Gay Day of Silence

Students from grade school through college who refuse to respond to their teachers’ questions Wednesday are not necessarily staying mute because they haven’t done their homework and don’t know the answer.

Homosexual activist leaders have signed up thousands of students to participate in a nationwide Day of Silence on April 21. Still, their numbers look inflated and many scholars and religious leaders question their cause.

On the Day of Silence, students who sympathize with the gay rights movement are advised to present their teachers with a card written by the writers at the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Educational Network (GLSEN). “Please understand my reasons for not speaking today,” the card reads.

“I am participating in the Day of Silence, a national youth movement protesting the silence faced by lesbian, gay and transgender people and their allies. My deliberate silence echoes that silence, which is caused by harassment, prejudice, and discrimination. I believe that ending that silence is the first step toward fighting these injustices. Think about the voices you are not hearing today. What are you going to do to end the silence?”

GLSEN claims that more than 100,000 students in more than 1,900 schools across the country participate in the Day of Silence. GLSEN offers a list of these schools but warns, “The appearance of the name of a school on this list does not mean that school supports any Day of Silence activities that may take place there.”

When Campus Report contacted GLSEN to find out how many schools have officially endorsed the Day of Silence, the group could not give us an answer. Indeed, GLSEN’s list includes many Catholic college preparatory schools. A call to the National Conference of Catholic Bishops reveals that their educational office is not even aware of what the Day of Silence is. They may want to find out.

Rabbi David Eidensohn, on the other hand, is well aware of what the event represents, and he doesn’t mince words in condemning it.

“This is an assault on our school system by terrorists,” says Rabbi Eidensohn, who is director of the National Non-Sectarian Council of Pro-Family Activists.

“The financial damage due to lost school time throughout the country will be enormous. We cannot, however, talk about money alone. The disruption of a school atmosphere, especially towards the end of the year, when discipline in schools is a challenge, could kill a year of learning for many students.”

“Precisely when students should be concentrating on finals, they are told by GLSEN homosexual activists to refuse to speak in class and to disrupt school with activism. Students who should be learning to get along with others are making a ‘hit list’ of teachers and students who are Biblical or who refuse the homosexual agenda.”

In their book The Homosexual Agenda, Allen Sears and Craig Osten report that gay rights groups are doing just that. Sears and Osten work with the Alliance Defense Fund and drew heavily on GLSEN documents in preparing their book.

The first Day of Silence took place at the University of Virginia at Charlottesville. It drew 150 students, according to GLSEN.

Malcolm A. Kline is the Executive Director of Accuracy in Academia.