Hamilton Participates in Day of Silence

Photo from The Tower Pulse.

Leah Gonwa

Introduction 

The Day of Silence, also known as DOS, is meant to broadcast, inform, and protest the discrimination and harassment, otherwise known as the “silence,” the people within the LGBTQ+ community go through. 

To fully understand the importance of DOS, it is important to understand the historical context and other things that the LGBTQ+ community went through and continue to go through.  Despite the growth that some of society has made insofar as accepting diversity, the queer community experiences unfairness every day.  Some states may be more equitable with more rights that protect their queer citizens, but there is still discrimination in housing, public accommodations, health care access, and especially employment. Currently being legislated are many anti-LGBTQ+ bills, including anti-transgender bills, single-sex facility restrictions, and the identification documentation bill.  

Specifically at Hamilton, LGBTQ+ students experience a lot of prejudice and discrimination.  Many people are more than comfortable saying homophobic slurs in the hallways. In particular, people call them the f-slur, dead-naming (using the birth given name instead of chosen name) people of the trans community, saying pronouns or names sarcastically to others, etc. The whole queer community is being harassed, but often, the trans community specifically experiences the most harassment. 

Historical Background

To better the DOS, it is helpful to know a bit more about the history of this day. 

Who?                                                 

• Who started the day of silence?

  • The DOS was started in the mid 90s(1996) by two college students attending the University of Virginia. Starting with a small web page, Pulzetti and Jessie Gilliam got about 150 participants in the first year.  However, their words spread like wildfire. Soon, in 1997 they took their determination to a national level and gathered students all around the nation from 100 or so different campuses. 

• Who sponsors the day of silence? 

  • GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network) is an organization that works for the core reason of protecting LGBTQ+ students from any type of bullying and harassment while learning in a healthy school enviornment.  GLSEN played a huge role in Pulzetti and Gilliam’s success in their nationwide awareness campaign.  In the year 2001, GLSEN became the official sponsor, bringing more staff, organization outlets, and most importantly, more attention to the movement.  

What? 

• What about students whose views go against the Day of Silence? 

  • The answer to this question is less complicated than some people might take it.  For instance, many people have a negative view about DOS because they might think that its purpose is to encourage more students to be a part of the LGBTQ+ community or to promote homosexuality. Actually this is NOT the intent, but to instead bring awareness, show respect, and inform. All schools have the legal responsibility to protect every student from their views being “harassed.”  Therefore, students are allowed to have a Day of Dialogue. For full understanding, a Day of Dialogue is the annual Christian fundamentalist family event that focuses on the opposition of LGBTQ+ rights.

• What are schools’ legal responsibilities to protect LGBTQ+ students? 

  • Legally, each school in WI has to have written policies about the restraint of any stereotypical bias or harassment against a student’s sex and sexuality. This is also physically stated in statute 118: “No person may be denied the benefits of or be discriminated against in any curricular, extracurricular, pupil services, recreational or other program or activity because the person’s sex, race, religion, national origin, ancestry, creed, pregnancy, marital or parental status, sexual orientation or physical, mental, emotional or learning disability.” 

Day of Silence at Hamilton High School

Mrs. Shoemaker, the advisor of Hamilton’s GSA club, was interviewed for this article and asked a few questions about the importance of the GSA club along with her reason for becoming the GSA advisor.  She talked about her first-hand experiences witnessing her best friend, who was a closeted gay person, getting hate-crimed and bullied constantly throughout both high school and college.  His struggles caused her to realize the importance in creating and continuing to offer a safe place.  

“[It is important to create a safe space] where they don’t have to hide their true selves and don’t have to fear being bullied as they are surrounded by accepting people,” Shoemaker says.  She also added the fact that suicidal rates of the queer community are lower at schools that have LGBTQ inclusion clubs.  According to one of ACLU’s (American Civil Liberties Union) news pages, “Teenagers in these schools, regardless of the sexual orientation, are 70 percent less likely to have suicidal thoughts or attempts than in schools without a program” (Salon).  

About the DOS at the high school, Shoemaker explains that “Hamilton wanted to bring light to the fact that LGBTQ+ had been held back from expressing themselves continually today.”  

However, though the Day of Silence is to raise awareness and show support, some Hamilton students violated the purpose of DOS.  Instead of using it as a day to respect LGBTQ+ students, they did the exact opposite; there was more hate than usual on this day.  This includes both verbal and physical acts of hate.  

Mrs. Shoemaker explained that students usually report issues of bullying by texting the GSA president, although she recommends that students refer to administration since teachers don’t have as much disciplinary power to address the problem in the fairest manner. “We have brought up at meetings that if students can write down the time and place of the bullying that can be helpful, as there are video cameras in the hallways that can help catch perpetrators.” There is also the reality that students could be scared to report any hate because of the further hate they would get if the person committing the hate crime found out they were reported.   

Mrs. Shoemaker adds, “I am greatly saddened by the hate and bullying our members often endure, not only at school but within the community as a whole. I wish we lived in a world where people loved and accepted each other for who they are and where everyone has the ability to live the life they want to live without fear of being judged, bullied, or the target of hate/prejudice.”

People all over the world, including our high school, fail to realize that kindness and politeness are essential regarding LGBTQ+ inclusiveness.  In other words, religious beliefs along with peer’s or friend’s standards and expectations on what you believe, can all be put aside in order to respect others’ personal identity.  No one person is like any other and everyone, nevermind their unique qualities or differences, should feel a sense of belonging, especially at Hamilton.