Today, thousands of middle school, high school and college students will participate in the Day of Silence. I fully support this cause, as it focuses on a very important issue: the treatment of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered persons, specifically in schools.
However, when there are hundreds of millions of people in the United States, and fewer than 1 million of them are registered to participate in this much-needed event, I wonder how effective it really is.
Until coming to Gonzaga, I had never heard of the Day of Silence. I have never seen or heard of it on the television or the radio. I have never heard anyone talk about it until the day before the event. My boss and my mother had never heard about it until I told them what it was this week.
The Day of Silence is too silent.
Yes, the message that is being given when we don our T-shirts and refuse to speak the entire day is compelling, but what about the days leading up to the campaign? What about all the other days in the year? We sit and talk about how the attitude toward gays and lesbians in this country is intolerable and yet we do not take this "national" campaign to the media.
Yes, the subject is sensitive, and yes, many Americans are opposed to gays and lesbians. But while we sit and discuss the issue in private and remain silent about it in public, people continue to be harassed in the school environment.
The brutal harassment - and sometimes deaths - inflicted on LGBTs, needs to be openly discussed. This year's Day of Silence is being held in memory of Lawrence King. King was a 15-year-old boy who was shot by the boy he liked the day after he asked that boy to be his valentine. When things like this happen, we need to be vocal about it. Yes, let's honor him on the Day of Silence, but let's speak up about it, too.
There are some who are pro-LGBT who are in opposition to Day of Silence because they do not think that it will do anything. Perhaps it will not affect some people, but when a hundred people on our campus refuse to speak and most are wearing the same shirt, people do ask questions and that is what we want.
Too many people remain silent on issues that are so dreadfully important. Gays and lesbians refuse to "come out" for fear of how people will react. Women hide the fact that they are being abused, out of shame. Children mask their own pain, from being beaten or molested, because they fear the repercussions. None of these people should have to remain silent and yet they all do.
When someone is killed because of their sexual orientation, it is talked about on the news, but if people know what the Day of Silence is - what it represents - then perhaps more will participate. By keeping it on school campuses, and only school campuses, we limit who the campaign reaches and affects. We need to be vocal and keep this silent day from becoming too silent.
Sarah Henriksen is a junior at Gonzaga.
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