Printer-friendly versionFour years ago, we held our first Day of Silence, an annual event where students at schools across the country take a vow of silence in support of LGBT students who are harassed and bullied.
That first Day of Silence was an anxious experiment for our suburban private school. We followed resources offered by the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network (GLSEN). Our diversity club faculty sponsors and student leaders planned a series of announcements, acquired administrative approval and fielded concerned questions from faculty members who didn’t embrace the event and felt it would disrupt their classrooms.
Still, apprehension grew from the unknown.
We weren’t sure how students would react. We worried about what parents might say. We feared there could be incidents during the day. We didn’t know how many students would participate. Each unknown added to our anxiety.
On that day, 15 percent of the student body took the pledge of silence for the entire school day. An additional 15 percent signed up to be allies, a designation we created for students who wanted to pledge support but were not comfortable taking a vow of silence.
Almost a third of the school had joined us; I was elated.
We also planned a “Breaking the Silence” event. We offered a silent countdown to the end of the day and shared our experiences, struggles and challenges encountered during that day. It was a way to embrace a new sense of acceptance and awareness within the community.
Waves of relief rolled over the crowd as we began to talk, laugh and share our stories. Amid the stories of frustration and difficulty, the waves of relief built into a crescendo of empathy and acceptance. One of the final students to speak that afternoon came out to the group as a lesbian, becoming only the second “out” student at the school at that time.
That day mattered.
The following winter, an alum returned to campus, having come out at college. She shared with me how the accepting college community had allowed her to acknowledge something within herself that had never seemed a real possibility during high school. I wonder how much more developed and confident she would be today had we been holding our fourth Day of Silence during her senior year, instead of our first.
Despite the stress and the anxiety of the day, the acceptance and empathy it created continue to ripple out in new and unexpected directions.
Elliott is a high school English teacher in Texas
Comments
While I agree that students
While I agree that students (anyone for that matter) should not be singled out, harassed or bullied. I wonder why the recent increase in gay/lesbian sexuality of the last 20 yrs. In over 3000 years of humanity or even outside the United States the percentage of gay/lesbian sexuality has been and is relatively small. Is it low self esteem, peer presure, chemicals in food/water or mental illness?
What does any of that matter?
What does any of that matter? Whether or not the LGBT community is relatively small or large, or why they are that way, the many accounts of bullying and stereotype still exist within many areas of schools today. Choice or not, the students continue to be afflicted by problems at school and at home. What we should be focusing on is how to stop the attacks and help anyone (not just the LGBT community) that is being "singled out, harassed or bullied."
Dear Dave, It's true that the
Dear Dave,
It's true that the percentage of people that we would consider to be Lesbian,Gay,or Bisexual(LGB) has always been and will always be relatively small (1-2% being the most conservative estimate, 10% the most liberal estimate). As for the percentage of people that identify as transgender (people whose birth sex and physical body do not match the sex that he/she identifies with), we haven't even begun to even come close to estimating that (although biologist/transwoman activist Julia Serano states that it is estimated that 1 in 500 people identify as transgender).
There have always been individuals that have same-sex desire and those that do not fit the "gender norm". However, only in the last 150 years have there been these labels that people could adopt to explain their sexual attractions or gender identity. The earliest recorded use of the term "homosexual" to refer to individuals primarily attracted to their own sex was in an 1869 pamphlet written by Karl-Maria Kertbeny in order to advocate for repealing anti-sodomy laws. While the term "gay" to refer to people primarily attracted to their own genders first came into use during the 19th century, it didn't come to replace the more clinical and (in many eyes) derogatory label of "homosexual" with the birth of the modern gay rights movement in the 1960's. The term "lesbian" came from the Greek island of Lesbos, home to the 6th century BCE (Before Chrisitian/Common Era) woman poet Sappho, who often wrote of love between women. Use of the word "lesbian" to refer to women that desired other women were used as early as the 1870's. "Bisexual" was a term coined in the 19th century.
It may seem that there are "more" LGBT people today. There's not been an actual increase in the percentage of people that experience same-sex desire or break conventional "gender norms" than there were decades or even hundreds of years ago. Rather, there are more people willing to embrace the label of lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender. The enormous social changes that have occured within the past 70 years have led to this explosion in LGBT consciousness. The transition of young people from small communities to big cities in the early 20th century permitted them, for the first time, to explore their sexuality and gender away from the interferring eyes of family members, as well as gave them greater contact with others like them. WWII also increased the ability of LGBT inclined individuals to interact with eachother. Furthermore, the American Pyschological Association's decision in 1973 to remove "homosexuality" as a mental disorder from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) removed the stigma of "mental illness" attached to those experiencing same-sex desire. Hence, more people are "out and proud" because it has become more socially acceptable.
Many people are interested in the "cause" or root of homosexuality, bisexuality, or transgenderism. It's ironic that we seldom question the "cause" or "root" of heterosexuality or cisgenderism (the term for people whose birth sex matches the sex that they identify with). That's because we still have this view that heterosexuality and cisgenderism are "normal", while every other sexual and gender expression is seen as unusual. Nevertheless, sexuality is not something that can be neatly explained by one single factor. Sexuality is shaped both by biology and upbringing. Therefore, homosexuality, bisexuality, and transgenderism is not a mental illness (despite the fact that transgenderism continues to be pathologized in the psychological diagnosis of "Gender Identity Disorder").
I hope this explains some things.