Student expresses opinion on Day of Silence
April 21, 2016
Dear Editor,
On Friday, April 15, 2016, students across the globe participated in an event known as the ai???Day of Silenceai???- a day on which supporters and members of the LGBT community remained silent for a day in an attempt to showcase the apparent struggle which members of this community go through.
While it is true that homosexual and transgender students face bullying, the unpleasant reality is that students of all nationalities, religions, sexual orientations, and every subcategory streaming from that point forth face bullying. This having been said, I absolutely acknowledge the difference between teasing someone for unsubstantial reasons such as the type of shoes they wear versus harassing someone for reasons that are intrinsic to who they are, a category which sexual orientation would undoubtedly fall under.
The fact of the matter is, however that students who are LGBT seem to get a lot more support from other students and even staff members than those who face other troubles. Thereai??i??s an entire club dedicated to members of this aforementioned community. While some will argue that the club is open to all, itai??i??s called the ai???gay-straight allianceai??? for a reason. As someone who falls under the category of a minority and whose parents were educated in an anti-Semitic and socialist regime, I can tell you that there are far worse things than others using derogatory terms to describe you-not that I am advocating for such behavior at all.
Intolerance and discriminatory behavior of any kind should not be accepted at all within the school atmosphere. I just feel as though homosexuality is such prominent concept in our society that support groups are essentially having the reverse effect and alienating students. The GSA claims to want to get rid of labels, but whatai??i??s being achieved by making LGBT videos is a rather conspicuous separation between those who are homosexual and those who are not.
In the past few months, several students from across our county have committed suicide-and to my knowledge, none of these kids were gay. Perhaps they were closeted and did indeed kill themselves due to their sexuality, but the point is that every single person gets bullied because thatai??i??s how teenagers are. Teenagers are haughty, selfish, and quite frankly stupid half the time. While we should push for tolerance the sub-culture in our nation and in our school has become one of conflating political and moral views with either being a bigot or being an ally. Social conservatives and religious people who donai??i??t believe gay relations are proper are not necessarily homophobic. My friends and I, for example are religious people who donai??i??t subscribe to the LGBT lifestyle-that does not however make me a bigot, a homophobe, or any of the other terms I have been called over the years.
Thereai??i??s such a colossal emphasis on homophobia and homosexual students that those who have varying and less common opinions are being target probably to the same extent as openly gay students, if not more. If thereai??i??s such a focus on tolerance, the GSA ought to extend this to those who donai??i??t necessarily agree with their decisions. Additionally, school really is not the time nor the place to be watching videos about sexuality-thatai??i??s something that should be left for after school hours as quite frankly, it diverges from the curriculum rather evidently.
Michelle Brodsky
Junior
Xavier • Apr 25, 2016 at 1:09 PM
I feel like responding to this will be a really difficult thing to do without my rebuttal sounding like I’m trying to attack you. You’re entitled to your opinion! I don’t like the day of silence either personally but before you try and combat something that was for a good cause and was to honor those who have committed suicide, I think that you personally need to grow as a person and really look at the big picture for a moment. You’re getting tunnel vision in a way and I agree with the comment above me. Even though you can believe what you want, it’s pretty ignorant.
Evalena Labayen • Apr 21, 2016 at 11:58 AM
GSA is called the gay-straight alliance because it is an alliance between both gay and straight people. I don’t see how any person could be alienated by this club since it literally includes all people. The Day of Silence is for ALL people who are bullied, not just LGBT members, and the students in that video were of all different sexual orientations, religions, ethnicities, and genders. I find Michelle’s opinion to be ill founded and based on ignorance.
Logan hatch • Apr 21, 2016 at 11:57 AM
The day of silence was carried out by GSA. this does NOT mean they only care about LGBT bullying. The day was concerned with anyone being bullied for any reason because we’re all different by nature. MAYBE if you watched the video you speak so negatively of (which had little to do with sexuality) you would know. I’m proud to have a group in our school like GSA that is absolutely 100% all inclusive.
It’s not a secret that it is all inclusive either, you say kids would argue that point but we don’t need to argue that point. They clearly state that the group is open to all at every mention of it.