s not on common to...
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cumbiadelosmuertos reblogged this from dan-and-his-hormones and added:
think you’re kind of missing the point of the Day of Silence. The silence is symbolic, not saying that people shouldn’t...
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