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13th Annual National Day of Silence, Friday April 17, 2009

by Rhonda J Mangus | April 15, 2009 at 04:30 pm

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The 13th Annual National Day of Silence is taking place today in thousands of schools across the United States. Participating students will take a vow of silence to bring attention to anti-LGBT name-calling, bullying, and harassment, and some will hand out speaking cards, which read:.

"Please understand my reasons for not speaking today. I am participating in the Day of Silence (DOS), a national youth movement bringing attention to the silence faced by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people and their allies. My deliberate silence echoes that silence, which is caused by anti-LGBT bullying, name-calling and harassment.

I believe that ending the silence is the first step toward building awareness and making a commitment to address these injustices. Think about the voices you are not hearing today."

Some students are holding the day this year in memory of Carl Walker-Hoover, an 11-year-old from Springfield, Mass., who took his life April 6 after enduring constant bullying at school, including anti-LGBT attacks. Carl, who did not identify as gay, would have turned 12 on the Day of Silence.

Two of the top three reasons students said their peers were most often bullied at school were actual or perceived sexual orientation and gender expression, according to From Teasing to Torment: School Climate in America, a 2005 report by GLSEN and Harris Interactive. The top reason was physical appearance.

Nearly 9 out of 10 LGBT youth (86.2%) reported being verbally harassed at school in the past year because of their sexual orientation, nearly half (44.1%) reported being physically harassed and about a quarter (22.1%) reported being physically assaulted, according to GLSEN's 2007 National School Climate Survey of more than 6,000 LGBT students.

On April 1, 2009, a 'Day of Silence' resolution was introduced into Congress.

Reps. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) and 33 cosponsors introduced a resolution in the House of Representatives on Wednesday (H.Con.Res. 92) to recognize and support GLSEN's 13th annual National Day of Silence on April 17.

"Supporting the goals and ideals of the National Day of Silence in bringing attention to anti-lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, and trans-gender name-calling, bullying, and harassment faced by individuals in schools" is at the core of H.Con.Res. 92. An overview of the Resolution can be read, here.

If your representative is not on the list you might want to consider calling or emailing them and urge them to become a sponsor of the legislation. You can find your US House of Representative, here.

Note: Readers can also Tweet the Silence on April 17th; get the Tweet Silence buttons, here and/or follow NowPublic's Scan Channel, here.

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Amy Judd

at 16:34 on April 15th, 2009

Good for them; I support their decision to take part in this.

Rhonda J Mangus

at 17:22 on April 15th, 2009

Amy, thank you for reading, commenting, and for the recommendation!

about time (not verified)

at 23:37 on April 15th, 2009

National day of Silence? all i can say to that is

Jon E. (Holding of Wrist Co-Founder) (not verified)

at 06:32 on April 17th, 2009

I am in total support of this and am participating in the National Day of Silence today.
I have been doing this ever since DOS started in 1996 and find it outstanding that it has grown to the extint it has.

I am also happy to hear that the house of Reps. is finally doing something to end the harassment fased by the homosexual community!

My friends and I have worked 4 years in getting the government to pass some kind of legislation to help the gay community and I am glad that we have finally been heard!