WASHINGTON (ABP) — The culture wars over homosexuality are coming to your local high school soon, featuring a two-day battle.
As an estimated 500,000 high school and college students nationwide plan to participate in the national “Day of Silence” April 26, which calls attention to the plight of sexual minorities in America's schools, students who disapprove of homosexuality plan to hold their own mass response the next day.
The Day of Silence — this year's observance of it will be the 10th — is sponsored by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network. It is designed to protest harassment of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender students. Participants remain silent throughout the school day, choosing instead to communicate via buttons and T-shirts or at after-school rallies.
On the next day, April 27, other groups of students will participate in the “Day of Truth,” an initiative sponsored by the Alliance Defense Fund. ADF, a Christian defense group, says the purpose of the event is to stand against “the promotion of the homosexual agenda and expressing an opposing viewpoint from a Christian perspective.” That includes the idea that gays can change their orientation.
Participating students wear shirts and pass out cards that say, among other things, “Silence isn't freedom. It's a constraint. Truth tolerates open discussion.”
“We are participating in the Day of Truth not only to exercise our right to free speech, but also out of our love and compassion for those who are struggling with their sexual identity and to provide them with hope through the love of Jesus Christ,” a statement from the group said.
Defense Fund materials say the Day of Truth was structured in reaction to the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network effort, since the Day of Silence “is part of their overall strategy to change how our society perceives homosexual behavior. But the Day of Silence is a misnomer, because what is truly being silenced is the truth.”
That view reflects misunderstanding of the Day of Silence's whole point, its supporters say. The Network says that while “some individuals and groups” have “organized days in response to the Day of Silence,” they fail to offer a solution to the problem of sexual minorities being bullied on campus — often while classmates and school officials turn a blind eye.
“These events grossly mischaracterize and often simply misunderstand the basic purpose of the Day of Silence,” a Network press statement said. “Bringing attention to these events, which are so often based on mistruth, only adds a false credibility to their misinformation about the Day of Silence.”
According to the Defense Fund, more than 1,100 students in 350 schools participated in last year's first-ever Day of Truth. Organizers expect roughly twice as many students this year, even arranging for more than 800 attorneys to be on-call if participants “run into complications with school officials or pro-homosexual advocacy groups on…campus.”
Still, according to a policy expert for the nation's largest gay-rights group, the Day of Silence pales in comparison to the event it protests. Carrie Evans, state legislative director for the Washington-based Human Rights Campaign, told Associated Baptist Press there will be more than 4,000 schools hosting a Day of Silence this year.
And time is on her side, Evans believes. “I sort of view it as sort of the last gasp of the anti-gay groups, that they're taking it into schools,” she said. “We know from all the polling of high-school students that they're incredibly supportive of GLBT [gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender] rights.”
Polls show that teenagers and twentysomethings are far more supportive of gay rights — including same-sex marriage — than their elders. Some studies even show that majorities of religious teens favor gay rights.
Evans also said the Day of Truth reveals the hypocrisy of the anti-gay movement. Just as its proponents fault pro-gay groups for “trying to get our viewpoint in schools,” she said, “they're doing that, too.”
While students are not required to notify school administrators of their plans to protest, both groups urge students to inform them as a gesture of goodwill and respect.
While supporters said they firmly believe the “loud message” of the Day of Silence is effective, several editorial boards at universities that hosted the day (some colleges and universities observe the day earlier than high schools) have a different opinion.
The Purdue University editorial board at the campus paper, The Exponent, recently published an editorial board opinion stating that while it is important to “show support for those trying to combat discrimination,” silence does not effectively accomplish that goal. Plus, the editorial board decision noted, most students at Purdue can remain silent the entire day without many people noticing.
In another view from Purdue, graduate student Derek Knutsen wrote in a guest opinion editorial column that he uses the Day of Silence to remember friends who have attempted or committed suicide as a result of internal anguish over their sexuality.
“I also pray that strength be given to those who are struggling with their orientation and to those who are helping friends through difficult times, life threatening and otherwise,” he wrote. “My true wish is that soon the Day of Silence will not have to be held anymore.”
On the other side of the argument, the Indiana State University student newspaper published an editorial board decision similar to that of Purdue's, calling the day “nothing more than another publicity stunt.”
“What's troubling about this particular cause is that it completely intrudes into the lives of everyone, regardless of their stance on the issue,” the editorial board wrote April 11. “Even one person's silence in the classroom or workplace can impede effectiveness by adding inconvenience.”
Furthermore, the Indiana Daily Student reported, the day made non-participants feel inferior by forcing them to accommodate “those choosing to be difficult…for brazen exhibitionism and shameless self-righteousness.”
Allegations of “exhibitionism” aside, Network leaders say they'll do whatever it takes to “ensure safe and effective schools for every child.” The Network reported in a 2003 national school survey that four out of five gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender students report verbal, sexual or physical harassment at school.
“The tremendous numbers of students who take part in the Day of Silence is cause for celebration and a loud message from America's students,” Network founder Kevin Jennings said in a press release.
The Day of Silence began in 1996 at the University of Virginia.
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