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
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Students at Skyline College might have noticed a small number of people handing out small flyers in a rather silent manner, on May 7. The flyers said the following:
"My deliberate silence today echoes the silence forced upon lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people and their allies by harassment prejudice, and discrimination. Think about the voices you are not hearing today." This happening, organized by Skyline's Gay-Straight Alliance, was the Day of Silence.
"It echoes the silence of people who've had to remain closeted in the past because they were gay or gay friendly because of prejudices," said Alex Thompson, president of the Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA), who participated in the event.
Day of Silence, an international student protest event, was created in 1996. Its function is to make campuses everywhere safer for students that feel harassed based on their gender and sexual orientation. Though Skyline's GSA has participated in this event in the past, there was a lapse and the event was not done for several years-that is until club member Elin Abbott pitched the idea.
"[Day of Silence] was one of my first experiences with gay culture," Abbott said. "In my high school, during sophomore year, one boy was quiet on the official date, and then our GSA started up on campus and we also had a day of silence that came about two months later. It's a form of protest, and people had been going to Sojourn To The Past [a multi-state tour of important Civil Rights locations], so that brought up feelings and people wanted to do something-take action. And that's what was decided upon.
"I've had friends who've gotten beaten up over this, over being gay and coming out of the closet, on multiple occasions. It happened three or four times, and it couldn't really be stopped because the authorities didn't do what they needed to do."
Though Thompson was never beaten up in high school, he and friends did experience similar harassment despite the fact that he was not "out," leaving him worried. This in turn gave him reason to participate in the event.
"My deliberate silence today echoes the silence forced upon lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people and their allies by harassment prejudice, and discrimination. Think about the voices you are not hearing today." This happening, organized by Skyline's Gay-Straight Alliance, was the Day of Silence.
"It echoes the silence of people who've had to remain closeted in the past because they were gay or gay friendly because of prejudices," said Alex Thompson, president of the Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA), who participated in the event.
Day of Silence, an international student protest event, was created in 1996. Its function is to make campuses everywhere safer for students that feel harassed based on their gender and sexual orientation. Though Skyline's GSA has participated in this event in the past, there was a lapse and the event was not done for several years-that is until club member Elin Abbott pitched the idea.
"[Day of Silence] was one of my first experiences with gay culture," Abbott said. "In my high school, during sophomore year, one boy was quiet on the official date, and then our GSA started up on campus and we also had a day of silence that came about two months later. It's a form of protest, and people had been going to Sojourn To The Past [a multi-state tour of important Civil Rights locations], so that brought up feelings and people wanted to do something-take action. And that's what was decided upon.
"I've had friends who've gotten beaten up over this, over being gay and coming out of the closet, on multiple occasions. It happened three or four times, and it couldn't really be stopped because the authorities didn't do what they needed to do."
Though Thompson was never beaten up in high school, he and friends did experience similar harassment despite the fact that he was not "out," leaving him worried. This in turn gave him reason to participate in the event.
