[news] Day of Silence / Day of Truth

Today is Day of Silence, when high school and college students around the country symbolize societal repression of gayness by repressing their voices for a day. Instead of speaking, they (in theory) hand their listener a card explaining the situation, and the listener (in theory) nods in understanding. Personally, not a Day of Silence went by in undergrad where I didn't forget 400 times and catch myself gabbing my trap off. At least I had a pocketful of explanatory cards as to why I suddenly stopped talking mid-sentence.

If there weren't a counter demonstration to Day of Silence, I would be disappointed. Luckily, there is: Day of Truth is designed to help kids who believe gayness is morally wrong speak out. They have a very nice legal guide which encourages students to be respectful, yet forceful in their rights: "Remind school officials that they permit other students to hold a 'Day of Silence;' Remind school officials that they permit other students to wear T-shirts with imprinted messages and symbols; Remind school officials that they permit other students to distribute personal messages, notes, and other communications in non-class settings."

In contrast, the Day of Silence manual is heavy on media relations and very light on legal support. Maybe someone could look into that?

Looking back on my own high school years, it would have made an incredibly positive difference in my life if someone had just talked about being gay. I wish I had lived in a world of GSAs and days of silence. But, at the same time, I'm not so keen on bullying kids who have legitimate moral difficulties with gayness into silence. The kid who wants to scream "faggot" and beat kids up--you can do whatever you want with him. But the honest Christian girl who really believes that the school shouldn't be supporting something dangerous, she should have some healthy outlet for that, some way to express it without being given the chance to develop a persecution complex.

Maybe there's a difference, though. As a Canadian friend of mine once pointed out, there are actions which expand rights and actions which limit them--we should protect the former at the cost of the latter. A Day of Silence speaker is asking for acceptance of himself, while a Day of Truth speaker is asking for condemnation of someone else. It's a moral difference, and maybe one we should think about. But I'm not so sure it's a difference you could hang a school policy on. Seems like blatant view-point discrimination to me.

In any event, I see no reason to be afraid of anti-gay speech that is made respectfully and honestly. If nothing, it gets the other side's position out on the table for everyone to see how silly it is. For example: Ten Big Myths About Homosexuality. See? Silly.

Best of luck to everyone on their respective days of protest.