The Day of Silence

Today is the National Day of Silence.

To honor the struggle of the queer and straight youth that are targeted for violence due to their perceived or real sexual and gender identity, Carnelius and I hit the streets with these posters, and flyers with information describing the purpose of The Day of Silence and pointing them to our website for more information about how everyone can do their part to end violence, discrimination, and the silence of targeted individuals in our community.

We began at 235 Montgomery, in front of our rather intimidating office, and made a parade to Market, to Powell and Union Square and back again. We gave out at least 50 flyers and were surprised at some of the responses we got.

Mostly, people ignored us, or tried to hid the fact that they were reading our signs. One woman asked us if we were for or against gay people. We tried to indicate (without speaking) that we were in fact friends of queers everywhere. She responded “Good, they’re people too!” I had one man tell me, “You aren’t a dyke. You’re sexy” and some people were  sad to hear the statistics but happy wee were out raising awareness.

Overall, I think it was a good experience. Just because I’m lucky enough to be finished with school (for now) doesn’t mean I can turn my back on the reality that the world is still not safe for queer youth and adults. The least I can do is spend an hour in silence, standing up for the silenced individuals, including the clueless “straight girl” from Ohio that I used to be.