THE BOY was not allowed to talk, so he handed me a slip of paper.
"Please understand my reasons for not speaking today. I support lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights. People who are silent today believe that laws and attitudes should be inclusive of people of all sexual orientations. The Day of Silence is to draw attention to those who have been silenced by hatred, oppression and prejudice. Think about the voices you are not hearing. What can you do to end the silence?"
Last Wednesday, this message was passed around as University students participated in the Fourth Annual Day of Silence. Founded here in 1996 by Maria Pulzetti, at that time a first-year student who had just come out as a lesbian, the Day of Silence now is practiced by over 200 colleges and high schools around the country. Participants cannot speak for nine hours during the day, and at the end of the silent period, participating schools and organizations educate their communities on how to end the silence through follow-up events and reflection periods.
Each year more students participate in the event as it spreads farther across the globe from Ontario to New Zealand. At the University, we take pride that the Day was founded here and use it as justification that we are not conservative but instead encourage acceptance and new ideas. But beware of spin doctoring.
Although academically comparable, we are not the Berkeley of the east in the sense that we can proclaim activism and liberal views. The University is not the safe haven for lgbt students it now claims to be -- the whole point is that the lack of understanding forced the Day of Silence to start here of all places. The Day is not a product of an open-minded environment -- instead more open-mindedness is a product of the Day.
There was a sense of urgency for students like Pulzetti when they began the Day of Silence. On the Day's Web site, Pulzetti wrote, "By far the most striking evidence of homophobia in my college community was the silence imposed on lgbt issues. Few students and fewer faculty members were out; the administration did not provide any resources to lgbt students; the Greek-dominated social scene did not acknowledge the existence of options other than heterosexuality. I had never before felt so invisible. Raising awareness in the community seemed a daunting task. After all, the same 10 students, already members of the LGBU, attended workshops, movies and discussions about lgbt issues. When I first imagined an event that would reach far more people, I just hoped that the visibility of the Day of Silence would help bring homophobia and lgbt issues into the public discourse at U.Va."
Ironically, while Maria received a pleasant surprise from around the country as the Day spread like wildfire, at the University itself activism has fizzled out and this year only a smattering of people were seen passing out cards, wearing stickers and most importantly, being quiet.
Silence is a powerful weapon and Puzetti's idea was a wonderful and symbolic way to get the message of battling heterosexism across. Often we don't remember a person rambling about a cause because we tune him out after a while. Silence, on the other hand, is a much more memorable void. The lack of enthusiasm was another reminder that unless pushed to action, the University quietly regresses back to its disinterested stance on liberal issues. LGBTU President Kate Ranson-Walsh partially agreed, but asserted that one reason the Day of Silence really was quieter this year was because LGBTU just didn't advertise it as much. "I definitely think there is a certain apathy about issues like this here. But also, in the past we've had a committee work for three months solely planning the Day and this year we had so many other activities planned for Spring Out week that we couldn't focus on it as much."
This is a legitimate reason for why less people participated in the Day here, but it also sparks the question if, like so many other debates at the University, the debate over accepting lgbt students into the community has died down. This isn't to say that anything has been done about the issue, or even that the problem doesn't exist anymore. Here and at many colleges, lgbt students can feel a sense of alienation from such a vociferously straight student body -- the kind that yells "not gay" at football games and prides itself on fraternity date functions.
This year's less noticeable Day of Silence implied that sadly the Day may have been a trend that only whirled through Grounds en route to bigger and better things. There is no excuse for disinterest because heterosexism hasn't ended here. This defense is an insipid justification for less activism. The real reason the Day was quieter is because of the apathy that the University has once again demonstrated towards a liberal issue.
(Diya Gullapalli is a Cavalier Daily associate editor.)
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