LGBTQIA+ Day of Silence
Words by: Maggie Laubscher | Music by: Abby Yemm
Image credit: unknown, please reach out if you know it!
In 1996, a university student named Maria Pulzetti noticed LGBTQIA+ students around her being largely ignored by parents and administrators. So she did something about it.
Maria held a ‘Day of Silence’ one-time event during the University’s LGBTQIA+ pride week. Her goal with the event was to promote awareness of how many LGBTQIA+ students felt on the daily, by surrounding them with a silence they couldn’t help but notice.
LGBTQIA+ = Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer/Questioning, Intersex, Asexual, and Allies
One year later, Maria’s one-time event went national, with over 100 schools joining in. The movement continues today, with over 1,000 schools taking part. Some students opting to wear tape over their mouths or Xs on their hands.
It’s a beautiful anecdote to show the power of one person. It’s also a powerful visual of the injustices LGBTQIA+ kids face on the daily.
Only 26 percent of LGBTQ teens reported feeling safe in their school classrooms, according to a survey of more than 12,000 LGBTQ teens by HRC Foundation & University of Connecticut. And only 13 percent of those surveyed reported hearing positive messages about being queer. What’s more, only 12 percent (!!) received safe sex info relevant to their identity during sex ed.
When 1 in 6 Gen Z adults identify as LGBT, it makes the above stats hit even harder. Day of Silence seeks to shed light on this reality that LGBTQIA+ youth experience daily.
Instead of giving tips on how you can help, we are going to be silent, or mostly silent, for today. We leave you with a poem by icon Audre Lorde. April is National Poetry Month and we are always down to highlight powerful words. Audre was a self-described “black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet.” She spent her life fighting injustices of racism, sexism, classism, and homophobia. Read her poem during a bit of silence today, if you can. It’s a good one.
A Litany for Survival
BY AUDRE LORDE
For those of us who live at the shoreline
standing upon the constant edges of decision
crucial and alone
for those of us who cannot indulge
the passing dreams of choice
who love in doorways coming and going
in the hours between dawns
looking inward and outward
at once before and after
seeking a now that can breed
futures
like bread in our children’s mouths
so their dreams will not reflect
the death of ours;
For those of us
who were imprinted with fear
like a faint line in the center of our foreheads
learning to be afraid with our mother’s milk
for by this weapon
this illusion of some safety to be found
the heavy-footed hoped to silence us
For all of us
this instant and this triumph
We were never meant to survive.
And when the sun rises we are afraid
it might not remain
when the sun sets we are afraid
it might not rise in the morning
when our stomachs are full we are afraid
of indigestion
when our stomachs are empty we are afraid
we may never eat again
when we are loved we are afraid
love will vanish
when we are alone we are afraid
love will never return
and when we speak we are afraid
our words will not be heard
nor welcomed
but when we are silent
we are still afraid
So it is better to speak
remembering
we were never meant to survive.
Copyright © 1978 by Audre Lorde, from The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde by Audre Lorde, via poetryfoundation.org
An Abby Yemm playlist for you…
A playlist created by Abby Yemm
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