DETROIT – Some simply took a nap, some played video games, and some searched for loopholes and spoke in sign language or scribbled notes. But for the most part, about 20 young men and women from the Ruth Ellis Center sat quietly in Palmer Park for nearly an hour on April 13 in commemoration of the 10th annual Day of Silence.
A national effort coordinated by the Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network, nearly half a million students at more than 4,000 schools and colleges across the country participated in this year's event, including 134 middle and high schools and 14 colleges and universities in Michigan. Most of the students made a daylong pledge to stay silent in solidarity with their LGBT peers who are silenced by homophobia every day. For the REC kids, though, an hour is an eternity, and staff at the center wasn't even sure that 60 minutes was doable.
"We started thinking, will our young people be able to maintain for an hour?" recalled Grace McClelland, REC's executive director. "We had a discussion and we said, if we don't set the expectations high, they won't make it. And sure enough, the majority of them made it without any problem."
Oh, there were exceptions, such as 21-year-old Ralph. He had to get up and leave the quiet area three times. Indeed, the quiet area was hardly that. Situated in the so-called gay area of Palmer Park, the REC group was surrounded by a rather festive party atmosphere full of loud music and laughter. Still, most of the youth managed to stay focused on the purpose of the event and go inside themselves.
"When I was in middle school people picked on me and tried to jump on me because I was gay," said Adrian, 19.
He wrote in his journal for much of the hour.
Julia, 17, shared a cigarette with friends and dozed briefly.
"I'm transgendered and I just came here to represent the other transgendered people who haven't been able to come out in school," she said. "I have and it's not easy."
Julia said her message for other transgendered high school students is simple: "Come out! There's power in numbers. Take here for example. We wouldn't have been able to do this if there hadn't been so many people. The more people that come out, the easier it's going to get."
Atiba Seitu, who runs the center's drop-in program, spoke briefly at the end of the hour.
"Our mission was to keep in mind that there are people who are being silenced every day," he told the crowd. "You all need to understand that our silence won't protect us. If you keep quiet about who you are, if you don't say anything about who you are to your school administrators É that's not going to protect you. That's not going to keep you safe. We encourage you to speak up about who you are."
Day of Truth, day of shame
Speaking up and acting out this year were religious conservatives opposed to the Day of Silence and its message. Calling the event a "propaganda exercise," the Alliance Defense Fund organized the first-ever so-called Day of Truth as a counter demonstration. Students who chose to participate in this event wore free t-shirts that read "The Truth Cannot Be Silenced" and distributed anti-gay literature.
Supporters of the Day of Truth campaign include the Christian Educators Association International. CEAI's executive director, Finn Laursen, sent out a press release last week that disputes the fact that anti-gay discrimination is a real problem in American high schools.
"I've spent by entire adult life as a public school educator, and I have never witnessed discriminatory behavior of the kind GLSEN claims is rampant," read Laursen's statement in part. "This is the gay rights movement manipulating our children, who are a captive audience in public schools."
But GLSEN'S Kevin Jennings says if anybody is doing any manipulating, it's the organizers of the Day of Truth, and he predicts that's exactly why their movement will ultimately fail.
"The Day of Silence was an event conceived of by students themselves in response to a very real problem of bullying and harassment they saw on their campuses," Jennings told the Associated Press. "The Day of Truth is a publicity stunt cooked up by a conservative organization with a political agenda; it's an effort by adults to manipulate some kids."
It's estimated that about 1,150 participants in 350 schools took part in the Day of Truth campaign. McClelland said its inception might account for the fact that this year's Day of Silence was the largest ever.
"When folks do things like that it actually spurs us on and creates more energy, I think, within the LGBT and allied community," she said. "We can't continue to feel beat down and demoralized by folks who are fighting against us."
