Friday, April 21st was this year's Day of Silence. Started by GLSEN, Day of Silence is a student-led national event bringing awareness to the effects of LGBTQ bullying and harassment in schools. For the last two decades, Day of Silence has helped shed light on the fears, bullying and harassment LGBT students face.
Typically, students in middle and high school participate, but nowadays even college students take a vow of silence. The goal of this day is to address the problem of anti-LGBTQ behavior by illustrating the silencing effect of bullying and harassment on LGBTQ students. In high school, Day of Silence was a very prominent event on campus. We had distributed pins for students and teachers participating. We even had an assembly to "break the silence" at the end of the day. It was a little harder to participate in college. I participated my freshman year of college, but decided against it the years after that.
As I got older, I used Day of Silence as a reflection day. I reflected on being a young LGBT professional. I strive to live in a world where a "Day of Silence" won't have to exist. I strive to live in a world where when someone comes out as LGBT, it will be treated with the same insignificance as stating that they have a tattoo or piercing.
