Hundreds of local high school and University students plan not to speak today.
Instead, they will wear red tape across their mouths and hand out cards explaining their silence as part of the National Day of Silence protesting the discrimination gay youths face.
Dozens of the protesters will meet in the EMU Amphitheater at 5 p.m. to break their Day of Silence protest.
“It will culminate in the Night of Noise event,” said Sarah Ramstead, a 17-year-old senior at Sheldon High School who helped organize the event. “It’s a time to speak out about what you face during the day, and we’ll also have youth and community adult allies speaking as well.”
The protest specifically targets the discrimination, harassment and abuse faced by lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer and transgender students, which in effect silences them, according to a press release from Queer Line, a local coalition of youth activists who helped organize the event.
“It helps with issues of fear and silencing that occurs within the LGBQTA community that prevents people from coming out or living their lives as they wish,” said University student Jen French, who works with the University’s LGBQTA chapter.
This year marks the 10th annual Day of Silence, an event created by students at the University of Virginia and aimed at making schools safer for all students regardless of gender identity or sexual orientation, according to the group’s Web site, www.dayofsilence.org.
By 2002, more than 1,900 middle schools, high schools, colleges and universities around the country participated in the event, according to the Web site.
An online survey of more than 3,400 students ages 13-18 found that 90 percent of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender respondents reported being harassed or assaulted in the last year at school, according to the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network’s Web site, www.glsen.org.
“More than 30 percent of LGBQTA students reported missing at least a day of school in the last month out of fear for their personal safety,” according to the Day of Silence Web site.
Students from local high schools and the University have participated for at least the last three years, French said. In that time, gay rights have become a larger issue covered by the media.
“I don’t know that the fight for rights has become more intense,” French said. “It’s just been recognized more.”

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