2008 Woodie Awards
Solidarity in silence
Students offer support to members of the gay community who are still quiet
Elizabeth Sinclair-Smith
Date created: 5/21/04 Section: NEWS
"I think it was because of the way that people had reacted to friends of mine," he said. "One friend was constantly getting called s-- to his face. I even got called s-- to my face before I came out. In sophomore year, people would ask me if I was a 'fag,' and I would be like, 'No, are you?'"
"People found it frustrating to communicate with me because I wasn't speaking," Abbott said. "People were trying to talk to me and I said I'd type to them or I'd write to them, but I was not speaking to them. I had two people storm away, being quite angry that I was not speaking. They were a little frustrated at the reasoning, and by the fact that I followed through with it made them so much more frustrated."
While this was mainly a student's event, many Skyline faculty members participated in the event including GSA advisers Carlos Colombetti and AJ Bates. Some did special assignments on the event while others continued with regular lesson plans, albeit silently. Bates, a chemistry professor, while not teaching anything out of the ordinary, did set aside time before the event to explain what it was about as well as other GSA sponsored events.
"I'm fairly out to my students, so basically I took the opportunity to talk to them about what the purpose of the event was-that we were inviting anyone who was gay friendly to participate," he said. "You didn't have to be gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender to actually participate to show your support. I don't know how many students in my classes participated, but I know a number of students through the MESA center were participating. Certainly, many of them came up to me to express their support of the day."
"I had students do silent projects that day off the overhead projector," Colombetti said. "They seemed to react pretty well."
While Bates feels that Day of Silence is very important for getting the message of equality across to students and faculty, he also feels that the equality is already at Skyline and really isn't much of an issue.
"People found it frustrating to communicate with me because I wasn't speaking," Abbott said. "People were trying to talk to me and I said I'd type to them or I'd write to them, but I was not speaking to them. I had two people storm away, being quite angry that I was not speaking. They were a little frustrated at the reasoning, and by the fact that I followed through with it made them so much more frustrated."
While this was mainly a student's event, many Skyline faculty members participated in the event including GSA advisers Carlos Colombetti and AJ Bates. Some did special assignments on the event while others continued with regular lesson plans, albeit silently. Bates, a chemistry professor, while not teaching anything out of the ordinary, did set aside time before the event to explain what it was about as well as other GSA sponsored events.
"I'm fairly out to my students, so basically I took the opportunity to talk to them about what the purpose of the event was-that we were inviting anyone who was gay friendly to participate," he said. "You didn't have to be gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender to actually participate to show your support. I don't know how many students in my classes participated, but I know a number of students through the MESA center were participating. Certainly, many of them came up to me to express their support of the day."
"I had students do silent projects that day off the overhead projector," Colombetti said. "They seemed to react pretty well."
While Bates feels that Day of Silence is very important for getting the message of equality across to students and faculty, he also feels that the equality is already at Skyline and really isn't much of an issue.
