The Day of Silence will be successful
Today is when thousands of high school students will show their support for their lgbt classmates via the Day of Silence.
I personally wish this idea had been around when I was in high school. Back then (the 80s is such a long time ago) just a rumor that a person was gay would elicit an automatic beatdown.
Some may argue that things may be pretty much the same, but I would have to disagree. The level of support that our lgbt children are receiving now is much better than it was when I was a child.
And of course the usual cast of characters are opposing the Day of Silence. In fact, pro-Paul Cameron group Illinois Family Institute is leading a charge to tells parents to keep their children out of schools during this day.
No doubt this plan will fail like the so-called Day of Truth these groups have been trying to push in direct opposite to Day of Silence.
Not that it will stop them from distributing a "we were successful" press release which I'm sure they worked on the same day they decided to announce the walk out.
Liberty Counsel and One News Now has even gotten into the act with a phony news article listing the supposed times that people have been threatened over opposing or not participating in the Day of Silence.
The article is a bunch of substantiated anecdotes and whinings put together by folks who fail to realize that they are losing this fight.
No matter though because this day is not about them.
It's about our children - the next generation of Americans. According to the Day of Silence webpage:
In 2008, hundreds of thousands of students from more than 8,000 K-12 schools, colleges and universities organized Day of Silence events. These numbers make the Day of Silence one of the largest student-led actions in the United States.
I feel confident that the level of participation this year will exceed that.
Slowly but sure we are winning this war.
2 comments:
Those opposed to the Day of Silence are admitting that they are in favor of bullying and violence. I remember the 80s, too, and a return to that is a horror I don't really want to see again. In a high school of 800 people, one boy tried to kill himself due to the bullying his supposed homosexuality earned him. Another boy lost half his teeth and ended up in the hospital.
I couldn't even tell you if either boy was gay, it was the rumor that was enough.
Amen to that. It reminds me of an ugly experience in college. A guy I knew made a comment about me being gay in jest (I wasn't out then) and another guy took it seriously and actually wanted to fight me. It took two guys to calm him down. I defy anyone to tell me that attacks on lgbts can be pissed away.
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