Today marks the 13th annual Day of Silence, which was launched by the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network, during which the discrimination and harassment—in effect, the silencing—of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students and their allies is protested with silence.
There are many different activities associated with the National Day of Silence now, but the primary action is silence. A perfect, still silence.
Today, in schools across the country, thousands and thousands of kids—gay kids, bisexual kids, transgender kids, questioning kids, straight kids—moved through the halls of their schools, surrounded by the bustle of lockers being opened and closed, the boisterousness of their peers, the laughter and shoving and passing of notes, and they remained silent.
They made eye contact with other participants, nodding, sharing solemn smiles, and they said nothing, in support of one another. They are silent on this day so that the LGBTQI community may not have to be.
The people who still make life hard for LGBTQI teens are dinosaurs, and one day they will be extinct—and we will collect their bones and put them in a museum and tell our grandchildren about the freaks who once thought that the LGBTQI community didn't deserve equality. Our grandchildren will laugh and shake their heads, and we will remember bitterly when there was a time people had to be silent to make some noise.
A moment of silence: __________________________________…
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