Silence Highlights LGBTQ Discrimination
April 24, 2019
The Straight and Gay Alliance (SAGA) club recognized the Day of Silence on April 15 to acknowledge the challenges faced by members of the LGBTQ+ community. The act of silence “signifies all the voices in the LGBTQ+ community that don’t feel heard,” said freshman SAGA member Rina Reimer.
The day was originally created by the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network (GLSEN), but has since been adopted by Campolindo’s SAGA club as an annual event. “I think that it’s really, really, really important to have because a lot of [SAGA’s] events are focused on celebration, but we do need to recognize the fact that prejudice still does very much exist at Campo,” said junior SAGA president Paige Love.
“I hear things that I find disrespectful to [LGBTQ+ kids] too often,” agreed junior SAGA member Maddie House. “Day of Silence is a way for me to do something.”
Anyone can choose to participate in the Day of Silence, whether they are LGBTQ+ themselves or an ally of the community. “I have a lot of LGBTQ+ friends, and to me, [participating in the Day of Silence] is standing with them and is really important to me,” said House.
However, some students expressed concern about the potential distortion of the message of the Day of Silence, as some students may elect to participate for the wrong reasons, including pretending to be silent in order to have an excuse to not participate in class.
According to Love, “[SAGA] always deals with harassment at events, but we do have students who come up and they’re clearly joking with their friends about doing so.”
Nevertheless, the Day of Silence projects a message to schools across the US. “I hope in coming years that we have more participants and more people take [the Day of Silence] more seriously,” said Love.
