I support the Boycott of a Day of Silence
A coalition of anti-gay advocates led by Stephen Bennett, have banded together to urge parents to pull their kids from school on April 18th as a protest of the protest, a “Day of Silence“. I have been pondering this protest of the protest and think it is great! Good for them and good for the protest.
Here are the reasons why:
To start with the only kids left in the schools will be kids who are silent. I suspect, the numbers of kids who will stay home won’t be that big since the youth of today are far more accepting of gays, according to national surveys. The show of solidarity will be a very supportive thing for gay youth to see. The show of silence from more kids will send a stronger message to school officials of the problem at hand. (Read the latest reports on kids being bullied for their perceived sexual orientation, also read what mental health advocates say about the damage that does to youth)
Gay youth will see who their friends are and so will everyone else. Much like the Children’s March of 1963, the world will be watching this one. For one of the first times, many will see who supports violence and discrimination against gays and lesbians and who doesn’t. The community will see the number that support the violence, discrimination the gay youth face is smaller than those who are opposed to the violence. The Day of Silence is a protest for those who can no longer speak since their voices have been silenced by violence. Without the kids who will not participate the percent of kids who will participate will be greater. Rather than 20% of the kids present taking part in the protest 80% will be. This sends a clear message to administrators that lots of kids support the day of silence since the only kids they see will be silent ones.
The best way to be silent, is to not be there at all. So even though the intention is to not participate in the Day of Silence, these kids pulled from school are participating. The absence is their silence whether they know it or not. I guess I should send Stephen Bennett a thank you note for making the Day of Silence more successful by taking the problems out of it, the bullies.
Day of silence is about kids being bullied by other kids who misunderstand, have been mis-educated by their parents and have misguided by their churches. If you are curious who is bullying the gay youth, it will be the absent youth on April 18th. Remember that hate is not born into people. Hate is taught to children by their parents. This action will help identify those kids who are being taught to hate by their parents. At least teachers will finally know who to watch out for!
Again I reminded myself that all tyranny falls. Even Stephen Bennett, one day I feel assured people will look back at him and say what they do about George Wallace or Senator Theodore Bilbo now.
RSS 3. April 2007 (17:07)Filed under: Ex-Gay Issues, Hate Speech, Peter LaBarbera, Stephen Bennett
