KU Queers and Allies sponsors Day of Silence today

Friday, April 25, 2008

KU Queers and Allies sponsors a Day of Silence today to raise awareness about bullying against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender student s in schools across the country.

Students who participate in the day do not speak all day, unless it involves work or class. Participants will carry cards to explain why they are silent.

This year’s event is being held in remembrance of Lawrence King, a middle school boy who was murdered by a classmate because he asked him to be his valentine.

Megan Vail, activism chair for KU Queers and Allies, said the Day of Silence hadn’t been a tradition at the University but that she wanted to start one.

“You have to have a groundbreaking year for everything,” Vail said.

Daryl Presgraves, spokesman for the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, GLSEN, said the organization has sponsored the nation-wide day since 2001. He said the organization concentrated mostly on schools with kindergarten through 12th grade, but that the event was started in a college at the University of Virginia.

“A lot of college students took heart in the idea that this was a way to positively bring attention to a problem they saw on campus,” Presgraves said.

He said students from more than 6,500 schools across the nation registered online to participate in the day. He said it was a simple way people could show support for the LGBT community and also make schools better.

Maggie Childs, KU Queers and Allies adviser and professor of east asian languages, said she knew students participated in the event in years past, but that it would be higher profile this year.

Childs said she the Day of Silence was a paradox because it was people choosing to be silent to raise awareness about people who feel it’s necessary to keep quiet about their sexual orientation.

“We’re in a liberal town on a liberal campus, but there’s still hostility and homophobia,” Childs said.

Vail said that during Gay Pride Week earlier this month, some students ripped down pride flags around campus. She said the University still needed work if people were still acting out against the LGBT community. She said the students were caught and had a public apology letter posted on the Queers and Allies Web site.

—Edited by Russell Davies

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