Silent protest, vocal response

One woman talked about “divant lifestyles,” while others talked about “queers” and “lesbos”. Five weeks before the Day of Silence, one frightened resident called into 30 Seconds to say, “What really scares me is the people with warped minds teaching our children that this behavior is OK.” Another was “elated to see the sodomised, lesbians and transgendered agreeing to just shut up for one day ... Think all the perverts and those who support their offensive lifestyle nationally should just shut up for one day. What a blessing.”

One person, claiming to be an “opinionated student,” said “I don’t discriminate, but gay rights should not be shoved down my throat”. Several called the newspaper with flippant comments, wanting days of silence for a variety of people, including divorced people, young pregnant girls and bald-headed men.

The Danville Area School Board came under attack for protecting “the whims of the sick and depraved liberal minority”. Some residents believed the Day of Silence was un-American, not understanding that the First Amendment also protects the right not to speak as well as the right to speak. Even the newspaper’s editor became involved when he claimed the Day of Silence “was not a student-led event [but] was organised and promoted nationwide by adults,” not so discreetly implying that a few wrong-headed adults were manipulating a half a million teenagers.

“Whatever happened to having a day of silence for putting prayer back into the schools?” asked one 30 Seconds writer. During the Day of Silence controversy, a United Church of Christ congregation near Danville became an independent church because the UCC General Synod approved same-sex marriage. However, many local ministers also gave their support to encourage tolerance - a couple of Protestant ministers even said that persons quoting the Bible to support opposition to homosexuality may have misinterpreted the scripture or taken the words out of context. But their voices were smothered by a blanket of invective.

By the actual day of silence, the Press Enterprise reported there were 113 letters, call-ins and e-mails, with two-thirds criticising the “appropriateness of such a protest in school”, condemned homosexuality or attacked Spectrum.

Between 25 and 30 per cent of the student body (208-250 students) didn’t go to classes on April 26, according to a statement from the school district. Normal absenteeism is about five per cent. Perhaps many stayed home to protest what they and their parents believed was absolute truth, that homosexuality was a sin; perhaps, many who don’t answer questions in class on any other day thought they’d be identified as gay if they showed up for class; perhaps they just figured out how to get a day off school.

“It was a waste of an educational day,” stated one caller to 30 Seconds, who believed “the teachers got to silently sit behind their desks and do nothing”. One vituperative reader, a few days after the peaceful event, called to declare, “If anyone thinks gay militants will not resort to any means necessary to achieve their selfish goals, take time to research their barbaric, disgraceful, Nazi storm trooper tactics of disruption and intimidation ...” But, one woman called to praise the Spectrum students for their “example of dignity reason, and restraint in the face of rank bigotry”.

We don’t know if our caller from Danville threw Spectrum magazine away before he showed it to his wife, whom he obviously was protecting against what he thought to be evil thought. What we do know is that the Pilgrims fled England because of intolerance but created equally intolerant societies, and that subsequent generations have falsely misunderstood and misused the Bible and the message of their Christ to taint houses of worship with racial, religious and social biases and lies. Unfortunately, intolerance is as much a part of our nation’s past as it is of our present. Perhaps the students from Spectrum give hope for our future.