On Wednesday, the Day of Silence took place in high schools and colleges across the country. Throughout the day-long event, which is sponsored nationally by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), student participants do not speak.
According to dayofsilence.org, the student participants' silence is meant to "recognize and protest the discrimination and harassment - in effect, the silencing - experienced by LGBT students and their allies." This year, the Day of Silence boasted around 500,000 participants nationally.
At Tufts, the Day of Silence included a "Breaking the Silence" rally at the end of the day. The event, though advertised on tuftslife.com, seemed to go unnoticed by many students, however, leading some participants to believe that it had little effect on campus.
"I would say it was ineffective because nobody heard about it, and it wasn't well broadcasted," sophomore Scott Travers said.
The Day of Silence did retroactively pique the interest of some students who had not known about it previously, however.
"Groups are only effective if they make it known what they're doing, and if I had known about it, I'd probably be involved, and it would actually make me think," freshman Zach Postle said.
Several students agreed that the idea behind the Day of Silence is a good one. "It shows the more painful parts of being gay," junior Nancy Leeds said. "Our society tends to trivialize it, and people don't realize what it's really like."
"I definitely think it's a good thing," Postle said of the event. "I can't imagine how it would feel not being able to talk about sex. We take it for granted that we can talk about guys and girls all the time."
The Alliance Defense Fund, a conservative Christian legal group, began a Day of Truth this year on the day following the Day of Silence. According to the group's website, it was established to "counter the promotion of the homosexual agenda and expresses an opposing viewpoint from a Christian perspective." Students participating wore shirts and passed out information about homosexuality as a sin.
"You can call it sinful or destructive - ultimately it's both," Alliance Defense Fund attorney Mike Johnson told CNN.com, adding that the Day of Truth is intended to be "peaceful and respectful."
GLSEN Executive Director Kevin Jennings disagreed with that characterization, telling CNN.com that "the Day of Silence was an event conceived of by students themselves in response to a very real problem of bullying and harassment they saw on their campuses," while "the Day of Truth is a publicity stunt cooked up by a conservative organization with a political agenda; it's an effort by adults to manipulate some kids."
Tufts students had similar reactions to Jennings upon learning about the Day of Truth. "It seems somewhat disrespectful to have it the day after," freshman Devra Bergman said. "It's almost like a bullying tactic."
"I think that sounds rather absurd," sophomore Dan Sullivan said. "They certainly have the right to do that, even if it offends people, but I'm sure that those who participated in [the] Day of Silence would be pretty upset about it."
