The day begins and there are a good amount of students who aren’t even muttering a word. The day goes on and there isn’t a single word that comes from any of these students. People are trying to make them crack but they stand their ground and keep to their silent pledge. Then finally someone asks why they’re not talking, the student then hands the other a piece of paper that reads:

DAY of SILENCE

Silent for Lawrence King

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. This

year’s DOS is held in memory of Lawrence King, a 15 year-old student

who was killed in school because of his sexual orientation and gender

expression. 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.

What are you going to do to end the Silence?

No only does this bring attention to the movement but it definitely shows how large the support was in Desert Mirage high School. The interesting thing about the movement this year is that it actually happened (this reporter was especially surprised when the tiny blue flyers were posted around the campus). The Day of Silence happens every year nation wide around the United States and has being going on for twelve years (since 1996). Being a freshman in Cathedral City High School I remember that the Day of Silence was announced to the entire school and anyone who participated was given a shirt and a tiny card with a notification like the one above. Walking the halls of Cathedral City I noticed that there were quite a couple of students that had the shirt (I have to admit that I was a little confused so I found out too late to actually participate).

Three years later I’m a Senior in Desert Mirage High School and am completely shocked (but in full support) of the kids that have decided to participate in the movement by themselves. True, there weren’t any fancy shirts being handed out to the students and the school didn’t exactly announce the movement but the day of Silence can surely be said to be a success in Desert Mirage. There were students who weren’t even of homosexual orientation and participated. It’s good to see that hopefully in the future there will be more students aware of the cause and will decide to participate as well. Who knows maybe the movement will be officially supported by the school as well and shirts will be distributed to further support.

It’s a drastic time for country right now and the issue of lesbian/gay/transgender people has been debated for a long time now. This country was founded on right to life, liberty, and property. Aren’t people just people? Also, America was created based upon the instance of revolution 9Breaking away form Great Britain ect.) so wouldn’t we be going in the same direction that we’ve been going in since the beginning? The point of the country was to fight against conformity. I think now’s as good a time as any to break away.