Day of Silence

      Recently I participated in our school's annual Day of Silence for the third time in my high school career. For those who may not know, the Day of Silence is a day where people pledge to not talk all day. It is supposed to represent the silence that people of the LGBTQ (Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning) group go through everyday because society does not accept them for who they are. It is basically an anti bullying campaign to spread awareness about how difficult it is to not be able to express who you are.
      At my school there is a lot of controversy surrounding the Day of Silence, but not quite in the way that most would think. Many people support gay rights, but believe that silence is not the best way to go about fixing anything. This lead me to look into the question of: Is there a better way to do the Day of Silence?
      I read a "guest post" on the GLESN website (Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network) that helped me to understand the day and its difficulties better. If you want to check out the full post you can click HERE.

      A problem that some have with the Day of Silence is that it does little to affect someones understanding of the issue unless you participate. As stated in the article, "Anyone can participate"in the day "but the only person you can change is yourself." Although observers might notice the silence, the people the day most helps is just the individual participants. I think this is quite limiting because the people who do not understand the issue will continue to be ignorant unless their is communication and education about it. Although it is simply not enough to have a day where we say "Don't be a bully" because people have been hearing that their whole lives, so it means almost nothing anymore.

      We need a day that educates people about LGBTQ and celebrates diversity (similarly to the Gay Pride Parade that happens annually in Chicago). As stated in the post, we cannot simply "convince a student to stop being homophobic" but instead must "deconstruct our social norms of hate, ignorance, and hostility." This will obviously be a long process, but it must start with open communication about the topic. Although silence can be extremely powerful, in this case it only pushes this problem into the dark, unknown that people find hard to understand.

Do you think that there is a better way to spread awareness and understanding? Why or why not? Is silence always affective?