MINNESOTA: Hello. My Name is J.A. [name edited] and I attend [school district name].
I learned of the Day of Silence from my best friend T. earlier this week. I wanted to take part in it greatly, and we soon got other kids to join: We were all devoted supporters of the LGBT and wanted to show support by committing to stay silent the whole day.
This Morning, we did Makeup, painted Rainbows and such on our arms and clothes and went to school. We hung signs up on our lockers to spread the word. However, most of these actions were met with sour remarks, and sometimes, Violence. The signs on our lockers were torn off and shredded on the ground before them: We were being harassed by many, sometimes, Even some of our best friends.
We were met with statements such as "Oh my god...I see Faggots." or "Why do you support the Fags." and sometimes worse. One of my best friends was told "Just be like your father and kill yourself; then you can be silent forever." We spent the whole bus ride home comforting her. I am sickened that people in our school used our beliefs as an excuse to make fun of us. I honestly hope that It wont take them long to realize that what they did, is exactly what we are standing against.
We were Harassed, and we were silent. We were met with disheartening actions, but we remained silent. I am proud that I have taken part in this protest, and im positive that all 18 of my other friends were too.
Friday, April 25, 2008
We were met with disheartening actions...
Not all the news is positive, but students remain strong:
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8 comments:
That is cruel.... i cant believe that some one would be so mean.... My whole grade did it. It was magical.
I was harrassed also, so were many of my friends. Now I'm the only one in my grade who is "out", so most people ignored me and hated on my other friends. They wernt usto such comments as i have been exposed to, sadly they all stopped, and started talking by lunch time. I still remain hushed.
i am straight, but i was silent all day at school (and still am silent). Two friends, one openly gay and one openly bi. They received the most harassment of about 30 students who participated. Even my friends who were speaking tried to get me to talk and mildly harassed me. A couple friends gave up by lunch time, but i remained silent.
Hi, I am Shelby, from Washington State, Olympia. And our school River Ridge High, Participated in Day Of Silence. We put ducktape on our mouths so we can stand out, and we did...we got herd...even though we never spoke. I belive in our rights, and I will help us be a stong communty...Have a good day!
Shelby.
We all go through hard times, but we are never alone.
A lot of people were harassed today, and that is absolutely wrong. Especially what the people at your school said to your friend. That is horrid and the only thing I can say is that what goes around definitely comes around, so one day someone will hurt that harasser and he or she will see how bad it can be. I hope that your friend and everyone harassed has recovered. It's great of you all to stand up for what you believe in, despite the immaturity of others.
From a classmate of the person who submitted this post:
Today on the Day Of Silence ... we PROUDLY stood silent for not only those who HAVE lost their voice, but those whose voices are still silenced from being scared of harassment. Even though today, we all remained silent, we were met with insult after insult. Slurs such as "faggots," and "dykes," we thrown around like nothing. We had fliers torn down, turned around, and ripped up in pieces everywhere. We had tons of people going around yelling "OH MY GOD. LOOK AT ME, I'M GAY JUST LIKE THEM!" "Look over there, I see faggots." But one of the things that was said which upsets me the most, was when my friend [who submitted this post] had a rainbow on his arm, and "I support" by it. Two of the kids thought it would be funny and harass him and say "next week we're going to come to school with our arms painted black and white and have it say 'I don't support.' " Though we all wanted to probably come back with a snappy comeback, we remained silent. We stood strong, and didn't reply. We were even faced with people that were called down to the office to talk to the principle. Yet, we still remained silent. It was obvious who was remaining silent through out the day, words written on our faces, and our arms, electrical tape over our mouth, but when a friend of mine [name removed] walked by our principle, he got in her face and said "Hi!" Just before that, he called a friend of mine [name removed] over to talk about her grades. She was another person that was participating in DOS. We were all carrying pencils and paper around in case we had to "tell" someone something. But he ended up saying "Oh, and you can't write a reply." Yet, we all still remained silent. These are only SOME of the things that we have went through today, and only SOME of the things that we know that went on. After school ended, we all road the same bus, and broke the silence together and talked about our day. A friend came on the bus crying and telling us that she heard someone say "Just be like your father and kill yourself; then you can be silent forever." More than just her teared up. This is when we learned what happened threw out the day. It just proves more, why we STILL stood standing strong, proud and silent.
I am a friend of the poster....I came out earlier this year, adn that was hard for me to deal with, having the looks and the comments thrown at me like that. But when I heard about the Day of Silence, I knew it was something I had to do. But really, I didn't want to do it alone, and i was soooo incredibly happy to see that I wasn't alone for it, and that some people didn't think I was a total loser. I want to say THANK YOU to all the people, not just in my school, who did this.....it really helped me a lot.
We are in Washington State - Mt. Si High School had a religious leader target their HS this year to ban the DOS from the school. He tried to organize a protest of 1,000 to come and support his attempt.
He tried, he failed.
But he also won.
He did not get 1,000 people to support his side, he got about 150. There were nearly 200 for the other side.
There were almost 200 kids who participated in the DOS at the school.
But there were almost 500 kids kept home from school either by their parents or by their own choice. They stayed at home to avoid the conflict.
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